I’m alive. Chicago’s most unpredictable young band is back. Lifeguard just dropped “Ultra Violence,” a blistering, tape-scorched burst of post-punk that barely gives you time to breathe before it’s over. Clocking in as part of a rapid-fire maxi-single, the track leans into distortion, urgency, and a raw DIY recording style that feels more like a live detonation than a studio release. It’s chaotic, sharp, and completely intentional—exactly the kind of left-field energy that’s keeping underground rock interesting right now.
Out today, “Ultra Violence” / “Appetite” is the new maxi-single from Chicago trio Lifeguard. Recorded at the band’s rehearsal space / studio, the music continues the unstable ethos of last year’s much-loved debut album Ripped and Torn – alternating high-velocity punk-energies with surreal dub-inflected interludes. Listen and purchase HERE.
The band has just completed a run of west coast dates, including a sold out show at LA’s Zebulon.
Lifeguard on “Ultra Violence” / “Appetite”:
Recorded in Lifeguard’s Stulogulo, newly equipped with actually terrifying faces and friendly heroine carpet, plugged straight into the 8-track machine with the aid of the Dub soldiers, dirty mixing pots and Echoplexes, Lifeguard deliver these 11 tracks in under 15 minutes; 7 inches of LP-oriented fast and automatic music free from lingering, processing, over-thinking, or otherwise staving off release. The fully deterritorialized Ripped and Torn; the ripping and tearing of the band-aid.
This dub-abrasion Maxi-single is Lithographed for the new generation of cylinders. A thin Round wax prism carries that 30-second-torch of what shan’t be considered afterthoughts, rather deliberate bursts scaffolding: ULTRA VIOLENCE and APPETITE.
Out now on Matador Records, Ripped and Torn is Lifeguard’s eagerly awaited debut album. The trio have now been making music together since they were in high school, nearly a quarter of their lives. Noisy and immediate, cryptic but heartfelt, they draw inspiration from punk, dub, power-pop and experimental sounds, and bring them all together in explosive cacophony.
“ULTRA VIOLENCE” / “APPETITE”
TRACK LIST
- Ultra Violence
- Cuneiform
- 500K Foot Drum
- Blatant Dub I
- Manhunt I
- Appetite
- Manhunt II (Vogue A Go Go)
- Blatant Dub II
- Cuneiform II
- Manhunt III
- Steal Everything
LIFEGUARD
