Please welcome yet another cool band to the Julia's War Recordings roster. Julia's War, the Philadelphia label founded by They Are Gutting A Body Of Water frontman Doug Dulgarian, is on a pretty absurd winning streak right now, putting out strong recent records from acts like Total Wife, Mx Lonely, God Of War, and Melaina Kol. For their next trick, they'll get together with Bee Side Cassettes to release the new LP from the St. Louis band Shady Bug.
Shady Bug have been kicking around the Midwestern DIY scene for nearly a decade, but they haven't released a full-length since 2019's Lemon Lime. They also appeared on Strange Ranger's 2020 Bernie Sanders benefit comp and released their EP What's The Use? in 2023. The band recorded their upcoming album I wanted to be there in a 10-day St. Louis session with TAGABOW/Alex G collaborator Scoops Dardaris.
Lead single "my night routine" is a grand emotive fuzz-pop rager. It toggles between quiet and loud in deeply satisfying ways without sounding like it's following a blueprint, and singer Hannah puts in a powerful emotional performance. Here's what she says about it:
I initially wrote this song in 2019 in my bedroom in South City, St. Louis. The song lyrics describe a summer of turning on the box fan at night and imagining all the words left unsaid. A screen porch to sit by the glow of a phone screen and hope each fight does not become a speck of dust under the rug. The recording process for this record is special because we did most of it live, and at the Nest, a St. Louis house venue (Ripple's house) where we also recorded our first album tbh idk at in 2017. The music video for "my night routine" was made by our good friend Lana Dvorak, ex-St. Louisian now based in LA. She handcrafted the beautiful winged beetle on wheels and the seductive moon.
I'm really excited to release "my night routine" as the first single! There was an earlier version of the song in 2020, but we scrapped it after the pandemic. Ripple and I decided to rework the song in 2024, adding a new grungey part and my guitar solo at the end. It was fun to create :) Thanks for listening!
Check out the Lana Dvorak-directed "my night routine" video below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "oh okay"
02 "worm in the storm"
03 "i wanted to be there when it happened"
04 "blinkered"
05 "basket"
06 "a truce"
07 "afraid of the answer"
08 "seed"
09 "protect me"
10 "my night routine"
11 "high horse"
12 "misty"
13 "smokestacks"
14 "sub dreams"
I wanted to be there is out 10/30 on Julia's War/Bee Side Cassettes. Pre-order it here.
