2020 has been a weird year to say the least and it’s seemed to be reaching close to critical mass in recent days. In conversation with friends the other day, I speculated on the notion that “reality” is a computer simulation, as has been postulated by some scientists. If that’s true, I put forth that we’ve reached the end game. One of my friends responded that we’ve reached the troll level. Another: “Someone turned on all the disaster options in SimEarth at once and walked away.”
London-based noise punk group USA Nails, made up of current or ex members of bands like Blacklisters, Kong, Oceansize, Silent Front, Death Pedals, Future of the Left, and Dead Arm, has taken on the craziness of modern life with their fifth album, Character Stop, set to be released October 23rd via Hex Records in North America and Bigout Records in Europe.
About the album, guitarist Gareth Thomas comments, "For me, Character Stop is the best album USA Nails have ever made by miles. It's more varied than anything we've ever done before and I think it's stronger for it. I feel like it's more fully realized, and more complete as a collection of songs. Every time we get in a room together and write, the dynamic of our relationship as writers (and mates) develops a bit further, we get better at anticipating and complimenting each other. We've always tried to be efficient in our creativity, to do what feels natural and just let things flow. I'm obviously still really happy with all the music we've written up to this point, but on this record everything seemed to come together so sweetly. “
The trippy video for the album’s title track is premiering below. Thomas says: "'Character Stop' is about the power of the internet in its ability to publicly out people." Head over here to preorder the album in North America or here for Europe.
