On their latest single “Checked Out,” New York City rock band Bloody Your Hands give listeners an updated take on that unique wavelength alternative heroes like Archers of Loaf, and particularly Superchunk were perfecting in the ’90s. The band artfully blends the most irrestible elements of pop-punk with muscular yet fleet guitar riffs and lyrics that swing from wordy, yet never-awkward verses to a shout-along, fingers-to-the-sky chorus of “When will I figure this shit out!”
Lead singer and guitarist Jameson Edwards delivers the probably all-to-familiar lyrics about the despair at wasting your best years at a job just so you can get by. The second verse of the song strips away the blistering guitars to feature the John Walsh’s bass working hard in time with drummer Mike Horaz. If you’ve ever worked a temp job in a dreary office downtown, you’ll relate to lines like “sitting in flourescent rooms / and wondering why I don’t like what I do.”
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While hating your job is certainly a topic that’s been covered by many a punk band over the decades, “Checked Out” is particularly relevant in the COVID-19-era, with many people literally being forced to risk their health and potentially their lives, just to pay the rent.
“This is a song about hating my job (a classic punk theme),” said Edwards. “But it’s bigger than that. It calls bullshit on the philosophy I was taught about adulthood, employment and happiness. ‘Do what you love and it won’t seem like work.’ Nice sentiment but in most cases it’s total BS. Things that make us happy tend not to pay well. There’s generally too much of a focus on careers in this country anyway. Our society incentivizes us to become really good at one thing. As if getting really good at something wasn’t hard enough – you now have to make sure that thing is the thing you want to do – the ONLY thing you want to do – for the rest of your life. What happened to the jack of all trades?”
“It’s a coincidence that this song was originally called ‘WeWork,’ he added. “I spent a few years working for a company that was briefly owned by WeWork, but the song was written while I was working at a WeWork (for yet another shitty employer). The company actually used that slogan – ‘do what you love.’ It was plastered all over the walls and hallways of their dismal, track-lit, fishbowl office that sold the modern American Dream of getting rich quick with a sold startup. The place was a startup graveyard.”
On August 28th, Bloody Your Hands will release their second album called Sunday Scaries. “Checked Out” is the second song on the album and follows the lead single “Weird Winter.”
Sunday Scaries tracklist
01. “Insomnia”
02. “Checked Out”
03. “Weird Winter”
04. “Insincere Apologies”
05. “Isolation By Design”
06. “There Are Heroes In You”
07. “The Way They Fall”
08. “Drunk Forensics”
09. “Hitchhiker”
10. “The Problem”
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