South London-based noise rockers USA Nails are set to release album Feel Worse, the group's first for One Little Independent Records, on March 22nd. All songs are written by the band – Steven Hodson, Gareth Thomas, Daniel Holloway, Tom Brewins — with the title track having been released on November 2.
USA Nails - Feel Worse
The band explains the album's genesis in a press release: "Feel Worse explores schadenfreude; the pleasure derived from another person's misfortune. With this, [USA Nails] use new material to attack austerity and UK authoritarianism, consumer culture (particularly the consumption of quick-fix reality TV and hyper-capitalist agendas), youth culture and bullying, and more. They do so with their intense and unmistakable brand of abrasive, chaotic post-hardcore. There’s a raw and uncompromising energy to USA Nails, and Feel Worse is their most powerful and vital album to date."
USA Nails - Steven Hodson, Gareth Thomas, Daniel Holloway, Tom Brewins
In 2020, Hodson and Thomas were interviewed by The Alt Club and were asked to describe their music. "We're a noise punk band from London. We are named after a nail salon," Thomas elaborated, "Sometimes we get asked if we are named after the Blood Brothers song – we aren't but we like that band a lot so don’t mind the association. We first got together in 2013, which feels like ages ago now."
Thomas was also asked what his wishlist for supporting headline bands on tour. "We haven’t toured with Idles, though we shared bills with them a couple of times before they went stratospheric, and did an aftershow for them one time. They’ve always been kind and lovely to us, sharing our tunes on their socials and saying nice things about/to us, which we are very grateful for.
"We opened for Mission of Burma once, I would have loved to do a full tour with them but they quietly split up last year, didn’t they? I’d love to play with Crack Cloud too. I’m not sure we’d go down very well with their audience, though."
USA Nails look moody for the camera.
Speaking about the new song, co-frontman Steve Hodson says, "Feel Worse is about laddish culture and schoolyard bullying. As youngsters, we jostle for social positioning and at times it's at the expense of other people’s well-being. I used to say my teenage years were character building but on reflection, I'd probably say they were character destroying, and those who made me feel so small through physical and emotional attacks probably don’t remember, hence the refrain 'it’s just some words.' Maybe I should just ‘man up’ a bit. There’s a parallel in all of this I guess, and in the fact that I wrote songs about my own experiences, some of them exposing my own vulnerabilities to an audience. Ok, maybe not to the extent of my references but hey, an audience none the less."
USA Nails album, 'Feel Worse'
Feel Worse tracklist:
01 Cathartic Entertainment
02 Feel Worse
03 The Sun In The Sands
04 Pack Of Dogs
05 Networking Opportunity
06 Holiday Sea
07 On Computer Screen
08 Beautiful Eyes!
09 An Audience Of Love
10 I Love It When You Succeed
