You’ve got to respect the hustle. Navy Gangs, the Omaha rock quartet composed of Matthew Tillwick (vocal, guitar), Noah Kohll (guitar), Wilson Keithline (bass), and Gavin Cordaro (drums), pursued songwriting at the expense of a high school degree. They subsequently took jobs in the desert dome at the local zoo, not exactly the most hospitable work environment, in order to save enough money to buy themselves one-way bus tickets out of Nebraska and into New York City, where they moved in with Kohll’s grandmother and fashioned her house into a makeshift studio to record their upcoming self-titled debut EP. Delicate Steve later mixed and mastered the project, and today we’re premiering its lead single “Special Glands,” which proves that the dismal wages, cramped quarters, and reptile dealings were more than worth the trouble.

From the moment that opening, unspooling guitar riff kicks in, the trio sustains a continuous broil of anxious defiance. That blearing, wire-cutter lead, accompanied by moaning fuzz and Tillwick’s exhausted wail, set the scene for an unnerving slab of ’90s-inspired garage-rock. The band wrote the song “about loving yourself even though some people hate you,” and finding confidence in the face of a few too many failed social interactions. Listen below.

Tour dates:

07/09 Brooklyn, NY @ Alphaville
07/14 Philadelphia, PA @ Ask a Punk
07/15 Cleveland, OH @ Happy Dog
07/16 Detroit, MI @ Kelly’s Bar
07/17 Chicago, IL @ Graceland Cementary
07/18 Minneapolis, MN @ Memory Lanes
07/19 Omaha, NE @ Milk Run
07/20 Omaha, NE @ Almost Music
07/21 Kansas City, MO @ The Itty Bitty Hostel
07/22 Saint Louis, MO @ Bolozone
07/24 Washington, DC @ The Dugout
07/25 Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right

Navy Gangs is out 9/14 via No Roads.