Debt Rag Lost to the Fantasy LP
The three humans behind the mid-2010s Oakland noisy avant-punk group WET DRAG have all since relocated to Olympia, WA and recently rekindled the project as DEBT RAG—apparently the Bay Area isn’t the only thing they’ve left behind, as they’ve completely ditched guitar on their debut LP Lost to the Fantasy, weaving layers of seasick synth, sharp blurts of trumpet, and all sorts of clattering percussion (full-force cowbell!) into some of the ample negative space newly liberated from six-string oppression. Everyone contributes vocals, with lines overlapping and intersecting in an almost anti-call-and-response just as often as they coalesce into sardonic gang-chants (the collective statement behind “Barf on USA” is brilliantly direct and self-explanatory), drums are reduced to the barest minimum (one tom and one cymbal) and pounded out in sparse, tranced-out patterns, and calculated, ping-ponging bass forms the primary structure for DEBT RAG to build up their sideways art-skronk collages. How many other bands in our modern day and age are capable of triggering thoughts within me of NOH MERCY, DANNY AND THE PARKINS SISTERS, or Y PANTS, let alone all of the above within the span of a single song?! The answer is zero. DEBT RAG for president, barf on USA.