Local indie-rock trio heckdang will drop their new EP Never Left Home tomorrow, but before they do so, Queen City Nerve has the band’s first release from the new project, “Mushrooms.”
Formed in 2017, the band’s steady members — Magda Criswell on bass and vocals; Phillip Calhoun on guitar; and Cole Brooks on drums — have been playing music together since high school and were all members of the now-defunct Charlotte band Pink Pots. Despite their long history together, however, “Mushrooms” is a first for the trio.
“Mushrooms is, in many ways, the first song that was a truly collaborative effort for the official heckdang lineup,” Criswell told Queen City Nerve. “It is about the rough, final days of a deteriorating relationship.”
Never Left Home was mixed and mastered by Scoops Dardaris (Diva Sweetly, Prince Daddy & The Hyena) and will be released through Croquet Records. Each song on the EP focuses on different types of loss: loss of self-identity, loss of relationships and loss of loved ones.
Sounds on Never Left Home range from the droning shoegaze-inspired guitars of the opener “Prior Things” to the driving punk-inspired drums of “Mushrooms” and the quiet piano and horn arrangement of the closing track, “Presbyterian.”
The band’s work is reminiscent of bands like Looming, Manchester Orchestra and early The World Is a Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die — bands whose heaviness comes from a place of sheer emotional weight as well as punk influence.
The full EP will premiere on Wednesday at The Bad Copy, then become available on Bandcamp, Spotify and Apple Music on Friday.
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