Animal Piss, It’s Everywhere

The country hits keep on coming today. Swinging the focus from cosmic covers to the rougher end of the ranch, the debut from Animal Piss, It’s Everywhere brings a heavy dose of hangover hummin’, cut with a good dose of humor. Though the name feels fit to front a ‘90s noise band, the Pioneer Valley vets aim for a kind of three-day bender country careen, rife with tales of cheap wine, naked barroom romps, late-night rumination, and more than one reckoning with the man on the cross. Filling out the ranks from a heavy bench of RSTB favorites, the band finds members of Pigeons, Wet Tuna, Stella Kola, Sunburned, and Weeping Bong Band on board. The record rumbles on its rails, often threatening to topple under the weight of their collective load, but the band always skids into the station. The songs’ scars and scabs weather nicely, balancing a brilliant batch of strums and slides with last-round singalongs that hug the listener like old friends.

Credit’s due to the dulcet pedal steel from Andy Goulet, his playing holds the record tight like a golden hued glue. Consummate players all of ‘em, to be fair, but the band takes a page out of the more ragged ranks of the country canon and it’s a delight to stumble through light beer laments like old times — feeling like there’s a common thread somewhere between Modern Lovers, Country Teasers, Mekons, and Royal Trux. The record runs its course like a cliff’s notes Pynchon, grease-marked and slumped on the sofa. There have been many stabs at the core of current Americana, but the rumpled charms of Animal Piss, It’s Everywhere feels like just the record that 2023 deserves. Can’t recommend this one enough.

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