Post-industrial blight is harsh, metallic, and detached; so is Fail By Example, the latest cassette from Pittsburgh’s Derider. Channeling their city’s intimate relationship with Rust Belt decay and neglect, the four-piece’s shoegaze-inspired aesthetic evokes the isolating impersonality of abandoned factories, while the gritty vocals and distorted power chords play the role of shattered windows. Defiant dissatisfaction abounds, like Margo Van Hoy’s cry of “Kill or be killed” on “Open-Handed Answer,” or Cormac Gartland’s deranged wails in the chorus of “Wrong Place/Worse Time.” Fail By Example transitions frequently and seamlessly from spooky, industrial calmness to heavy ire as fluttering, reverb-heavy guitars give way to sludgy disorder—sometimes multiple times per song, as in the case of the tape’s title track. The fire and rage subside by the final cut, “Oui,” an echoing solo vocal performance from Van Hoy, whose desolate wistfulness sounds as if she’s lamenting to herself alone in an empty, sprawling warehouse.
Fail By Example is a call of fierce independence, and Derider haven’t left much to anyone else. The cassette is self-released, and Gartland mixed and mastered the whole thing himself. The intelligent musical accompaniment to Rust Belt ruin porn, Derider have extracted art from chaos with this new tape.
The digital release of Fail By Example is July 7, right in the middle of Derider’s East Coast tour. Dates are below.
July
6 Providence, RI
7 Philadelphia, PA
8 Baltimore, MD
9 Arlington, VA
10 Richmond. VA
11 Greensboro, NC
12 Nashville, TN
13 Louisville, KY
14 Cincinnati, OH
15 Bloomington, IN
16 Chicago, IL
17 Detroit, MI
18 Pittsburgh, PA
