Photo by Nikki Basette

Don’t let that enormously goofy press photo above fool you. Landowner may look like a group of grinning jump shot opportunists, but place them behind some instruments and put them on a stage, and they’re an explosive band who are very much just saving their intensity for their art. Even that much was evident in written word a couple years back when these pages got the privilege of talking with its articulately contemplative frontman Dan Shaw about their great 2023 album, Escape the Compound.

With the demise of their previous label, Born Yesterday Records, it’s been the perpetually loud Exploding In Sound’s coup to have in snagging them up to their roster and who will release their fifth full-length effort, Assumption, later this February. Those just entering Landowner’s sharp fold will quickly realize the quintet’s unassuming approach to post-punk is unrivaled in that in spite of its minimalist structure, their energy levels run on max in their focused jolt and rigor. All of this is to say that applying this to album’s first single, “Rival Males”, makes for a well-studied combative interrogation on toxic masculinity. “Help me understand!,” Shaw shouts over and over his list of behavioral destructions. Don’t mistake it as a plea to empathize, but rather a way to smash it from the inside.

Directed by: Piper Preston

Landowner’s Assumption will be released February 27th on Exploding In Sound.