Julia’s War, the Philly-based indie label that They Are Gutting A Body Of Water’s Douglas Dulgarian founded a few years ago, has very quickly become an important force in American indie rock. One of the early Julia’s War releases was Wednesday and MJ Lenderman’s Guttering EP, and they’ve recently put out records from bands like Joyer, Nyxy Nyx, and Total Wife. Now they’ve got another one: Mx Lonely, the New York group who will release their full-length debut All Monsters next year.
The members of Mx Lonely first met at AA meetings, and singer/synth player Rae Haas named the band after their sleep paralysis demon. Originally, Mx Lonely were known as v0idb0ys, and they released a demo under that name in 2019. During the pandemic, they reinvented themselves as Mx Lonely and released a couple of EPs. Lead single “Big Hips” is a seasick churn. The verses sound like the kind of indie rock that we used to call “angular” in the ’90s. The chorus explodes into a full on fuzz-rift eruption, with Haas screaming about having big hips for a boy. Here’s what they say about it:
“Big Hips” is a self-mocking celebration of youthful masculinity. Puberty imbues a sense of dread for everyone, but especially trans people. For me, the onset of feminine curves was met with a sort of voyeurism I didn’t feel I was made to be proud of. “Big hips” were something that happened to you rather than something you owned. The song recontextualizes the dysphoria of my youth in the way young boys would jovially proclaim the size of their phalluses (whether it was true or not). It’s a big dick joke.
Director Owen Lehman’s “Big Hips” video goes hard on the fisheye lens, which is fun. Check out that clip and the tracklist for All Monsters below.
TRACKLIST:
01 “Kill The Candle”
02 “Big Hips”
03 “All Monsters Go To Heaven”
04 “Blue Ridge Mtns”
05 “Anesthetic”
06 “Return To Sender”
07 “Whispers In The Fog”
All Monsters is out 2/2 on Julia’s War.