American Motors Announce New Album 'Functional Music': Hear "No Horses"

Lancaster, PA trio American Motors impressed us with their 2024 debut Content. Now they're back to announce another album of scraping, pounding, ominous underground rock music. For Functional Music, out in November, the band once again recorded with the legendary J Robbins at his Magpie Cage studio in Baltimore, so Alex Steward's drums thwack extra viscerally. Singer-guitarist Dustin White shared the following:

Making the first record, we established a conceptual framework to work inside of. This time we're adding more detail inside that framework, and pushing against it slightly. We made some bigger swings in a few spots, but still just did what we do, which is basically whatever Alex and I find interesting. We're still interested in experimenting with empty space and repetition. Working with J again was an absolute dream, and no band I've been in has managed to release a second LP while still continuing to function as a band, so this feels like a major accomplishment. It's a little more interior to the exterior of the first LP. It's a society, and we're just living in it.

Lead single "No Horses" might remind you of Pile or Chat Pile, of FACS or Shellac. White's moaning vocals remind me of his fellow Columbus expat Jerry David DeCicca, and the chorus takes a surprisingly warm and melodic turn within the context of such punishing post-hardcore. More from White:

"No Horses" takes place mostly out on Route 60 just outside St Albans, WV, the same stretch that "(A Billboard Reading) Dissolve Jefferson" from our first LP does. As a band, one of our favorite things to do is have either the guitar or bass play essentially one note while the other moves around. Here we do both. For the video, we were lucky enough to shoot at the Large Scale Systems Museum, just outside Pittsburgh. Everybody should go here and touch these machines; they want you to. To keep with the antiquated technology vibe, we shot the whole thing on a 1960s Arriflex 16ST 16mm camera. I'm honestly surprised we pulled it off.

Watch below.