Baltimore by way of Atlanta four-piece Powerwasher is gearing up for the release of their debut album, The Power of Positive Washing, coming out August 14 digitally as well as on cassette. Together since 2019, the band makes a brand of noisy rock music that for me kind of sounds a bit like a more raw and mathy Parquet Courts. Despite the gnarly sonic elements though, the band’s tunes are unconventionally catchy, a fact that quickly becomes evident on “You Were Just Here,” premiering below.
About the track, the band says: “'You Were Just Here' is one of the first songs we wrote together as a band, and definitely the first one where we felt like we were really onto something. It's about grieving the death of a loved one, and how strange it is to be in denial, and know you're in denial but not be able to do anything about it."
That explanation provides a nice insight into a track that initially conveys a sense of pain and longing before careering into an upbeat chorus that stands in sharp contrast to the opening. “You Were Just Here,” in my mind, captures the ups and downs, twists and turns of the grieving process, with the jagged rhythms seeming to represent the stop-start journey on the path toward moving on from loss.
Dig the track, and head over to Sad Cactus Records to preorder the album.
