Brooklyn, NY · grunge · blues-rock

Slothrust

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Jazz-schooled grunge — sludgy riffs, sly writing, and solos that betray the conservatory training, with the guitar work doing the heavy lifting.

Slothrust formed in 2010, coming together while its members were students at Sarah Lawrence College, and later became associated with Brooklyn. The group is led by guitarist and vocalist Leah Wellbaum, with Kyle Bann on bass and Will Gorin on drums. The rhythm section's background in jazz studies shapes the band's approach to a fundamentally heavy rock sound. The name combines Wellbaum's earlier project, Slothbox, with 'rust,' meant to signify time passing.

Slothrust's records combine thick, distorted riffs with blues phrasing and unexpected harmonic turns, and Wellbaum's lyrics lean on dry humor, animal imagery and blunt self-examination.

Their 2012 debut, 'Feels Your Pain,' included the song '7:30 AM,' which went on to serve as the opening theme for FX's 'You're the Worst.' A second album, 'Of Course You Do,' followed in 2014 on Ba Da Bing, described by Wellbaum as angrier and more anxious than the writing that came later.

The band signed to Dangerbird Records and released 'Everyone Else' in 2016, an album Wellbaum described as concerned with water and dreams rather than the anger of earlier work, supported by a tour with Highly Suspect and a sold-out headline show at Brooklyn's Rough Trade. A fourth album, 'The Pact,' came out in 2018, and a fifth, 'Parallel Timeline,' followed for Dangerbird in 2021.

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grungeblues-rock