by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Perhaps the greatest compliment that can be paid to Kamikaze Nurse and their upcoming album, Stimuloso, is that it doesn’t play by anyone’s rules. The Vancouver quartet, who have earned a reputation for being a jaw-dropping live band, are set to release their new album on June 3rd via Mint Records (Tough Age, Dumb, Lié), recorded by the band and mixed by none other than Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier. To listen to any one song on the record would leave a vastly incomplete picture of their sound, one that is as fluid as it is accessible, straying between frayed nerve outsider indie rock, majestic shoegaze, art pop, and dirgy alternative punk. It’s an album full of songs that can stand on their own, but that feel so much more resilient when taken as a whole. The depth in their sound only strengthening the individual parts. It’s a tremendous album that shows both range and cohesion, keeping you guessing while fully enthralled.
Having shared the dreamy gaze of opener “Boom Josie” and the pop bombast of “Come From Wood,” Kamikaze Nurse’s third single finally gives a touch of the band’s weirder side, and it’s one of the record’s stand-out moments. Opening with a dense rhythm built on a stampede of the toms swarming the track, everything else sort of tinkers beneath. The percussion sets the tone, but the song is in constant evolution, with eerie yet mesmerizing vocal harmonies, guitars that build in stabs rather than sweeping progressions, and a tension that’s only broken by the occasional spoken word interjection. The song moves in its own shape, a sort of noir anthem that spills out like a horror movie, with a winking sense of terror.
Speaking about the song, the band shared:
“‘Pet Meds’ was inspired by a wild road trip told to John by his friend Pete. Sonya and KC interpreted the story into their own kinky road trip as “Two Hot Rock Chicks Listening to Neu” looking for a good mechanic, getting caught in a psychosexual transmogrification along the way.”