Stoner Will & the Narks are contractually obligated to their own inside jokes.
It’s why their name is what it is. It’s why they’re leading figures in the post-snark genre alongside compatriots like Cheekface and The Lentils. It’s also why they debut things on April 20th.
This year they’ve gifted us with a journal entry for this shithole of a year generation insert your own timespan ugh IDK.
“Call up the antitrust regulators and tell them to break up all the bands I don’t like,” opens The Antitrust Regulator Song, as vocalists Will Meyer and Anya Klepacki speak/sing over a plodding drumbeat and meandering major progressions. Their harmonies pack the kind of punch that only the too-smart kids can hit you with: the kind where you may not even realize you are the subject of their disdain.
Perhaps I am biased because for me (and I imagine I am not alone in my specific subset of general nerdery) the song is like a tour through popular landmarks of a particular political and cultural mindset. “I knew it was all over when the Obama Justice Department refused to break up the Rod Stewart reunion tour,” Meyer and Klepacki croon as they move on to cover topics ranging from the casinos in Connecticut, the throughline between the X-Files and the DOJ, and bills that are packed with too many bands when you’re hella tired and just want to go home.
Listening to the Antitrust Regulator Song fills me with nostalgia for a time that none of us suspected would or could end. What we wouldn’t give to sing the chorus together in a sweaty basement. Instead we are shouting along in our isolated bedrooms/cars/pods to each other and no one at all because, well, “there are no rock shows in a pandemic.”
Indeed. “Only doing the dishes over and over” and over and over and over and over…
With references to Bernie Sanders mitten memes and the year of lost shows to the global pandemic that upended our lives, the song dives headfirst into the risk of finding itself dated a mere five years into the future. But as life and culture become more impermanent (see also: a rising culture economy of NFTs) we need ways to mark time. This track will be a circle on the inside of the tree trunk of early 2020s indie rock. Besides, in a few months even their name will be another Easter egg reference for those who were in the know enough to be there when it was relevant.
SWATN are truly my favorite kind of band. They make music for musicians. But also for snarky, distrusting, engaged community activists who are really closet optimists at that.
We’re the fifth band at this show
And I know you probably wanna go
But we’ll play our songs 20% faster if you just stick around
So yeah...don’t leave, friends. It’s been a long time since we were able to do this together.
Listen to The Antitrust Regulator Song by Stoner Will and the Narks on Bandcamp.
Have your own antitrust concerns about a particular band? Fill out a complaint form — it’s very therapeutic.