It’s been a minute since Seattle-based MONSTERWATCH released their EP Z O T (in 2018), but they’ve come back with a concise 2:20 ripper, “Lick The Wall”, out today. It’s the first single off of an upcoming EP due June 11. The band says,
“Lick The Wall is the centerpiece of our three-song EP ‘Noise You Will Never Care About.’ With a lot of things we had in the works being on hold indefinitely, we wanted to create something different to put out. Especially after not putting out music for a few years, we figured now is the time to release something new and in a different direction than our previous songs. We recorded three songs with no pauses or breaks in between them, so when it’s released it’s meant to be listened to as ‘one track.’
With the music video, we wanted to showcase the intensity of the music but also show people how we act outside of music and interact with each other. Nathan Zabb did a great job of bringing that to life. The song itself lyrics-wise is pretty self-explanatory. We just wanted to create our version of a quick and heavy punk song with simple lyrics that gets the point across with just a few words.”
John Spinney (vox + guitars) also said that, “I think one of us said these days we might as well just lick the wall.” This is how it goes:
Pesticides
Carcinogens
Unaffordable expenses and anti depressants
Kids lick the wall
We’ll never get along.
And it seems like that’s all there’s left to do sometimes — lick the walls in the hopes they’ve soaked up something that could provide a buzz, a flavor, a poison, a potion — for free.
Super fuzzy, grumbling bass, guitar so loud and so distorted that you only want to turn the too-booming music up louder, and straightforward but blade-sharp drums make “Lick The Wall” a dangerous vehicle for mosh pit nostalgia. The fish-eye view in the video gives an acceptably similar feeling of the closeness and warped vantage point you get in a crowd. But it’s also a nice bit of wholesome — ’cause you could either sit around and lick the wall, or you could take a cute bike ride with your buds because why not?
Follow MONSTERWATCH here, listen here, and keep an eye out for the EP on June 11.