It’s been nearly a year since Milwaukee’s long-running, long-swaggering glam-punk outfit Indonesian Junk released its latest album, Spiderbites. “Produced, engineered, and mixed by Shane Hochstetler at Howl Street Recordings, Spiderbites is easily Indonesian Junk’s best-sounding record to date,” we said in 2019. “There’s nary a moment that doesn’t pack a sonic punch.”
One of the highlights of that punch-filled record is “City Lights,” a song that finds the darkness beneath the glamour of big-city life. “You’re in a new town, you’ve got all new friends” sings Daniel James. “But you find yourself all alone in the deep end.” Toss in a menacing guitar riff on the chorus and the rock-steady support of bassist Johnny Cyanide and drummer Mike Mattner, and you’ve got a winner.
And now you’ve got a video! Complete with a hot-pink, wide-ruled notebook (dig the skull and the KISS Junk Army tag) and Indonesian Junk coming to life as hot-pink, wide-ruled notebook doodles, the Joe Evans III-created video is an audio-visual spitball waiting to happen.
What’s next for Indonesian Junk? The group is prepping a career-spanning singles and rarities collection, A Life Of Crimes, for a July 24 release. In the meantime, listen to one of the record’s previously unreleased tracks, “Pill Box,” now: