New York trio At the moment’s Outfit dive into their sonically charged debut EP ’Your Good Self,’ a spirited critique of the social media age soaked in a dreamy and feverish new wave sound.

Stream: “On Hearth” – At the moment’s Outfit

We’ve all obtained robust emotions about social media; a few of us find it irresistible, others hate it, however most of us are on it in some type or vogue. The digital city squares of the twenty first Century have related us like by no means earlier than, bringing collectively these close to and much, from all walks of life. The alternatives are seemingly countless, and but on the similar time, those self same vessels of connection have created new sorts of disconnect and rigidity, skewing our self-perceptions and understandings of our personal lives as we examine them to these we see projected from others. Platforms like Instagram and Fb are accountable for additional reinforcing poisonous requirements of magnificence in younger men and women; for contributing to the psychological well being problems with a complete technology; for changing into breeding cells for extremism; and extra.

Like it or hate it, “social media” is a loaded topic, with quite a bit to speak about regardless of the place you stand. That’s what makes Your Good Self such a compelling hear: The debut EP from At the moment’s Outfit doesn’t search to outwardly persuade its viewers a method or one other, although it’s admittedly laborious to disregard a number of the band’s extra compelling arguments for not less than a re-think. Sonically charged and emotionally nuanced, Your Good Self is a spirited critique of the social media age soaked in a dreamy, feverish new wave sound.

In love, star struck
It’s twice for my coronary heart
To point out you the way I really feel
To point out you that it’s actual

A face filled with hearts
Fingertips discover the sparkles
That is my love and it’s actual
It’s my love that I really feel

My love is robust
Truth it’s a hearth
My love is on
Palms up, hallelujah

– “On Hearth,” At the moment’s Outfit

Independently launched July 15, 2022, Your Good Self ‘s songs stay as provocative immediately as they have been a 12 months in the past. One might even argue {that a} file like that is wanted all of the extra urgently now that the panorama has broadened, with new platforms like BeReal, Mastodon, and the Instagram-powered Threads providing a glimmer of hope for a considerate evaluation of what these instruments convey to our lives; how they concurrently enrich and decay our day by day lived experiences.

Fashioned in Pelham, New York (ten miles north of Midtown Manhattan) through the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and comprised of singer/keyboardist Andrew Wooden, bass guitarist Mark Garufi, and percussionist Grant Zacharias, At the moment’s Outfit made their stay debut in 2021 and their digital one in 2022, delivering a refreshing dose of perspective and conviction alongside their closely ’80s-inspired indie rock sound. Their five-track EP feels uncooked, but polished, its songs filled with power and emotion because the trio hold forth on what it means to be “on-line” within the 2020s – exploring the whole lot from mainstream actions, to the web’s darkest fringes.

Judgmental eyes despise
Although pleasure’s derived from an open thoughts
Can’t motive with a man who lives a lifetime of denial

Discourse is shunned

Trying to find clues, taking cues from Q
Patriotic fools observe their very own guidelines
How will you lose for those who at all times refuse?

This course has run

– “Extremism,” At the moment’s Outfit

“The songs are about social media for probably the most half, every of them taking a look at our uneasy attachment to it from a unique perspective,” Andrew Wooden tells Atwood Journal. “So on this context the songs just about converse for themselves — “Observe Me” is a determined cry for consideration, in “On Hearth” the narrator experiences infatuation with an influencer from their very own place of isolation, and so forth. Perhaps there’s nothing to say about social media that hasn’t already been mentioned to demise; Arcade Hearth for instance has been panned by some for tackling the topic, and I’m certain the social media firms should love that. However even when it’s beating a useless horse, we must always hold beating it due to its continued dangerous results.”

For Wooden – the previous frontman of Brooklyn-based indie rock band Bridges and Powerlines (Atwood Journal premiered two of their songs again in 2016) – this EP, and actually this whole mission, seems like a very long time coming.

