What continues to make Lifeguard one of the more thrilling bands happening (and growing up) in the underground rock scene at this very moment is how they don’t seem very concerned with creator content algorithms, gaming streaming services, or any of that primmed out publicity bullshit that sucks the unexpected out of the anticipation in hearing new music coming from the trenches. The young Chicago indie-punk firestarters are operating off creative reflects and feeding off their surrounding community for that energy.

Not even a year removed from the band’s excellent debut full-length, Ripped and Torn, the trio’s new maxi-single “Ultra-Violence” / “Appetite” — essentially, an EP which collects 11 tracks in just under 15 minutes — is a very compelling exploratory dive beyond just the high-voltage doses of cantankerous, noisy punk which they continue to do well in compressed focus. Beyond the listen’s titular pillar tracks, bassist and vocalist Asher Case, guitarist and vocalist Kai Slater, and drummer Isaac Lowenstein inhabit gravity-shifting art-rock and pseudo gothic psychedelic spaces through dubbed out and distorted interludes. It’s as wild as it is weird, unassumingly cool, and has no rules while answering to no concrete expectations.

That all of this came from their seeking a good reason to fuck around in the band’s newly equipped home studio, Stulogulo, and find out what would come out of it is some real creative gut instincts being put to excellent use while further fueling their own punk ethos. With this brief but essential listen in their early catalog, the results are something that leaves your own appetite piqued for whatever comes next from the feral recipe Lifeguard are stirring up.

Highlights: “Ultra Violence”, “Blatant (Dub)1”, “Appetite”

Lifeguard’s “Ultra Violence” / “Appetite” maxi single is available now on Matador Records.

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