OUT TODAY – Peer Pleasure Release Vital New Single ‘Rooms’ – (Irish Garage/Post-punk)
In a world that becomes seemingly more and more homogenized by the day, success seems to come from eating at the trough of whatever is trending. Bucking against soul destroying mediocrity are Peer Pleasure, who understand that the only true currency any artist has is their own voice. And it’s this voice we hear clearly on vital new single ‘Rooms’. Released ahead of their appearance at 8MM festival in Berlin, curated by The Brian Jones Town Massacre’s Anton Newcombe. Lyrically the track is made up of uninvited wisdom lead singer Brandon has been given, and snippets of overheard conversation from Narcotics and Alcoholics Anonymous to addresses the tumultuous relationship an artist can have with substance use. Over the last few years the band have continued to go from strength to strength with sell out shows all over Ireland, European tours and multiple appearances at Electric Picnic alongside their own monthly showcase in Wexford. Peer Pleasure are pandering to no one, and in doing so the world has come to them.
Peer Pleasure – Rooms (Spotify link)
The Peer Pleasure sound consists of an orchestra worth of players; Brandon Murphy taking on vocals, Oisin and Eoghan Conroy (keys and guitar/percussion) Joel Pitcher (lead guitar) Conor Kavanagh (vocals,) Cein O’Dowd (guitar and sound effects)Erik Murphy (bass) and Jeff Miller (drums).
The band draw influence from a range of sources; 60’s era garage rock rubs against classic country and wave of modern post-(insert genre here), alongside the forked tongue and snide commentary of absurdist humour and Irish culture. The band’s worldview comes from straddling worlds, “You get to sit at every table but an invite to none.”
The gestation period for ‘Rooms’ was over a decade, Brandon says that the lyrics were pieced together, not dissimilar to Burroughs’ cut and paste style, made up from excerpts of uninvited advice given siting in bars or from fragments of conversations heard in NA and AA. Lines like ‘Every prayer I’ve ever said evaporated off of my tongue, as fast as I said it’ are chilling and drip in desperation. The song opens with a riff that sounds like a tweakers Deliverance, Jeff Miller’s drums giving context to the proto-country-punk, while Erik Murphy’s bass acts as an anchor for both. As the chorus hits a cavalcade of sound erupts, a manic release that shoots delayed theremin lasers across the stereo picture, while Brandon implores us to pray for him. As we hurtle toward the end caught up in the Tasmanian devil whirling dervish the track takes a sharp right turn, dropping down to some 808 drum machines, and drums distorted and pushed into the red. It’s an ending that only Peer Pleasure could make work and seem completely logical. Brandon says the song aims to “Portray an overall perspective on how it feels to be someone in active addiction or recovery rather than direct or specific experiences, death by 1000 cuts as opposed to blunt force trauma.”
The track was recorded while the band had some down time when appearing at the prestigious New Colossus festival in New York. Making full use of their American trip, the band decamped to Red Convertible Studios in New York which has seen the likes of Mos Def and the Black Keys walk it’s hallowed halls. The band wanted to capture that particular moment in time, leaning into new sounds and producing something that stands alone in their catalogue.
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