‘Pretend Friends’ by mr.phylzzz | New Album, ‘Cancel Culture Club’
Exclusive video premiere of ‘Pretend Friends’ by mr.phylzzz, taken from the upcoming album, ‘Cancel Culture Club’, out October 1st, 2022 via Amphetamine Reptile Records.
Commenting on the upcoming release of ‘Cancel Culture Club’, the guitarist of mr.phylzzz, Clinton Jacob admits: “I come from working at comedy clubs and that’s just how my brain is wired. Get an idea, test it, then improve it.” explains Clinton. “Once the pandemic settled in, I had all this time to be my own worst critic, my biggest fan, and my harshest heckler”. Jacob’s total independence was driven not only by a search for a particular sound but a particular ethics. “I decided early on I wanted to record the album myself because a good 90% of the time I’ve been in a studio, I didn’t really like what I was hearing”.
About ‘Pretend Friends’; “This is a song about the clout chasers, the fake people on the internet pretending to be something they aren’t. The “you owe me” guys in the music business. The “I know people” jack offs. It’s a royal fuck you to everyone who uses their internet clout to be a dick to smaller bands or get a leg up on developing bands. We don’t need you or your pretend friends”.
Guitarist’s background became the crucial component establishing the intensive and dynamic sound which represents the way of cooperation with the audience. It pushes and it pulls, it gives away and it makes you take it back. The same way the record embraces the listener and plunges into the thick of things. Not only the experiments of the sound palette provided the record with that sound but also the story behind.
‘Cancel Culture Club’ was set up to record at Clinton’s house with guest-appearances from Buzz Osborne (The Melvins), Kevin Rutmanis (Cows, The Melvins, Tomahawk) and the lord of Amphetamine Reptile – Haze XXL.
The purification of DIY and the only real way of converging the sound of mr.phylzzz, reaching out the balance between loudness and noisiness. “When I started recording, I finally felt like I was capturing how I always wanted mr.phylzzz to sound; blown-out guitars, clipping drums, tons of odd/weird vocals, screaming in trash cans with mics in them, throwing in samples of my cats, leaving in creaks and sounds of the room”.
“Tracking for ‘Cancel Culture Club’ changed my life”. – states the drummer of mr.phylzzz, Danny Sein. Two years after both musicians had moved to Chicago, they reconnected while Jacob was tracking down the session with Buzz Osborne for ‘Cancel Culture Club’.
Summing up the nature of the recording, Sein explains: “mr.phylzzz is a two piece, but when you hear the records there’s a lot more going on than just one track of live drums, guitar and vocals. To have the same effect of dynamism in the live setting as the record is what we aim for”.
Clinton adds: “It’s always just us two, guitar and drums, and yet there’s still so much to explore with just two people. It does force you to think outside of the box sometimes. If it scares me musically, I’m gonna try it always. That sort of energy reflects in the intensity of the band”.
‘Cancel Culture Club’ is coming out this October via Amphetamine Reptile Records. ‘Cancel Culture Club’ is available on a limited run of CD’s from now, digipack and vinyl coming out after the digital release. More about it here!
Headline photo: Scott Beseler
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