Connecticut quintet Anxious are set to release their second album, ‘Bambi‘, in February. Having shared details of the album in October, the emo punk group have dropped another song from the record. ‘Head & Spine’ maintains the punchy tone of their previous single, ‘Counting Sheep’, and combines it with rousing energy and a hint of grungy guitars.
The two energetic, bold songs from ‘Bambi’ make us excited to see what the five-piece can serve up in the new year. The rhythmic drive of ‘Head & Spine’ allows Anxious‘ raw, punk side to seep in.
“‘Head & Spine’ is probably one of my favourite songs on the whole record. The whole song came together over months just riff by riff. It felt kind of unclear exactly where the song was going to land. There’s all of these sort of disjointed pieces, we were trying to pull from Blink 182’s Untitled, some Smashing Pumpkins–even the bridge is this dramatic thing we wouldn’t typically do. All together I think it really works though,” states Anxious vocalist Grady Allen on the new track.
From a lyrical perspective, the track sees Allen take aim at people who “just seem to want to inflict pain” and those who are opinionated for no reason.
“Lyrically the song focuses on being unable to separate myself from the words of people who have no interest in anything but being unkind and cruel. Existing in subculture there’s this weird sort of passive acceptance (and even green lighting) towards people who just seem to want to inflict pain. And what’s worse, it feels like no one can just be real about it.” explains Grady. “It’s always dressed up as ‘well they’re just being witty’ or ‘it’s just their opinion.’ But that’s just an easy, lazy out. Whenever I see someone being weird and vindictive on the internet towards a person, a band, or ANYONE, I’m just struck with the feeling of ‘wow, you don’t even know this person or these people and you’re just totally comfortable ripping them apart? You’re cool with making fun of them?.’ It’s just [the] lowest common denominator of bad weird behaviour. But at the same time, I’m the one getting bothered. I’m the one getting upset. So I guess I bought it. They got what they wanted. So maybe I’m no better for engaging with it. My arguments probably imperfect, but that’s what I was trying to get at when writing this song.”
‘Bambi’ will be released on February 21st on Run For Cover Records.