“I feel it was Radiohead that mentioned each file they make is a response or response to the final one, and I’ve discovered that to be true for me as nicely,” he says. “I put out a solo album in 2020 that I labored over for a 12 months largely at dwelling and a few within the studio. This time I used to be decided to take the alternative method. I didn’t need one other file that sounded prefer it was recorded in a bed room. I needed to do it quick, I needed it to have a stay band really feel and I needed it to rock. We did all of it on the Loft Studios in Westchester, New York, with a professional engineer, Al Hemberger, who has recorded artists like Rihanna, and a really artistic producer, Matt Dean. Finally it took longer than we deliberate—it at all times does as you get into it and the concepts circulate—however on the whole we caught with the method.”

He provides, “In my band Bridges and Powerlines we at all times referenced good three minute pop songs and ’90s school rock in our influences, so in fact with At the moment’s Outfit I used to be comfortable to strive one thing utterly totally different. For example, you’ve by no means heard me play an precise keyboard solo on a file up to now. To have solos of any form is fairly alien to me, however I’m loving diving again into traditional rock with the epic guitar and keyboard instrumentals, after which weaving within the ’80s Goth and New Wave sounds on prime of that. Our bassist Mark Garufi performs these large solos on a six, seven and typically ten string bass guitar! A few of the tracks are lengthier and even jammier than I’m used to, and the brand new stuff we’ve been writing because the 5 on this EP are persevering with in that path. Jam bands have at all times been anathema to me, however I assume I’m not allowed to say that anymore.”

The EP’s title, Your Good Self, may be very a lot a reference to the spotlight reels usually projected into the digital house.

Wooden pulled the language from the ultimate monitor “Anonym.”

“[It] actually encapsulates what the file is about,” he observes. “That extremely curated model of your self that you just share throughout your social media accounts. However that tune can also be concerning the darkish facet of presenting your self in such a manner. For instance, a number of the lyrics get into the studies that got here out final 12 months about Instagram inflicting or contributing to severe psychological well being points amongst youngsters, and the way Fb knew about it from their very own analysis.”

Do they such as you but? Are you feeling good?
Maintaining with the conversations it’s best to?
Have you ever obtained sufficient following pals?
It’s been a minute because the final time you checked
It by no means ends

Acquire the very best moments of your life
Evaluate your self to those who stay the very best of instances
They obtained the our bodies, the filters match for adoring
Good lives everybody likes greater than yours

Feeling all of it fall down once more

– “Anonym,” At the moment’s Outfit

Visceral and unrelenting, “Anonym” is a straightforward favourite for viewers and band members alike, its sinewy grooves combining with Wooden’s emotional vocal efficiency to create an intoxicating power. But from the radiant riffs and hushed supply of “Observe Me” to the hypnotic heat and brooding temper of “On Hearth” and past, each monitor earns its place on this temporary however mighty twenty-one minute file – the music providing a soothing, at instances stirring backdrop to Wooden’s heated sermons.

Drummer Grant Zacharias cites the second verse of “Anonym,” the decision and response of the guitars and keyboards through the “Observe Me” bridge, and the dueling solos in “Extremism” as a few of his personal private highlights.

“For me, my favourite lyrics are inside ‘Anonym,” he provides. “Andrew’s creativity on this tune (e.g., “suicide is a side-effect…however wait!…from the surveys, just one and three could ideate..” and “They obtained the our bodies, the filters match for adoring…good lives everybody likes greater than yours…“) are, in my view, the true lyrical spotlight and a very good method to finish the EP and its inherent themes of the downfalls of social media. Further one-liners of notice for me embody the biting irony in “I would like an viewers for all my concepts and hole desires!” in ‘Observe Me’ in addition to the catchiness of the hook “worry…the ris…ing solar!‘ in ‘A Reckoning.’ Lastly, Andrew’s rearranging of some rhyming couplets I put collectively for ‘Extremism’ actually turned out nicely (e.g., ‘Discourse is shunned! This course has run…‘)”

Once more, you don’t have to return away from this music able to energy down your Fb web page and disconnect from the Twitters and Instagrams of the world.

The objective is to not destroy and discard these instruments, however slightly, to rethink how we use them, what they’re right here for, and the way we as a society can higher equip ourselves to cope with their detrimental impacts.

