A child in an elevator with amnesia. At each floor they encounters a new world. In between each floor they forget it all, wailing out to some primitive deity. “Decades of Breakfast” is a ride on this psychic elevator….arriving at different times, in different worlds. Parallel a comedian exists on this elevator, recounting a dream, or are they a comedian? I’m drawn to modern bands working in rock format that sound trapped sloping the tubes of elevation. An amnesiac reference to the fractured era of no wave guitar. An emasculation of noise rock. A tease of country. Toni sound’s like a comedian/serial killer combo that is singing to you in your room. They are informing you of what they are holding in their hand, preparing you for slaughter. You are laughing the entire time. Then you are dead. Back in the elevator. Warm Red broods and always teeters on this scale where you don’t know whether to laugh or cry, fuck or fight…are you asleep or conscious. It’s a very harmonious and zen. Vulnerable and psychotic. Bass and drum to anchor it all. Guitars unraveling, dreaming. Wake up….taught wires reeled back in, vibrating and decaying. Bart Simpson grew up did some acid, found records by The Fall, Scratch Acid, DNA, and UJ3RK5. Went to sleep dreamt tgey were in a band. Woke up on stage immersed in waves of white noise. A bunch of bored motherfuckers, arms crossed looking back at them. Tosses microphone at a punters head and walks off stage. Our take: I began hearing friends in Atlanta chatter about Warm Red a year or two ago, so I caught them live when they played in Raleigh in September 2019, and I thought they were killer. They sound like a band who has listened to a lot of my favorite bands—particularly Wire and the Fall—but doesn’t treat them like gospel texts. Their charismatic frontperson also impressed me, and their vocals and lyrics struck me as something to pay attention to even in a live set, where vocalists often get crowded out by the other instruments. Warm Red released a single and a tape in 2019, but both felt like a tease… this band could clearly put together a great full-length, and Decades of Breakfast is it. Stylistically, I guess you’d call this “post-punk,” but that term has been emptied of all meaning at this point and thus requires further explanation. While I could see someone flipping out over this if they loved the Gen Pop LP that came out this fall, Warm Red is less introverted and feel like they’re aiming a little higher. It’s not far from what Parquet Courts or Protomartyr are doing (though there’s none of the latter’s dour quality), but isn’t as commercial as either of those… it’s too dense and too smart for that. I could imagine Warm Red signing to a big indie label, doing a follow-up record that’s more commercial, and getting super big, with Decades of Breakfast remaining the one the record nerds like (if they were smart enough to pick up the original pressing). Or maybe something else happens, but whether it’s the start of something even more incredible or just an isolated blip, Decades of Breakfast should be on your radar if you’re a fan of the aforementioned bands and styles.
