BODEGA – Our Brand Could Be Yr Life
Sometimes you have to move backwards to move forwards. Just ask punk cultural commentators BODEGA, whose new album sees them carve a new future from fuzz-soaked, consumerism-skewering shards of their past.
First written eight years ago, Our Brand Could Be YR Life is a long time coming – “something we’ve been wanting to do for years” explains guitarist and vocalist Ben Hozie – a collection of catchy indie-rock ruminations on the slow-creep of corporate-think into youth culture, with it’s 15 tracks exploring indie-rock subgenres, self-critique and everything in between. “I think it’s our best-sounding record to date” says Hozie, “It’s got dance-punk. There’s some shoegaze on there. There’s slacker rock on there. There’s psychedelic rock on there. R.E.M, too. We wanted to be another band in a long stream of missionaries, proselytising a certain type of rock subculture.”
Now, BODEGA have reinterpreted Our Brand Could Be Yr Life for 2024. “We thought of it like a director remaking one of their old films, like when Hitchcock remade the Man Who Knew Too Much, or when Yasujirō Ozu re-did The Story of Floating Weeds,” says Hozie. On this rebooted Our Brand, singalongs of old are brought blazing into modern day with heavily reworked arrangements that underline how much their musicianship has grown. Throw in new songs, like opener ‘Dedicated to the Dedicated’ and the album’s explosive finale ‘City is Taken’ – a song lit up by Shumski’s thundering drum fills – and you’re left with a thrilling time capsule of who BODEGA were and who they’re soon to be.
+ Dinked Edition No.275!