“I want to see a re-evaluation of social media notably in our youthful technology,” the band’s Mark Garufi admits. “I feel what we’ve seen to this point with Fb and Instagram is an effective model 1.0 so to talk, however I’d wish to see a future iteration the place it matches higher and in a more healthy manner into peoples’ lives than it at the moment does.”

But the reinvention of social media will not be the solely objective of this nascent indie rock band.

“From a purely musical method, I’ve realized quite a bit, as that is the primary rock trio I’ve been part of,” Garufi beams. “I was in a jazz trio, and I deeply appreciated how a lot room every member needed to discover, tug on rhythms, and add improvised particulars and counterpoints, all with out dropping the path of the music. At the moment’s Outfit reaching that as a rock trio, notably with no “guitar participant,” has been actually rewarding. I feel for bass gamers we frequently see ourselves as that supportive background function and we don’t discover our melodic center and higher vary voices sufficient.”

You might attempt to get away with calling At the moment’s Outfit a trio of curmudgeons, wailing about all the issues with immediately’s shine new issues.

However you’d be flawed in so some ways: This trio of curmudgeons is bringing a refreshing depth of musicality, of lyricism, and of unbridled ardour to the indie rock scene, reviving the “new wave” sound to ship a dynamic and drama-fueled dalliance. All informed, these 5 songs hit laborious, leaving a long-lasting impression on the ears, thoughts, and coronary heart. Hopefully they will function a kind of blueprint as At the moment’s Outfit proceed their musical journey onward and upward.

Expertise the complete file by way of our beneath stream, and peek inside At the moment’s Outfit’s Your Good Self EP with Atwood Journal because the New York trio takes us track-by-track by the music and lyrics of their debut EP!

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Stream: ‘Your Good Self’ – At the moment’s Outfit

:: Inside Your Good Self ::

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Observe Me

Andrew Wooden: I’m at all times listening to an amazing thought in a tune and saying I need to use that concept at some point. Right here, I took inspiration each from David Bowie’s “Heroes”—I really like when the vocal shoots up an octave for the second a part of the tune—and in addition a tune by a noise rock band referred to as Girls I used to be actually into over a decade in the past. They’ve an incredible monitor referred to as “Shaking Hand” the place the second half switches to this superbly candy, repeating guitar phrase, all instrumental, and I needed to strive an method like that right here. Anybody studying this could take heed to that tune in the event that they’ve by no means heard it.

On Hearth

Andrew Wooden: I’ve mentioned earlier than that this tune is a sort of “Each Breath You Take” for the Instagram age. It sounds prefer it may be a love tune on an off-the-cuff hear, however for those who hear extra carefully you understand it’s actually about on-line stalking and obsession. A few of the lyrics are even written in emojis.

Extremism

Grant Zacharias: This monitor originated with me noodling on the piano, and it ended up turning into the EP’s lengthiest overture. The tune was tweaked up till the time it was recorded, giving it an experimental really feel. The lyrics touch upon the present state of world affairs and the way peoples’ polarized viewpoints severely hinder productive dialogue on controversial matters.

A Reckoning

Andrew Wooden: That is the primary tune we ever wrote, again after we have been simply kind of making an attempt this out. The way in which this band shaped was that I used to be supplied a spot in a competition referred to as Toonerville, headlined by The Verve Pipe and Fastball, and I felt I wanted a full band to drag it off. I had one other band, Bridges and Powerlines, however we sort of went on hiatus throughout and not less than partly due to the pandemic. So I requested my pals Mark and Grant, and so they have been into it, however we would have liked songs. “A Reckoning” was an amazing bass riff centered jam that emerged the primary time we ever practiced collectively. And a band was born.

Anonym

Mark Garufi: “Anonym” was impressed by these melodic and rhythmic instrumental strains made common by the early new wave bands. The bass riff through the verse in addition to the closing bass melody are the clearest examples of this. Additionally distinctive on this tune is the usage of full six-note chords performed on my six-string bass. That is one thing I’ve dreamt of for a few years and solely now inside At the moment’s Outfit was I capable of finding the appropriate instrument and sound to make this sensible.

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