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Stay Asleep - "Critical Access/Unsolicited Advice" (Premiere)

To completely misappropriate a line from English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, the best powerviolence is nasty, brutish, and short. Hailing from the same fertile Chicago scene that spawned Weekend Nachos, Sea of Shit, and Sick/Tired, Stay Asleep perfectly encapsulate all three of those characteristics on “Critical Access/Unsolicited Advice,” the forthcoming two track cassette single from their debut full-length Mourner. These relative newcomers—in fact, these tracks represent the first music they’ve released—have a bit more crust/d-beat in their sound than most of their Windy City brethren, which occasionally gives the music an Entombed-on-trucker-speed vibe. The band never stays in a single mode for very long, though, preferring instead to tear through as many jagged riffs and tempo changes as humanly possible in the single’s slightly less than three minute run time.

When asked about the source of their slightly unusual moniker, which seems a bit sedate considering the viciousness with which they play, their answer proved just as unexpected. According to drummer Dave Collis, the inspiration came from a cult-classic 1988 sci-fi film starring the legendary “Rowdy” Roddy Piper:

“The name is from the film They Live. [It’s] one of the commands written on a sign when the alien identities are revealed via the glasses.”

You can purchase the “Critical Access/Unsolicited Advice” cassette single, which we are streaming below, directly from Stay Asleep via their Bandcamp.

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