Based out of Ithaca, New York, Grass Jaw is the project of songwriter Brendan Kuntz. Since relocating from New Jersey in 2020, Brendan has been on something of a creative roll, with two albums already shared, and a third one, OH NO, well on the way. This string of releases has coincided with a contrastingly downbeat headspace, a feeling that, “the world as we know it is ending”, or perhaps had already ended and left only, “a few morsels for us to pluck from the bones, some fresh scars to leave as our parting gift?” It’s an intriguing mental place to find oneself, yet one Brendan finds oddly creative, as showcased today as he premieres his new single, No Reminders.

No Reminders, perhaps contrastingly, is very much a reminder for Brendan, “a meditation on being present and keeping focus on where you are right now”. The song is a reflection of life in a spiral of doom-scrolling and seemingly endless bad news, “it’s so easy to fall into worrying or being depressed about the future, and it’s been occupying a lot of my time.  There are things in the past that can be a balm, but ultimately, it’s gone – and I don’t feel like a reliable narrator anymore”.

The track starts off with the sort of bruised country vistas of Friendship or Bonnie “Prince Billy”, soon joined by a wheezy keyboard, and then like the sun breaking through the clouds, the drums enter and the whole thing lifts. It’s a song built on shifting sands, never staying in any one section long and always offering a sonic twist just around the bend, not least when the breakdown refrain, “no reminders no reminders”, gives way to a fuzzy Jesus & Mary Chain-like guitar and the sort of angsty yelp-along catharsis that’s key to most of my favourite LCD Soundsystem tracks, “we still measure time, as if it were meaningful, all we really have is what’s in front of us”.

Brendan’s songwriting might hint at someone bruised, perhaps even broken, yet somehow in No Reminders, there’s also the flickering remnants of the raging embers of hope. If the world’s going up in smoke, we’re going down singing, now link arm-in-arm my friends and stride into the fire, because listening to Grass Jaw, there are moments of joy to be found even in terror.

OH NO is out September 28th. For more information on Grass Jaw visit https://grassjaw.bandcamp.com/.