Abandoncy's heavy feral metal punches on "Nashville Hot"

"And I can smell your whiskey smile"

Kansas City, Mo's alt rock Abandoncy call themselves "just three big nerds in search of the big riff yonder". Well search, no further. The track Nashville Hot, my first introduction to these guys (Lincoln, Damian, and Morgan) feels incredibly feral, big heavy, throat destroying, hair curling full throttle metal punches and I do mean punches. As is the case with a lot of this kind of sound, there are big guitar assaults, there are stops and starts so you can feel the massive downbeats and upswings and the spaces that hang in the air however so briefly (also a good place for massive drum fills). Nashville Hot does, sadly, end to abruptly and quickly for me. I thought of METZ (who I had the pleasure of seeing twice) and Show Me The Body. 

Abandoncy's sound encompasses you. While I actually don't steep myself in this kind of heaviness on a regular basis, I love it when it is done right and for that it has to feel not only potent, but mind numbingly feral and sort of disturbing. NH is all that but not as disturbing as "Phyllis" - SEE:

[The cover photograph is of a marionette (affectionately named "Phyllis") mysteriously found in Morgan’s garage with no obvious origin when he returned home from a trip to Colorado. It was just there, waiting. Slowly Phyllis became a clear avatar of the alienation-of-self apparent throughout much of the record. The photo was taken by the band in situ, where Phyllis still is.]

Their debut record "Hollow//Living" is dropping August 21st via Zegema Beach Records and The Ghost is Clear Records (with a CD and a Cassette edition). FROM THE BAND: These nine tracks of dissonance were very much a labor of love. 

-Robb Donker Curtius

Abandoncy · Nashville Hot

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Abandoncy is just three big nerds in search of the big riff yonder. It’s joked that Lincoln, Damian, and Morgan may have the highest amount of least “economically viable” college degrees out of any Kansas City band (Damian is a doctoral candidate of philosophy at KU and Morgan has a master’s of music in composition from UMKC), but what do they know? Rock and Roll isn’t real. Might as well make something. Abandoncy has been compared to the likes of Pile, Metz, the Chariot, Drive Like Jehu and Unwound. That is to say it’s a little dissonant, it’s a little noisy, and it’s a little rigorous.

Their debut record Hollow//Living will be released August 21st via Zegema Beach Records and The Ghost is Clear Records. These nine tracks of dissonance were very much a labor of love. Abandoncy recorded by themselves over many 8 hour days spread from January-March 2020 at Farewell Transmission, a local DIY warehouse music venue/woodworking shop. Every day they recorded they brought the entire recording set-up (computer, interface, monitors, cables, microphones, stands, etc) in addition to drums, guitars, and amplifiers across town to the space, set up, slammed through the day, tore it all down and took it home. They produced and mixed the record themselves and were intimately involved together with every step of the creation of the record from writing to recording to artwork. Slade Williams mastered the album and Alix Calon did formatting and artwork for the release.