Preoccupations (the band formerly known as Viet Cong) is readying New Material, their second album under their new name, and they announced it with “Espionage,” an enigmatic post-punk track that proves there’s still room to explore in the decades-old genre. Now the band is back with another new song, “Antidote,” and like “Espionage” before it, the track takes a bunch of exciting left turns without going in circles.
The band’s Matt Flegel says the song is about us getting caught up in our humanity:
“‘Antidote’ is about humans forgetting that we’re apes, it’s about trying to make sense out of something that we’d be better off not trying to make sense of. Its about having infinite knowledge at our fingertips, but still making all the wrong choices over and over. It’s about trying to find a moment in your day where you can take a breath and remember that we’re basically all just animals bumbling around.”
Flegel also calls the album “an ode to depression and self-sabotage, and looking inward at yourself with extreme hatred,” and Scott Munro says that the band wants to make something with an indefinable makeup:
“My ultimate goal would be to make a record where nobody knows what instrument is playing ever, and I think we’ve come closer than ever, here. It shouldn’t sound robotic — it should sound human, like people playing instruments. It’s just maybe no one knows what they are.”
New Material comes out on March 23rd via Jagjaguwar. Listen to “Antidote” above, and find the band’s upcoming tour dates here.
