Ecce Shnak - Jeremy, Utilitarian Sadboy
NYC-based art-rock outfit Ecce Shnak (pronounced Eh-kay sh-knock) presents the single 'Jeremy, Utilitarian Sadboy', dedicated to 19th Century English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, whose skull is kept on display at the University of London. Their fourth release to date and first new music since 2019, they return to once again shatter notions of genre, while addressing weighty themes and notable trivia alike.
This first taste of their 'Shadows Grow Fangs' EP, slated for release in early 2025 via NYC-based imprint Records Man, Records, is astonishing -- Ecce Shnak effortlessly combines math-metal, post-rock and choral anthems in just 150 seconds. Opening with a ferocious roar and a knotty, funk-metal riff, it’s interrupted by bursts of Queen-like harmonies and witchlike wails before punching through to bewitching keyboards and a bridge that would set off a cemetery mosh, only for a stern choral coda to arise like you’re now in a chapel coming around from an inadvertent knockout.
A 5-piece made up of David Roush (vocals, electric guitar/bass), Isabella Komodromos (vocals), Chris Krasnow (electric guitar), Gannon Ferrell (electric guitar/bass), Henry Vaughn (drum kit), Ecce Shnak is one part pop music, another part classical music and a third part punk music, creating songs about love, sex, death, change, bravery, and food.
Since Roush formed the band in the mid-noughties, Ecce Shnak has been treading the high wire, leaping from craft to craft. Throughout their explorations, you’ll always find Roush tripping the light fantastic. Provocative and entertaining in equal, lavish measures, Ecce Shnak's performances are as vividly cartoonish as they are intellectually compelling, defying all earthly expectations.
"'Jeremy, Utilitarian Sadboy' is a prog-punk psychiography of the father of utilitarianism, Jeremy Bentham. Though he was a staunch advocate for basic social services for poor and working people, Bentham was also a tragically confused do-gooder who promoted solitary confinement for prisoners. His single weirdest move was neither good nor bad, but pretty morally neutral: he had his body taxidermied after he died so that his students could muse upon his body as a no-biggie, just a “stale instrument",” says David Roush.
"The comedic tragedy of Bentham’s life is a fascinating story that raises many complicated questions around happiness, suffering, justice, politics, and the role of mortality in human life. However, in the wake of his confused advocacy for solitary confinement, a more straightforward message emerges in light of the injustices of the modern era. Regardless of any of the good intentions of its architects, our system of incarceration and policing is pointlessly brutal. It needs to be challenged and transformed: for the incarcerated, for undocumented people, for those on death row, and for their loved ones."
An art-rock synthesis of pop music, heavy and classical music, 'Shadows Grow Fangs' EP is a raucous adventure through these styles that concludes with a folk song, a first for the band. Showcasing limitless invention, these five songs run the gamut from slow-burning meditations on love’s indispensability to mockery of the web from the perspective of a time-travelling poet, and much more.
Recorded and produced by Jeff Lucci at the Art Farm (NY), the EP was mixed by Nicholas Vernhes (Animal Collective, Deerhunter, The Fiery Furnaces, Dirty Projectors, Wild Nothing, The War on Drugs) and mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Greg Calbi (John Lennon, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, Tom Petty, Todd Rundgren).
Roush once lived opposite Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary, designed in line with English social reformer Jeremy Bentham’s 1791 circular prism plan. “He said a criminal can redeem himself by contemplation on the crime and restoration in solitude, a really cute, liberal idea that was modified horrifically to the point where we have the brutal practice of solitary confinement," elaborates David Roush, "A friend was working for their ‘Halloween Haunted Prison Experience’, so they were like ‘zombie’ prisoners, which was kind of funny, kind of absurd, but, in another way, horrible when you think about the reality. And I said, ‘Well, shit, I guess I have to write this song.’ So I went to the library, got a bunch of books and read.”
The song’s opening words? “Jeremy! What a show-off!"
Ecce Shnak might seem a frivolous moniker, but a great deal lies behind it. Ask frontman David Roush and, in his gentle, considered manner, he’ll point to the interjection ‘Ecce’ – Latin for “Behold!” – and the slang ‘shnokkered’, meaning ‘incoherently intoxicated’. Coincidentally, the German origin of ‘Roush’, ‘rausch’, also translates as ‘drunkenness’.
If there’s a fine line between wild-eyed, inspired genius and utter, irrepressible insanity, that’s where you’ll find these New Yorkers, teetering on a neon tightrope. They subvert notions of style, playfully but reverently embracing multiple forms from across the spectrum, frequently within a single tune, while addressing weighty themes and notable trivia with striking articulacy.
As of October 30, 'Jeremy, Utilitarian Sadboy' is available from fine music platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and Bandcamp.
