The Expanded Four-Piece Continues To Grow By Ditching Its Punkier Past And Exploring Darker Themes With The Opening Track From Its Latest Release.

Welcome to Song of the Day, where we hip you to all the new local releases you should be caring about. By highlighting one new North Texas-sprung tune every week day, our hope is that you’ll find something new to love about the rich and abundant DFW music scene five days a week.

Upsetting — “Scrooged Starring Bill Murray”
RIYL: reading the original, much-grimmer script for Scrooged
What else you should know: The North Texas-based Upsetting recently dropped a new, seven-track release called A Cold Lonely Place. Recorded with Michael Briggs in his Civil Audio studio in Denton, the album as a whole showcases well a four-piece that continues to grow and get better with each release.

The album’s opening track “Scrooged Starring Bill Murray” is a testament to that. The four-minute tune is a big statement for a band that, per its own bio, ‘[uses] familiar choruses and punchy melodies to take a look at themes of self-doubt, depression and anxiety.”

Featuring Caleb Lewis on vocals/guitar, Kevin Adkins on vocals/bass, Charlie DeBolt on drums and keys and new lead guitarist Drew Kee (along with guest vocalist by Judy Mitchell), the track is very much a reflection of its title. Well, to a degree; while it’s not a holiday track, it’s also not an all-out bummer thanks to its blend of sludgy distortion with shoegaze atmospherics and tight post-hardcore rhythms. 

The song’s lyrics are pretty easily interpreted as inspired by the shit-show that was 2020, but they’re written vaguely enough to keep its themes from being exclusively tied to the pandemic. With lyrics about missing home, but also describing home as a nightmare, the song presents a sense of what it feels like to be stuck in life.

That’s a message that people can relate to in 2021, in 1999 or (we assume) in 2035. 

Upsetting is a band that doesn’t shy away from the darker and grayer shades of life. They make tuneful music, and they do it in their own way. 

Kind of like Bill Murray, actually.

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