Two decades ago there used to be this amazing band in Columbus called El Jesus de Magico. One of their best songs was called "New Moses." The first time I saw them perform it in 2005, I just about lost my mind. (That was around the same time I was getting into their peers Times New Viking.) That inevitably crossed my mind when I heard about the new Truck Violence song today.
Truck Violence, who have arguably an even cooler band name than El Jesus de Magico, hail from Montréal. Karsyn Henderson (vocals) and Paul Lecours (guitar, banjo) grew up in the Alberta praries, and they claim a folk music influence on the band. Yet on their new track out today, Truck Violence make gnarled, noisy, heavyweight post-hardcore with a metallic edge, not unlike Chat Pile. That makes them a perfect fit for the Flenser, the record label that has become one of the world's great outposts for out-there heavy music. Truck Violence have indeed signed with the Flenser for the release of new album The Weathervane Is My Body, dropping in June.
The lead single is called... well look at that, it's called "New Jesus." It's real nasty. Vocalist Karsyn Henderson offers this context:
"New Jesus" is a rant about the blatant fascistic slide occurring both to the south of our border and on screen. It is loosely about the ABC-Trump settlement and the post-January 6th election fraud cases. The lack of any broader moral compulsions beyond centralizing power on the political right has led to a culture of post-truth, where there is no reward in accuracy unless it leads to an augmenting of one's political capital, which it rarely does.
This is as destructive in politics as it is in art. There is surprising apathy among young people in regards to this slide, who believe the acquisition of power and the subsequent lording over that occurs, is merely nature, essentially; what will happen, will happen. With these lines of thinking, you find more people sympathetic to this mode, if it is both natural and inevitable, why not acclimate and reap the rewards. Why not join the fascist grift, degenerate art through TikTok, etc…
Kirill Sommer directed the "New Jesus" video. Watch below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "My dog would fuck the air"
02 "Jaundiced and reaching for a mother"
03 "Compelled by Christy"
04 "House caught fire"
05 "New Jesus"
06 "Your name, It's walking"
07 "Stomach as a tower and the globules descending"
08 "Gerard, be quiet"
09 "Kindly, wash yourself"
The Weathervane Is My Body is out 6/26 on the Flenser. Pre-order it here.
