The Big Easy are an indie rock band from New York, comprising of Stephen Berthomieux, Pete Clark and Stephen Adams. The trio’s debut album A Long Year, released back in October on Forged Artifacts, sees them perfect their formula for noisily triumphant lo-fi rock songs that they’ve been working on for the past few years.
Despite the obvious parallels in the title, this is not a record about global events. Instead Berthomieux confronts the anxieties and struggles of a year in his own life, a period which saw the dissolution of a relationship and several relocations. “And now everything is falling straight through my hands,” he sings on ‘Fake It Til I Make It’ in a line that sums up the atmosphere of the whole record, “I try to keep it together, I don’t think it matters.”
But it’s still hard not to view A Long Year in the context of 2020. Because for all the angst and introspection, The Big Easy specialize in the kind of sweat-stained, beer-soaked punk songs that will make a proportion of the pandemic-era housebound population misty-eyed. The album careens into view from its opening seconds, the infectious guitar riff and smashed drums of ‘It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Gets Hurt’ transporting the listener to a grimy basement that’s all reverberating walls and communal spirit.
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And the album doesn’t let up from there, from the pop punk singalong energy of ‘Basement’, to the raucous catharsis of ‘If I Knew It Was The Last Time’, The Big Easy specialize in songs that make bad times sound like good times. Even the record’s more sedate moments have undeniable power. The tempo is lower on the thunderous ‘Alone’, but Berthomieux’s throaty yelps, growing guitars and crashing cymbals still fill the room, and ‘Something To Do’, which finds A Long Year at its most stripped-back and sparkling, still has distorted guitars and a tangible sense of desperation.
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A Long Year is out now via Forged Artifacts and you can get it now from The Big Easy Bandcamp page, including vinyl and cassette editions.
