July 2, 2021

Written By Juno Tipton

WASTED SPACE WONT WASTE YOUR TIME WITH THEIR NEW EP, 'EXSANGUINATION'

If you enjoy Hot Mulligan, Prince Daddy and the Hyena, or Origami Angel you’ll feel right at home listening to the new EP by Pennsylvania based outfit, Wasted Space. “Frontbitch” Mikey Montoni doesn’t just sing, in fact, a little less than a year ago they were single-handedly running the show. She’s now joined by bandmates Meg Mcnerney on guitar and vocals, Christian Ryder on guitar, and Jane Herring on guitar, drums, and vibraphone. Their sound uses both familiar and fresh pop-punk staples while incorporating ‘90s rock nostalgia. Exsanguination conveys emotions wildly relatable if you’re queer, angry, depressed, or the disasterous mix of all three.

Opening with a movie audio clip about a funeral, the first track “I would never barf in yr urn, brenda!” is steadily overtaken by a cacophony of guitar and drums before launching into fast-paced lyrics with a bitter and tired bite. “I'm dying for a war--I haven't hurt anyone for months and I need it more than I ever have.” At first glance this line might not look like anything more than wanting to pick a fight, but if you’re familiar with the feeling you may recognize the need for an extreme emotion to feel anything at all. This admission is immediately followed by: “I hate the way you look at me like I'm guilty.” This feels like a nod to how extreme-seeking is stigmatized and shamed instead of recognized as a sign that someone needs support. There's a brief downturn to the tone of the song, as if in acknowledgement to this, before jumping right back into a reprise of the same line. We get some call and response action and a mini solo before my personal favorite lyric on this track,“I hide under my sheets at night praying to nothing it'll be alright.” While these lyrics are likely about the directionless pleading that comes from situations that seem hopeless, I can’t help but want to take it a step farther and connect it to the alienation from religion so often experienced by queer individuals. 

The first track comes to a close after coming back to a different lyric with more intense guitar and vocals. Another short burst of call and response is highlighted by aggressive distorted guitar and quickly plunges into feedback territory to make the transition into the second track, 'gutterface'.

Right out of the gate, gutterface grabs listeners' attention with heavy drums starting a call and response with a guitar before they rev up into energetic full band shredding. In contrast, the first lines of lyrics are presented in a level tone but seem to imply an apathy towards death in general and disinterest from the narrator towards their own life as well. The apathy and exhaustion drips from these lyrics like a leaky faucet. It’s a steady drip that builds up and overflows before you have a chance to recognize how intense the feelings are. 

It doesn’t take a genius to see how the next lyrics can be related back to The Queer Experience™ “I antagonize everyone that I love for a simple mistake.” It’s unfortunate but true that correcting people close to you on your name or pronouns can lead to uncomfortable situations and even downright hostile behaviour. If you aren't able to correct them for whatever reason you might, “assume the worst, just waste away.” Sometimes fighting to have your identity respected is exhausting. Without time to think, this is followed by a few quick rounds of call and response and blaring guitar that fades like a false ending as it phases into softer instrumental. Listeners are given barely enough time to start to feel melancholy before a yell from Mikey sets off an explosion of sound. Even though their yell is what starts this roughly 30 second sequence, it quickly gets buried beneath the instruments, almost like it’s to convey a feeling of drowning. Things tone down to just one guitar for a moment and another one joins in seconds before drums and vocals come back as well. The familiar “sore-throated vocals” disappear for the last line of gutterface, “breathe, wash off the grime. fall into sleep, you have so much time left to weep.” It really made me think about how long it can take loved ones to change their phobic behaviour, how much it hurts, and how it can make you feel dirty and worthless. I sat with those thoughts as the last bits of guitar rang out and slipped into the third and final track.

Jeff, yr friend who cares, opens with almost simultaneous echoey guitar and a movie audio clip. If you know your stuff you may recognize that it’s from 2007 coming-of-age classic, Juno. Brief, screeching guitar follows the end of the clip before listeners are thrown into a climactic and chaotic opening that feels so much longer than the 25 seconds it actually takes up. It suspends you in place, melts your brain, douses your nerve endings in gasoline and sets them on fire. In the best possible way of course. When the lyrics come in, the bass guitar takes the spotlight complementing the light tone of the vocals. “you willed yourself away. you broke your bones and decayed.” The calmer tone disappears now, and a fearsome, gut-wrenching cry kicks off several rounds of “without me, without you” accompanied by fast and shrill guitar over the rock steady percussion. Things slow back down once more, “ they tore you from your parents' warm embrace. they killed you in an alleyway,” and we’re thrown right back into it again. This time the keening cry of “without me, without you” is almost drowned out by the chaos of the guitar and accompanying drums. The emotions of the song climb a hill of grief, try to calm down, and then completely lose it. It feels helpless and feral all at once. It feels like trying to hide who you are to please your parents. It feels like the stabbing pains of unacceptance and not so discrete homophobia and transphobia from the people who’re supposed to love you unconditionally. It’s the feeling of your heart shredding and burning and shattering all at once. It’s righteous anger and it’s not just meant for the grown and angry counterpart to have. The “you” in this song, to me, is a younger self. The anger is on their behalf at all the things they’ll have to experience that the older counterpart already knows the pain of. The last bits of guitar are joined by a lullaby like tune on the vibraphone just before the final media audio clip accompanies them through the end of the song. 

The final track specifically stood out to me in how it was mixed and produced. One thing I’ve always enjoyed about music was songs where you could shift your attention to each individual instrument at any point during the song. Where every part was distinct, and while they sound beautiful together, they aren't tied so tightly you can only see one piece instead of multiple parts. I couldn’t help but lose myself in this song, choosing something different to follow each time as I listened over and over to prepare for this review. It’s a furious tornado of sound and feeling that would be a killer set closer.

With a listening time just over 10 minutes long, I didn’t expect to have nearly this much to say about Exsanguination but was pleasantly surprised anyway. There were things about this EP that seemed like they could be Easter eggs for the attentive listener. The movie audio that opens the EP talks about a funeral while the clip at the beginning of the third track talks about giving birth. Almost like a cycle of reincarnation, or how life and death are never ending, or being suicidal and trying to embrace life again. It could be just a cool coincidence, but I still enjoyed the theming in the pairing. It was a bonus that the EP title can be included in that as well. “Exsanguination” means to drain something of blood and while that isn't specific to life or death, it certainly fits in with the overarching theme that I'm seeing. 

I didn’t just enjoy this EP for the symbolism that I admittedly may have looked too deep for, but also for the beauty in the anger and comfort in the sadness in the tone of how the lyrics are delivered and how the band plays. I know without a doubt these are songs that would have me angry crying in the pit or thrashing around my room. If asked to choose a favorite track I know I couldn’t! Wasted Space won’t waste your time with this EP. Give it a listen and head over to their socials at the links below to tell them what track you vibe with most!