Portland, Oregon’s post-hardcore dynamos Moonkisser are putting out their third one-sided, 12-inch EP, Specific Wonderland, this Friday, their first release since their 2020 EP Summer’s Fleeting Majesty. But the time in between wasn’t spent idle, as their combination of the heavy and melodic has become even more refined with greater mastery of melodies and riffs. Today, they’re debuting their new single off the EP called “Old in Town.” With a powerful energy that finds the hidden beauty in post-hardcore, it’s an absolute ripper that’s going to linger with you long after you hear it.
“I don’t remember what order we wrote any of these songs in,” says guitarist August Bowman about the track, “but this is one of those riffs that I had the first part for a while, until I came up with something to go into. It would literally be the riff I played every time I picked up a guitar, and once we had the second part, the song just flowed. Mason came up with the big ending, which is, I think, what makes it a perfect song to end the record with. Lyrically, it’s sort of in the vein of the song ‘Nothing’ from the first record.
“Mason and I come from very similar towns, just on different coasts. We moved away from those towns for a reason, and while I think we’re both glad we didn’t stay in a small town and keep doing the same thing that everyone else did, there’s some melancholy there, especially because that doesn’t make us better than the people who stayed, just different. But staying in that environment isn’t without its pitfalls. This song is about wishing someone else made it out too. When we got the rough mixes of this one back, when I heard the line “I’ve hung around here too long, it might be time to move on” I knew that if the rest of the record could move me like those two lines, we’d made a great record. Once again, I’m floored by how Mason really just locked in and killed it, lyrically and with his vocal melodies as well.”
Check out the track below.
