On ‘Better Living Through Static Vision’ you can hear vocalist George Hirsch, bassist Dave Walling, drummer Jeff Ziga channel everything from crust to metal and the hardcore punk they’ve all been steeped in for years.

The lyrics on the album, all written by Hirsch, focus on themes of alienation and loss. Over the course of the last few years he moved to Chicago and then back home to Philly. This was a time where everything was different and difficult emerging from the pandemic but for Hirsch there was an added element of seeing his old neighborhood go downhill. As he puts it, “A lot of it is coming back and seeing so much has changed and gentrified and the people that I knew who’ve been displaced from that area. I wouldn’t say that I’m trying to make a political point as much as it’s coming from an emotional standpoint.” Those feelings are addressed head-on in the song ‘Alone In Philadelphia’:

All that I can hear / Whispers of the past

No one is here / No one’s coming back

A stranger in the place that I was raised

“Everyday is grows more demonic and strange”

Hirsch continues: “True connection is created in the primordial ooze of hyper specificity. Staticlone is a band that makes music to connect with people. Whether from a city, suburb, or small town.” At his core Hirsch is a storyteller. Go back and listen to anything he’s ever done and you’ll see it in the unflinching honesty of his lyrics and hear it in his heartfelt vocals. On the album that poetry is paired beautifully with some of the catchiest, heaviest music out there. This is an innovative and interesting band that’s managed to create something new while still maintaining a very palpable link to the various styles that make up its bones.

‘Better Living Through Static Vision’ tracklist:

Better Living Through Static Vision
Honeycomb
This Light Burns Like Poison
Sullen Me
Moths
Alone In Philadelphia
Patching Holes In A Dead Star
Thin Places
Lens Flare
Red Eye