Photo By Adam Kerner

Artist: Nihilistic Easyrider, the solo project of Narrow Head frontman Jacob Duarte

Location: Houston, TX

Buzz: “In a funny way, these Nihilistic Easyrider songs are closer to the music I always wanted to make growing up — they’ve got that real ’90s and 2000’s emo feel that I grew up loving and wanting to channel,” Narrow Head frontman Jacob Duarte describes the intent of his creative alter-ego, Nihilistic Easyrider, upon introducing it to the world. “When I write for Narrow Head I’m writing for what the band needs, whereas these songs are more like, a personal diary of growing up through music.” If you saw his feedback-heavy space rock band opening up for Saves the Day and Senses Fail earlier this and collectively covering My Chemical Romance’s “Helena”, you know very well that dude knows the classics. With DELUXE EDITION, his first official release under the banner, he does them justice and more than makes up for a lot of that ground in an album’s length of time despite it being dubbed a mixtape thanks to its variation vibes.

The listen is an impressive and earnestly-studied collection of sounds from those eras modernized that showcases Duarte — joined here alongside Narrow Head drummer Carson Wilcox, producer and fellow recent Buzz Sound Graham Hunt as well as guest features from Momma’s Allegra Weingarten and Etta Friedman — as more than just the dissonant-voiced frontpiece of his main outlet, and rather, a bold font personality jack of all alt-rock trades when revering many of the niche corners of the millennial underground scene that inspired and continue to inspire his artistic evolution. Meatier pop-punk and emo-core turn up the energy on “Facedown”, “Drive All Night” and “The Way It Crumbles”, while the ’90s FM dial gets turned forward, joining Momma and the aforementioned Hunt where they are in 2025 with “Weekend Fever”, “Well Kept Secret” and “Howie on the Brain.” For good measure, there’s even some well-timed indie alt-country Saddle Creek revivalism to be heard on “Don’t Get Scared Now” and “Everything Is So Fucked Up”. The nostalgia factor is obvious, but then again, the music is made to create new defining memories in the moment with listeners, too.

Sound: A 136-capacity Case Logic folder full of alt-indie and emo rock classics on burnt CDs circa 1998 thru 2005 digitized and uploaded to the cloud.

Recommended: “Facedown”, “Well Kept Secret”, and “Everything Is So Fucked Up” off his recently-released debut mixtape, DELUXE EDITION

Directed by: Brandon Mahler

Fall Tour Dates:

Nihilistic Easyrider’s DELUXE EDITION is available now on Run for Cover Records.