Shady Bug is a band familiar with the process of metamorphosis. The St. Louis indie rock outfit has undergone several big changes since their inception. They formed back in 2017, founding members Hannah Rainey and Ripple joined by drummer Aaron O’Neill and bassist Todd Anderson, and wasted no time in recording their debut release tbh idk. This caught the attention of Exploding in Sound Records, who went on to put out follow-up Lemon Lime in 2019. The record built on the debut in every way, noisy and melodic and consistently surprising, every bit as sweet and sour as the title suggested. As we wrote in a piece at the time, “[Lemon Lime is] a record of contradictions, [which] utilises catchy hooks and thundering crescendos to produce something that can both pummel you and pat you on the head.”
But then, as though in keeping with Shady Bug’s signature unpredictability, things began to change. Both Anderson and O’Neill left the band, and Rainey took a break to experiment with solo project hennen. As we described previously, the project “sees Rainey work through feelings of heartbreak, isolation and self-sabotage using an iPhone and her distinctive brand of twee-tinged garage rock.” Recording as hennen broke open a new seam of creativity and encouraged Rainey to write full band arrangements alone for the first time. She then took these to practice, where Ripple and new members Chris Chartrand (bass) and Jack Mideke (drums) transformed them into complex warrens of sound and texture, but always with Rainey’s vocals front and centre. In other words, made them into Shady Bug songs.
When they were ready, the band took the new songs to Alex Molini (of Pile) at his studio in Nashville. Molini not only acted as producer but also provided keyboard segments that add an extra layer of complexity to the compositions. Take opener ‘zero expectations’ with its wiry guitar and steady galloping percussion, whipping up into a squally noise before the introduction of Rainey’s vocals, which land somewhere between impish and indifferent. It soon becomes apparent that this delivery masks more complex feelings, feigned apathy as a shield against worries, a kind of Schrödinger’s cat approach to unavoidable anxieties, where if you don’t acknowledge them they don’t exist.
“‘Zero Expectations’ has been a motto I tell myself to help go into situations with an open mind even though I am actually very worried,” Rainey explains. “The song playfully explores some of my anxieties, including climate change, capitalism, and trying to be noticed in the music industry.”
“I had zero expectations, zero and some were bad
Get over that notion, cuz every oceans filled with plastic
trash out on the sidewalk, but nobody seems to mind
Staring at the advertisements, but they
just want your money buy buy buy”
Such worries thread throughout the album, no matter how much the mood changes. ‘frog baby’ is altogether more sedate, at least outside of the stomping chorus. But again it’s wracked by uncertainty, and the continuation of the quiet-loud dynamic of ‘popsicle’ twists taut with an anxious tension which outlasts both the sunny rhythm and soaring chorus. ‘favor’ turns this frustration into a kind post-punk snarl, Rainey’s vocals those of a person fast approaching the end of their rope. “Always doing somebody a favor favor after favor,” she sings, “Step out of my body step out I don’t even know her / People pleasing couldn’t please me / please me much not much forever.”
But there is catharsis in airing such feelings, and as such the songs of What’s the Use? come to answer the titular question. To externalise that which has grown stale within you, moult the accumulated weight to emerge anew. The image is captured directly on closing track ‘Lizard’. It’s a beast of a finale, the longest, loudest thing Shady Bug have made to date. Taking full use of the stacks and amps in Pile HQ, the track builds to a crushing crescendo full of crashing percussion and squealing guitar (what the band describe as a “a nuts fuzz loud wildin’ out section.”)—a moment of pure, visceral noise.
“’Lizard’ was written while I was still in my relationship but I knew I needed to leave so I could grow, aka shed my old layer of lizard skin,” says Rainey. “It was really hard to leave the relationship because I knew I would regret either decision and be sad. Tossing and turning, not knowing how to go on. The Lizard Year is a reflection of wanting that growth so bad but having many doubts.” The song is a fitting conclusion both to the record and this period of the Shady Bug project, and one which leaves you wondering just what form they might take next.
What’s the Use? is out now via Exploding in Sound Records. Grab a cassette tape or download via Bandcamp.