by Jade Winings (@jadewinings)
As New York's alternative scene flourishes, Brooklyn's MX Lonely rises with their early 2024 release Spit. The EP could be said to be stimulating to the brain as you can effortlessly hear the entrancing energy and attitude the band possesses through the music production alone. Spit’s writing concepts, 90's grunge riffs, intriguingly spooky vocal harmonies, and the band's blood, sweat and creative dedication have curated an emotionally charged EP to hold close.
Spit’s single “Rest In Salt” debuted the album, later paired with music videos, reintroducing itself within edgy riffs and echoing vocals which lead you through the song's expression of being trapped in the seemingly endless purgatory of anxiety. The couch-locked images representing an extreme lack of enthusiasm lend a hand in further portraying everyday bleakness of rotting beside the same people in the same room with the same personal routine of feeling stuck on repeat. As a continued tease for the EP, MX Lonely released “Papercuts,” which is interestingly claimed to take the structure of a dream Rae Haas (vocals, synth) had about someone unable to stop their papercut from bleeding and the only solution was to kill them.
The meaning behind the dream was represented in the music video featuring a basement sacrifice filmed on what could be the camera of an iPod Nano. Alongside literal meanings behind the track, “Papercuts” could be perceived as self sacrifice and the idea self sabotage also sacrifices parts of those around us. The EP also features “Connection” and “Too Many Pwr Chords,” highlighting Haas and Jake Harms’ strong vocal control and heavy grunge instrumentals, reminiscent of bands such as Prize Horse, Downward, and Basement. The existential track “Someone Who Isn’t Me (SWIM)” concludes Spit and claims to be about the loss of innocence while also being a nod to the band's influence, Elliott Smith, which could possibly explain the richness of 90’s tones within the vocal layers.
MX Lonely deserves to be recognized as it takes bravery to confront yourself about emotional experiences and it is even more brave to share them in a raw form of self expression with the potential to relate to the masses.