Tokyo-based punk band Fever Moon (now stylized as FVRMN) shares a new single from their forthcoming album today on Bandcamp and all DSPs HERE. “Diamonds” is the second single form the album featuring a number of special guests, this track boasting backing vocals by Chris Broach of Braid.

Many songwriters have unveiled their “pandemic albums” over the past few years and most of them carry the weight of isolation and yearning through soft quiet spaces away from society. When Tokyo-based songwriter Jay Holmes got sick, he bashed out nine tracks of heavy hefty songs that relied on a deep inner sense of musical drive and a wicked balance of both sincerity and a sick sense of humor.

Back To The Whip was meant to be a “one and done” kind of a raw slam punch to the guts; but once he got a few friends on board to help out, things began shaping up into a more refined type of beast with multiple layers that slowly began to expose themselves with each repeated listen.

Back To The Whip is FVRMN’s fourth studio album (and the first under their new moniker as it was previously Fever Moon) and features a wide-ranging line up including: Mike Watt (Minutemen, The Stooges, fIREHOSE), Chris Broach (Braid), Christian Madden (The Liam Gallagher Band), and Motoharu Fukada (ex-member of Japan’s wildly popular Soil & “Pimp” Sessions).

Each special guest brings their own unique element to the album with main songwriter Jay and longtime friend Scott Lupton on guitar and drums, respectively. Ex-bandmate Michael Ulliman also added extra guitar and handled pre-production duties and after a fairly long and sometimes frustrating weight of time, the new album is finally set to be released on vinyl via Bifocal Media on May 24 (pre-orders are available HERE). Fans of heavyweight hooks a la Dinosaur Jr, Superchunk, Husker Du, Leatherface should all rejoice as FVRMN’s big wall of sound guitars creates a dense blast of sound that matches up perfectly with the fine-tuned razor-sharp art of true songcraft.

Jay Holmes has been actively making noise for a long time. The American-born, Tokyo resident was the lead singer and songwriter in the epic indie math rock band The Ladderback in the late 90s up until his overseas move in 2003 after the band ended a successful nine-show tour of Japan. From then, Jay took time off from music to get centered in his new surroundings where he is currently a full-time artist and graphic designer who has created designs for Black Sabbath, Neil Young, Sebadoh, Babes In Toyland, The Dead Milkmen, Windhand, and many more.

Photo courtesy of FVRMN.