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Today, LA-based post-punk four-piece Agender share a two-in-one video game-style video for synth-punk tracks "Trouble & Desire," and "Womb 2 Wound" along with the release of their long-awaited sophomore album, No Nostalgia, out everywhere now. The queer band, made up of Australian lead singer Romy Hoffman, bassist Cristy Michel, drummer Christy Greenwood and synth player Sara Rivas makes schizo, synthy, paranoid, post-punk with a dash of dysmorphic desire and have been turning heads in the post-punk scene since their debut album in 2014, Fixations, and most recently for their 2022 single, "Top Bottom Top." Coming this summer from the band is a remix EP, in collaboration with JD Samson and Harvey Sutherland.
"Trouble & Desire," is a fast-paced, drum-backed track that meets where being anxious and avoidant in a relationship intersect. "Womb 2 Wound" builds on the bold tone as it opens opens with the classic assertiveness of Agender declaring, "Fuck my biological clock with my philosophical cock." "It begins with a punch in the face. The face is that of expectation and time. The song is about a hyper-aware person striving to be an ego-less, body-less self, who can transcend pathology and their attachment to people and things. It's a song that champions the notion that the solution to all problems is always spiritual."
Like with much of the album, Hoffman wrote the tracks and plays everything on them from synths, to drum machines, guitar, including the lead vocals and even had a hand in their production with an assist from David Scott Stone (LCD Soundsystem, Get Hustle, Unwound).
Hoffman reveals the tracks are "probably the most unhinged, synth heavy, synth-punk jams on the album. They sit somewhere between the late 70's minimal synth punk pioneer 'The Normal', early 80's L.A synth punks Nervous Gender and the more modern sound of 'The Faint'." Describing their sounds, she continues, "Big synth lines and layers, twinkling guitars and a steady drum machine beat create a bed for vocals to protrude from. It's all about the vocals. They're urgent, they're umph. Monotone over melody. Delivered with conviction." Hoffman concludes, "The song sounds like what living with an attachment wound feels like. Like nothing is enough and everything is too much."
The double video, directed by Amanda Lovejoy Street examines attachment styles and faces anxiety head on in the pursuit of finding oneself, playing on both sincerity and humor. Street, who has worked with American rock-punk band !!! Chk Chk Chk as well as the critically acclaimed short film Magic Bullet, explains, "Agender's latest two for one video explores what an experimental video game on attachment styles might be. The first video follows lead singer Romy the "Dismissive '' as she tries to avoid being caught by Claire, the "Preoccupied".
The second video, Street continues, "propels Romy into an abstract womb space aka the origin of her attachment style. We move between Romy navigating the smothering "wombs" and into a stylized relationship space where we see the attachment dynamic between her and Claire continue to play out - one where real intimacy is never achieved. George Haas from Mettagroup acts as a "therapist" to narrate and witness."
WATCH THE "TROUBLE & DESIRE" + "WOMB 2 WOUND"
OFFICIAL DOUBLE VIDEO HERE
The punk-heavy 14-track album, No Nostalgia, sees the quartet satirically examine their place in today's fast-evolving world. They poke fun at modernity and postmodernity, while swinging between deep nostalgia for the past and amnesia. It's both existential and celebratory, yet introspective and humorous all at once. Hoffman, describing the main themes of the album, says, “The album reads as a newspaper or a collage. It’s a political, spiritual, philosophical look at modern society- the information age. It’s an anthropological look at the absurd current state of affairs. It’s focused yet unhinged, self reflective, observant, brash, tongue in cheek, serious yet playful. Excavations and observations of the mind of an anxiously attached, overthinking, spiritual human."
David Scott Stone produced with lead singer/guitarist Romy Hoffman, Sean Cook (St. Vincent, Angel Olsen) mixed, and Bob Weston (Shellac) mastered the record. The three engineers combined with Hoffman's gritty lyrics set the stage for an intricate storyline of existentialism.
The double single release follows the previous celebratory queer disco-club soundtrack, "Top Bottom Top," and its accompanying steamy video directed by Graham Kolbeins and starring Sheree Rose, an 81-year-old performance artist, documentarian, and dominatrix known for both her collaboration with poet Bob Flanagan and for her documentation of queer and underground subcultures from the 1980s to present.
An homage to queer sexuality and power dynamics, "Top Bottom Top" blends disco and punk underneath lyrics that repeat the playful words often used to label the positions and power structures involved in queer sex. It features punky guitar shreds, cow bells and subtle synth sequencers that flutter over a classic disco beat–one that BuzzbandsLA called "deliciously throbbing."
All four singles from the LP have received praise from tastemakers from Grimy Goods, to A&R Factory to Lethal Amounts. About "Preach," Lethal Amounts wrote, “The debut video for "Preach" is a commanding anthem from Los Angeles band Agender. It's an ascending explosion. The four minute single is an anthemic crescendo that mirrors the angst and frustration widely felt in these chaotic times.” Describing "Astro Tarot," Post-Punk.com wrote it features, “Sharp guitars cut through woozy synths, sucking you into a winding labyrinth of snarl and symbolism." The publication also added that the band "fuses the situationist sensibilities of Gang of Four with the Crass school of feminist anarcho-punk, all the while capturing a caustic metallic sheen uniquely its own."
Another single from the album,"No Nostalgia," depicts a post-apocalyptic world free of anxiety, an imaginary realm where all life has ceased to exist as those in the peaceful, post-human world yearn for amnesia. Grimy Goods wrote the "heavy but healing" track "barrels into you with force and gravity, striking hard musically, visually and philosophically."
With what promises to be a jam-packed summer ahead for the band, catch them play live on May 27th at Monty Bar in Los Angeles with Taleen Kali and on June 23rd at LA's Zebulon with Crow Jane and Caress. Grab tickets via agendermusic.com/shows.
The in-your-face, unapologetic synth-punk tracks "Trouble & Desire," and "Womb 2 Wound" are out now lifted from their second, multi-faceted LP, No Nostalgia, out everywhere now, officially cementing themselves as leaders in the post-punk space. Plus, don't miss Agender, JD Samson and Harvey Sutherland teaming up for a remix of the track along with a remix EP, coming this summer in celebration of Pride along with a show at Zebulon on June 23rd. Connect with Agender on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for more from the post-punk Los Angeles four-piece.
LISTEN: "TOP BOTTOM TOP" | WATCH: "TOP BOTTOM TOP"
LISTEN: "NO NOSTALGIA" | WATCH: "NO NOSTALGIA"
LISTEN: "ASTRO TAROT"
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