“Feelin’ kinda stupid, yeah my brain’s a little fried/ Staring at my phone is just a useless waste of time/ It’s so obvious now, I just want to feel alive/ I’m that kind of guy.” So begins “That Guy,” the new single from Seattle staples Chastity Belt, whose Live Laugh Love was an Album Of The Week for us this year.

“That Guy” is the band’s contribution to a new split 7″ with Holy Wave coming out in February, and it finds Julia Shapiro in her bag, both lyrically and vocally. Shapiro sings every word of “That Guy” in a dull Nico-like monotone that draws me into every syllable. They all feel quite quotable, too — thought-provoking without being too showy about it. “Maybe quitting is okay/ But I don’t like giving things away,” she sings next. “Like how I listen to a song/ Until all the meaning’s gone.”

A word from Shapiro, which touches on that latter lyric:

We recorded this song in LA in November 2022 with a bunch of other songs that ended up on Live Laugh Love. It didn’t quite make the cut, but I’m excited to release it now! I really love Lydia’s meandering lead guitar line. I remember her having so many different ideas of what she could do, and we were like, do them all! I wrote the lyrics after Chastity Belt had just come back from doing a bunch of touring, and I had to go back to normal life. It’s always a rough transition for me. I feel so alive on tour! There’s this one line in the song about this habit I have with music where, when I find a new song that I love, I listen to it on repeat until it no longer makes me feel anything. Like I’ve drained all the blood from it.

Listen below.

The Chastity Belt x Holy Wave split is out 2/7 on Suicide Squeeze. Pre-order it here.