Seattle’s Spiral XP have announced their debut album I Wish I Was A Rat (Danger Collective Records) out October 18th. Lead single “Luna” pits jagged, muscular Sonic Youth riffs against an Isn’t Anything-era MBV chorus, capturing the feeling of overwhelming awe, wide with possibility.

On the band’s debut LP, principal songwriter Max Keyes explores meaning, truth, and value under capitalism. Feeling unmoored by the ambient crush of a culture that prioritizes labor over pleasure, and data points over artistic expression, Keyes withdrew, finding solace in a new passion for songwriting. The resulting 12-song collection navigates late-twenties existential ennui and emerges triumphant, bending feedback-drenched guitars into euphoric new shapes, imbued with the timeless stamp of Pacific Northwest melancholy. 

After a string of promising EP’s, Keyes tapped scene veterans Lena Farr-Morrissey (bass, vocals), Jordan Mang (guitar), Kyle McCollum (guitar), and Daniel Byington (drums) to expand his vision on the album, inviting them to augment the songs as they saw fit. “They ended up taking on a life of their own,” he explains, “that’s a little scary but also thrilling to me.” Keyes and the group enlisted producer JooJoo Ashworth (Corridor, SASAMI, Automatic) and decamped to The Unknown, the legendary Anacortes studio Phil Elverum helped construct in an abandoned church. 

“This song is an ode to the moon,” Keyes explains of lead single “Luna,” “I like that it can also be read as a love song of sorts, I wanted to capture the feeling of being totally awestruck and captivated.” Watch the video below, which he says is “an homage to the movie The Seventh Seal, set in a late capitalist context.”