Montréal / Los Angeles trio American Lips return October 29 with On Strike! on Ancient Fashion Records, a jagged, art-rock full-length that slots neatly on the shelf next to Wire, Pixies, Devo, and Parquet Courts, while still sounding unmistakably like itself. If Waste of Crime was their left-turn calling card, one that landed heavy rotation at alt and college radio, On Strike! doubles down, marrying absurdist humor with tightly wound rhythms, splintered guitar lines, and a sardonic streak that will make fans of The Fall, Pere Ubu, and ESG perk up.
With this new full-length, the Montréal / Los Angeles trio sharpen their edge, bringing jagged riffs, dry humor, and an anti-burnout manifesto to the turntable.
Fronted by Adrian Popovich, a commanding vocalist and guitarist also known for his work with Tricky Woo and FRVITS, American Lips channel raw urgency through a jagged, playful lens. Alongside bassist and vocalist Jessica Bruzzese and drummer Sebastien Grainger, whose work with Death From Above 1979 earned gold status in Canada and millions of streams worldwide, the band balances underground spirit with proven pedigree.
Their music thrives on contrast: urgency warped by noisy synths, fortified with pop hooks, and spiked with tongue-in-cheek irreverence.
Their debut Kiss the Void (2017) was raw garage-wave chaos, their 2022 maxi-single Waste of Crime / Labor of Hate plunged into sample collage and art-rock abstraction, and now On Strike! arrives as a caustic, playful manifesto for the burnout era. Consumer culture gets skewered (“Cardboard Trash”), overwork and exhaustion take the hit (“On Strike”, “Sleep”), and the crumbling promise of empire is dragged across the coals (“Got It Made”).
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American Lips turn critique into catharsis, serving up anthems that are funny, furious, and built for record collectors and cool kids alike.
Their music carries the wiry DNA of bands like Gang of Four and Talking Heads while never losing sight of their own crooked grin. It is underground art rock with a pulse, the kind that laughs at collapse while soundtracking it.
Produced and recorded at Ancient Fashion East in Montréal and Ancient Fashion West in Lucknow Ontario/Los Angeles, and mixed by Grainger, On Strike! is noisy, human, and resolutely analog. That rawness is sharpened by guitarist and producer Adrian Popovich, whose work behind the board for SUUNS, Priors, The Sheepdogs, Duchess Says, and Sam Roberts Band gives the record both underground bite and seasoned depth.
If Waste of Crime cracked the door open, this album kicks it off the hinges, a record that insists refusal can sound like joy and that even in the rubble, there is something worth shouting about.
Genre Tags: Art Punk, College Rock, Garage-Wave, Noise-Pop, Indie Underground
RIYL: Wire, Pixies, Devo, Parquet Courts, The Fall, Protomartyr, Dry Cleaning, Iceage, Pylon
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