Leaning into the myriad of artists that influenced 21-year-old Christian Cicilia and 22-year-old Nick Crawford’s individual music tastes, they both draw considerable inspiration from a variety of genres and decades. Imbuing their auto-tuned melodies with traces of Fall Out Boy, Hellogoodbye, Juice WRLD, Kelly Clarkson, and ‘10s SoundCloud rap, their debut EP Just In Case The World Ends (2022) showcased their penchant for blending maximalist production with pop-punk for a highly danceable fusion of “hyper-punk”. In Face For The Radio, they up the distortion levels, leading with fuzzed out guitars and a sprinkling of alt-pop synths, with sugary melodies and emphatic rhythms that get you on your feet.
“It was this perfect storm,” says Menzingers guitarist/co-vocalist Gregor Barnett. “The band couldn’t tour, I was going through a really difficult time, and I was stuck at home watching my family struggle with illness and death and hardship. The only thing I could do was write my way through it.” And yet, despite all the turbulence surrounding its creation, there’s something deeply hopeful and reassuring about Don’t Go Throwing Roses In My Grave, Barnett’s debut release under his own name. Written and recorded in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the collection is a sonic departure from Barnett’s more punk-leaning work with The Menzingers, drawing on the gritty, off-kilter Americana of Tom Waits or Warren Zevon as it faces down loss and doubt in search of relief and redemption.