by Caroline Nieto (@caroline.nieto)
Otis Shanty blends sticky melodies and lavish soundscapes in their newest single, “Lowballer.” The Somerville-based band met at college in Upstate New York, playing house shows and dives before writing their EP “Space for Good Things” in 2023. Their newest song is a blend of the band’s strengths—rousing beats and layered guitars that create a shoegaze-like quality when the vocal line halts. Singers Ryan DiLello and Sadye Bobbette trade lines on the verses, evoking “camo hats” and “cowboy killers,” in an American dream gone wrong. The percussion moves with the mood of the song—from rapid hi-hat hits to a half-time instrumental to a syncopated final verse. The rest of the band builds, too, supplementing the clean guitar lead with warm distortion after the chorus. “Lowballer” hides its dissolution behind its sound, but to Otis Shanty, it’s about “selling dreams in a buyer’s market.”