by Dan Goldin (@paintingwithdan)
Four years after the release of Simple Distractions, Oakland’s Street Eaters have returned in a big way. The trio of Megan March (drums, vocals), John No (bass, vocals), and Joan Toledo (guitar) are set to release their next full length album, Opeque, on September 5th via Dirt Cult Records (Autogramm, Vincent Reese, Faulty Cognitions), a record that’s rooted in life’s complexities and finding understanding and acceptance in found families. The band make punk music that’s big and swaggering, the messages and melodic sensibilities are given emphasis, hitting home in a way that feels like an exercise in learning to let go, finding your own path forward.
“Spectres” is the record’s fouth single, a song aimed for spooky season, at least in terms of how we wrestle with the events of our past and the trauma that can linger. With thick rumbling low-end and hypnotically detached drums, Street Eaters dig into their post-hardcore influences, the song pushing and pulling in all directions like a ghost with sifting through a colander. The gloom and doom are balanced with lyrical acceptance and vocal warmth, the perfect pairing to the scraping noise rock guitar riffs and the tidal ebb and flow of the structure.
Speaking about the track, March shared:
“‘Spectres’ speaks to the ghosts of ourselves and others in the past, and how we move forward in the present. Haunting ourselves, we try to open locked doors, walking precariously on unstable ground. Beauty is found in the absence of stability."