Brett Newski gets back to basics with analog, home-recorded Vanity Metrics

Back in the ’90s, Danish film directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg created the Dogme 95 movement. The movement proposed a loose set of “rules” for producing films: shooting on location, using handheld cameras, forgoing special effects, etc. Though the movement lasted only a handful of years, it did produce films like Vinterberg’s Festen and Harmony Korine’s Julien Donkey-Boy.

So what if you took Dogme-like rules and applied them to music? Enter Brett Newski. Briefly stepping away from his prolific alt-rock NEWSKI project, the tireless Milwaukee musician has formed a new band, Vanity Metrics. And that band (mostly Newski, plus a few longtime collaborators) is governed by two rules:

1. All songs must be recorded to analog tape.

2. All songs must be recorded at someone’s house rather than a studio.

And there’s more. Vanity Metrics just released a five-song EP, and while you can stream two of the songs, the only way to hear the whole thing is to subscribe to Newski’s Patreon OR order the EP on CD. “Only 50 copies ever,” Newski says. “All are individually unique and hand-painted. There will not be a second pressing of this EP.”

So there you go! Listen to the two (very good) streaming Vanity Metrics songs—”Motel Room In Los Feliz,” “Iris”—below. And consider ordering a CD! And consider revisiting Julien Donkey-Boy if you’re in the mood for a strong post-Oscars palette cleanser!