The phasing out of the lead singer role—given how much harder it's become to bring in a living wage from a career in playing music—seems inevitable. By 2020, it's likely that every band to take the stage at even the biggest of shows will either be only a laptop or nothing more than a two-piece. Imagine a world with not just one, but hundreds of Matt & Kims. Luckily, there is still hope, and it lies underneath the neurotic, anxiety-ridden surface of Big Ups' stellar “Goes Black”, the first single from their upcoming debut record. As Big Ups' scrappy frontman, Joe Galarraga does everything short of bleed out all over the caustic, primal track, and the song is given allowance to shapeshift between elemental hard-hit rhythms and vicious, scraped-to-the-bone guitar squeal. Dominating “Goes Black” are Galarraga's existential and identifiably obsessive lyrics that couldn't work nearly as well if they weren't given to a designated frontman whose key priority is to rumble up feelings of disquiet. The track's wiliness comes from anxiety and pressure working in perfect tandem.
Big Ups' Eighteen Hours of Static will release on Dead Labour Records on October 18.
