“Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a man of wealth and taste.”
“Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine.”
“It was all a dream, I used to read Word Up! magazine.”
These, of course, are some of the most iconic opening lines in music history. But may we suggest another killer intro, this one from Milwaukee slowcore/shoegaze band Haunter?
“Wash your feet in a bucket of rock salt / Don’t be surprised by what comes off / It’s your skin!”
Okay, we kid (a little), but if there’s a more bracing/bizarre opening line in recent Milwaukee music history, we’d love to hear it.
The intro comes from “Shiba Beanu,” the opening track of Haunter’s latest LP, Fieldy. The song is emblematic of both Haunter’s sound—cacophonous, crashing, pleasingly plodding, pretty—and its droll lyrical sensibilities. “On the couch smoking DMT,” sings Aidan Keyes on the title track, floating in after a reverb-heavy wave of guitars and cymbals. “Playing Dota 2 but I gotta pee.” Later, in “Open Book,” Keyes reminisces about “watching Nip/Tuck in the summer” and “drinking Dollar Store iced tea.” Oh, memories!
Not that Fieldy is all noise and random references. “Fieldy” the song also includes some lovely falsetto “sha-la-la”s courtesy of Elizabeth Blood. Album highlight “Looking Back At You” is a beautifully rendered ode to the confusion of heartbreak. (“I don’t care, I love you.”) The delicate “High” gets by with only ethereal backing vocals and a dream-like vibe. Five-minute closer “Voodoo Trailer” comes close to resembling an up-tempo pop song, albeit an up-tempo pop-song with a hazy overcast and occasional bursts of distorted guitars.
For Haunter, Fieldy follows a trio of Halloween-themed EPs and 2019’s Please Understand. The band’s catalog stretches back to 2012, however, and is loaded with oodles of woozy and spacey gems. If you decide to dip into that catalog—and you should!—don’t be surprised by the goodness you’ll find.
Exclusive articles, podcasts, and more. Support Milwaukee Record on Patreon.