Foxx Bodies often describe themselves as an accident. Bailey Moses, Adam Bucholz, and Matt Vanek came together in their shared home when their singer Bella Vanek asked everyone to play loud music she could scream over after she began unpacking her newly-recognized childhood abuse. While each of them had been practicing musicians from a young age, none had been in a band before Foxx Bodies.

Their first show was just as unconventional as their formation, with Tucson hometown hero Lando Chill asking them to open his album release show without ever having heard them play. After scrambling to write material for their first show, they discovered that their own unrehearsed brand of surf punk struck a chord with audiences and it was clear — Foxx Bodies wasn’t going anywhere.

They recorded their first self-titled album Foxx Bodies just a few short weeks after this show in the living room of a fellow musician and friend, Ben Schneider. It was recorded in one day and without much thought beyond how grateful they were to be living the dream. Fans of the band held the album close to their hearts and on repeat in their cars, screaming along.

Touring that album and growing in the Tucson music scene eventually led Foxx Bodies to Los Angeles, where they embarked on a second album with the help of producer John Goodmanson (Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney) and Erik Blood (Shabazz Palaces, Tacocat). After a few dozen local shows and a stint supporting Remo Drive, they were all set to drop Vixen when the pandemic hit.

The new album Vixen is, in so many ways, a story about coming to terms with yourself. It only made sense that the band would have to do just that while weathering a pandemic before finally releasing this album into the world. Foxx Bodies’ music has always been about the combat of survival, which singer Bella Vanek has never been shy about. She can be found just about anywhere sharing her own struggles with mental illness, eating disorders, sexual abuse, or… really whatever most people are afraid to say out loud.

On Vixen, Vanek makes her trauma sound dangerously intriguing, singing about her life in such a startling and honest way that it makes you examine your own ideas of mental illness, gender, and trauma. Marry that with Moses’ salty, surfy licks, Bucholz’s elaborate fills, [Matt] Vanek’s infectious baselines, and it’s all over. The four desert punks meld together to bring a magnetic, dramatic air to each song, delivering romping punk and the occasional piercing scream.