After four years of watching them play shows in New York, dragging their bass player into joining in on whatever ridiculous ambitions Music Dies Here had, and drinking too many beers before their band practice, I’m finally staring at the first full length by Something Bitter: ‘Running Out of Ghosts’. This stubborn trio has decided to go for the DIY approach, with only the mastering done externally by Arik Victor from Creep Records; it only took them two years of writing, recording, rewriting, rerecording, to finally release these songs.
I contemplated if I should be reviewing this, as I’ve been as close to this record as you can get without being in the band, having heard multiple iterations of most songs. I’m serious, I’m pretty sure I have a collection of demos scattered throughout my inbox as these songs changed throughout the years, and Something Bitter and Music Dies Here have teamed up more times than we care to count. But where’s the fun in running a music-related website if you cannot judge your friends a bit?
The band has had some line-up changes throughout the years, but these days, the New York melodic punk trio has settled into their dream team: Russ Worstell on vocals and guitar, Jim Rundle on backing vocals and the bass, and Andrew Echeverria on the drums. When bands move to a smaller configuration, especially when they enjoy writing and playing more technical songs, there’s always the question of how they’re going to keep the full sound they’re known for. Something Bitter seemingly answered that with “well, we just need to get better at what we do” and stuck to their dedicated weekly practice. It shows.
‘The Mark’ opens in one of my favorite ways to open a record: the vocal line starting solo before the instruments kick in. This song has gone through a lot of iterations, and a lot of hours in the practice studio to get the fills right, before it turned into the track it is now. The growth of Russ as a vocalist stands out immediately compared to their older work, and he seems to move seamlessly from the controlled start of the song to the later almost distressed-sounding lines. The entire song sets the tone of the record: fuck this, we’re moving on and taking charge of our own lives.
Though ‘Nothing Yet’ is one of those songs that gets stuck in your head after a few listens, it falls to the weakness many melodic punk bands, and especially Something Bitter, tend to have: it needs repeated listens before it stops feeling chaotic. You can call it technical punk, and it will likely hit the itch for fans of the genre, but there’s a lot of different ideas happening at once, and it doesn’t always feel like a coherent whole. The spoken word part, for example, feels unnecessary and adds noise to a song that already is trying many things at once. That said, after said repeated listens, you can’t help but appreciate the darker and chaotic feel to the song, fitting its status as a desperate anthem of defiance against terminal illness, the refusal to give in to what’s slowly taking the control of the self away.
Originally planned as a secret track, ‘Track 11′ (yes, it’s the third song on the record) keeps it short at only just over a minute. For those who like playing the game of finding the album title mentioned in the lyrics, this is the song you’re looking for. Another song about defiance, this time of expectations others place on you. The band recorded a video for this one, which can be found on the internet. The subtle backing vocals make it shine, and its predictable and almost poppy structure is a breath of fresh air after two more technically inclined songs.
If you’ve seen Something Bitter at any point in the past two years, ‘Relax, It’s a Rental’ will sound familiar to you. For the album version, they brought in Helen McWilliams from One Fall for guest vocals. The two bands have a close relationship; bassist Jim Rundle helped book all of One Fall’s New York shows and they have shared the stage multiple times. This may be one of Something Bitter’s most accessible songs, with a nod to A Wilhelm Scream with awake, arise, eat, work, shit, sleep; a strong chorus, and Helen bringing the heat. It’s a sing-along.
With Wonderful, So What, we move into one of their harsher songs lyrically, yet again, more accessible ones musically. The song describes a complicated relationship with parents, and a chorus showing the conflicting feelings of wanting the love, as well as the hurt it caused, ending in now I’m glad you’re dead. It could do without the weird short break of a high-pitched look at me, I’m dark and edgy. It takes away the real weight the song carries, and makes the song feel like an insecure add-on to the record, instead of a deliberate one. It’s a shame, because I think many people with complicated relationships with their late-parents could find solace and understanding in this song.
Spending time in the punk rock scene means meeting many people who don’t really feel they fit in anywhere. On ‘It Doesn’t Have to Be Now’ (not to be confused with their similarly-named 2022 EP), Something Bitter makes a stance against glamorizing mental health issues and suicidal thoughts, without judging those who do struggle. Both hopeful and hopeless, the song is a fast and angry plea to their friends in the scene to please keep screaming at the demons instead of giving in to them. The switch of vocals between Jim and Russ during this song amplifies those contradictions. I know we’re heading for the infinite. It doesn’t have to be now.
If there’s one way to describe ‘Half Down, Half Out’, it is that while writing it, the band may have forgotten that they have to be able to play it live, and ever since the record got recorded, hours of practice have been spent on it getting it right. Surprisingly, that same stubborn attitude is actually the exact feeling this song evokes. Though Jim and Russ have very different vocal styles, and even their accents clash, it brings an interesting contrast that makes the song stand out. There’s something about this song that makes it specifically a Something Bitter song — which seems to be the wish to write strong choruses, and then deciding that writing something complicated is more fun.
These reviews aren’t neutral, and my dislike for audio clips / spoken word / movie quotes, whatever you want to call it, is no secret. ‘Five-Cent Help’ is the third song on this record that the band decided on using a clip for, this time as the opening. I have not been able to recognize any of the clips used so far, and they often make me skip forward. This means I’m less familiar with this song than I am with the others. It doesn’t mean it’s a bad song, though it’s a typical Something Bitter song, which means it is hard to compare with other bands. This song mostly shines on the parts where Jim takes over the vocals in the bridge and the outro, bringing us a hook where one otherwise would be missing.
With ‘Friends Like These’, Something Bitter shows that their roots are in the punk scene. Forget trying everything at once, the focus here is on melodic vocal lines, and they put together a proper punk song. This gets accentuated by the guest vocals from Ross Sutcliffe from the Mistakes. There is an art to pairing guest vocalists with the right song; an art Something Bitter seems to have a knack for. The entire song starts off catchy and keeps that momentum throughout.
‘Let’s Don’t’ is another shorter song, coming in just under a minute-and-a-half. Which is good, because the entire song feels like filler. It’s too short to skip; it’s too long to enjoy. There’s not a lot to it that stands out, and even the lyrics seem a bit childish compared to the rest of the album. Maybe that’s what they were going for, a bit of ease on an album that is lyrically on the heavier side. If that was it, it failed.
We’re at the end of the record, with ‘Bleaker by the Dozen’ closing it out. One of their strongest songs, in my opinion, hitting the different aspects that make them a band to be reckoned with. Sure, it’s a more predictable track than some of their others, but Something Bitter – no matter what they seem to believe – actually shines when their songs feel coherent. The play between the drum and the bass is strong here, and the guitar adds melody without actually leaning into long solos. Russ is pushing his vocals, in terms of range and speed, and the backing vocals, as well as the gang vocals, add a certain strength.
Running Out of Ghosts can be best summarised as wordy, aggressive, technical, melodic punk with a no-nonsense attitude towards life. If at least two of those are what you’re looking for in music, add this record to your collection; you won’t regret it. It avoids one of the biggest traps local artists seem to fall for, which is absolute crap production (I promise every band ever, that garage rock fuzz is not a hype to follow, you can do better). Considering the fact that this got recorded and mixed by the band themselves, that’s huge. For a first full-length, especially without label backing, it’s an amazing feat. There’s filler, there’s parts that make me want to skip the rest of the songs, but overall, it’s the kind of record I would have found myself returning to even if I never met these guys.
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(I’ll update the Spotify embed below with Bandcamp the moment it gets released there)
