Midwest Death Rattle established themselves as one of Milwaukee’s great “no, really, you’ve got to hear these guys” bands with their 2016 album Post-Apocalypso, a bustling, unpretentious art-rock record that captured the ebullience of the group’s live shows. That record showed that they’ve got the musical chops to be an imposing stoner rock band if they wanted to go that route, but what a relief it is that they’ve opted not to. Instead, they purged the burlier elements of that music (the overbearing masculinity, the plodding pacing, the self-seriousness) and played up the fun stuff: the gripping riffs, slippery tempos and effusive hooks. Instead of fire and fury, they opted for fire and aerosol cans, which is a way more entertaining combination anyway.
Out today, the group’s new Square Wave EP, the first of two EPs planned for this year, is even looser, more limber and more animated than their last full-length—five songs of stomping psychedelia and animated, synth-laced rock that seem to have been written with live sing-alongs in mind. They’re seriously fun, the work of a band that seems to grow more comfortable in their skin by the year.
You can stream the EP below, via Bandcamp, ahead of the band’s release show tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 27, at the Cactus Club with Space Raft and Graham Hunt.
