Written by: Mike Dimitriou
Ahead of a busy 2018 national tour schedule, Portland’s dynamic duo The Mutineers have just put out their new outstanding Threshold EP.
The five track effort, which also contains a bonus track, is a fantastic blend of indie-pub-rock music fused with alternative America. Threshold is a gift, a mystery, and a total groove-fest, provided by the husband-wife duo Brian Mathusek on guitar and Merry Young on drums, who also share vocal duties as well. Acoustic guitars, electric guitars, an organ, drums and percussion fuse with this duo’s punk rock tendencies to create a vivid and wondrous musical vehicle.
And the music flows like rivers and rides like trains.
Don’t expect to find any busy arrangements here, just the pure soul of American rock that goes straight to the heart. The lead single “Drug For That” was previously released on Live At B-Side (2016) and it’s included as the bonus track on the special Bandcamp edition of the EP, and it rocks! It was filmed and directed by California-based photographer and visual artist Clovis IV who has worked with artists like New Model Army, Thievery Corporation, Faith and the Muse, Concrete Blonde, and Flesh For Lulu.
Of the song, the band says:
“We wrote Drug For That around 2012/13 when I felt there was little to no politics in new music. There wasn’t a lot of angst because things felt sort of under control. We had a willful blindness towards our actions on the world stage. Culturally, there was this worship of gawdy celebrities that was over the top. I wanted to write something that lambasted the idea of American Exceptionalism because none of what I was seeing seemed too exceptional” says Brian Mathusek, while Merry Young explains “This video was shot in the area surrounding our home in Southeast Washington. It’s a place where decay and growth are intermingled. The beautiful buildings, that must have once held so much promise, are left to rot away. They are the shadows of someone else’s dream”.
For tour dates check here, they are on a big ride until November.
Keep Up With The Mutineers
