At its core, Lifeguard is a punk band. Their music is loud and energetic. It’s also, at its core, visceral and hypnotic. For the Chicago-based trio that can include repetition and blasts of speaker cone-shredding feedback.
Their songs adeptly balance melody and chaos, rhythm and drone. Hooks and noise are held to the same standard. Both have to stick. They’re a young band, but they’ve already found a place at the forefront of an important emerging music community in their hometown. They are quite prolific. In just three years, Lifeguard has put out a full-length, two EPs, and two 7” singles.
This week, Chicago-based post-punk trio Lifeguard announced a new EP collection, “Crowd Can Talk / Dressed in Trenches”, and shared a new song from it, “17-18 Lovesong,” via a music video. “Crowd Can Talk / Dressed in Trenches” collects two EPs, one previously released and one unreleased, and is due out July 7th via Matador Records.
The band features Asher Case (bass, vocals), Isaac Lowenstein (drums, percussion), and Kai Slater (guitar, vocals). The “Crowd Can Talk” EP was originally released in 2022 by the Chicago label Born Yesterday, whereas the five songs on the “Dressed in Trenches” EP are new.
Both were recorded at the same studio (Electrical Audio) and with the same engineer (Mike Lust), but not at the same time.
“More than old records—before that, before anything—we’re influenced by live shows and people around us,” says Slater in a press release.
“The inspiration comes from playing shows with people and having that mind-blown moment of seeing some friend play at Schubas or Book Club,” adds Lowenstein. “It’s happening on these tiny little scales of seeing kids play live and [knowing] this is something new and interesting.”
The Fat Angel Sings 