Mamalarky Shares Lead Single From Upcoming Album “#1 Best of All Time”

Mamalarky, the tri-coastal indie rock quartet, announce their new album, Hex Key and shared a video for its high-octane and rambunctious lead single “#1 Best of All Time.” Hex Key, the band’s Epitaph Records debut out April 11th, is an intricate, endlessly curious album full of sonic left turns and playful genre implosions. On it Mamalarky expertly pastiche sounds, time signatures, and moods together to create delightful, singular songs bursting with feeling.

In making their third record, Hex Key, Mamalarky spent entire seasons hunched over guitars and obscure synthesizers, their long hair sweeping over strings or covering concentrated eyes. The band recorded takes in between the sounds of passing ice cream trucks and yowling stray cats in their Los Angeles home studio, a tight but prolific living room. Hex Key is a document of perseverance, of going for the gold while somehow remaining totally aware of one’s own vulnerabilities. These effervescent, swirling songs chronicle vivid desires crashing against real-life limitations but finding a way to keep burning anyway. That tension between anguish and resilience, between performed aloofness and brutal honesty, drives the music, imbues it with a compelling intensity.

Given their closeness, Mamalarky are able to fight like family, not necessarily with each other, but forthe music, to make it the best it can be. Whereas their last album, Pocket Fantasy, was exploratory and free-flowing, the songs on Hex Key are the result of absolute devotion and fine-tuning. It’s the kind of attention to detail that can only happen when the four bandmates are working alone together, uninterrupted by producers, engineers, or any outside influences. “It’s never ‘kick your feet up, let’s see what happens,” guitarist and singer Livvy Bennett says. “We’re always staring each other deeply in the eyes saying ‘Let’s make this next take incredible.’ We never settle.” The band is so committed to their craft that Hill even recorded the drums for “#1 Best of All Time” amidst an intense bout of poison ivy. The determination he felt in the moment manifested itself in the song’s frantic but focused percussion, he says.

Mamalarky is intentional about ensuring the sonic diversity of their projects. “The worst thing you can say about a Mamalarky song is ‘This sounds like another song of yours,’” bassist Noor Khan says. It’s what distinguishes them from a lot of indie rock bands who prioritize sonic consistency throughout an album. On Hex Key, each song is a world of its own.

Tour Dates:

3/21 – The Echoplex – Los Angeles, CA *

3/22 – SLO Brew – San Luis Obispo, CA *

3/23 – The New Paris – Oakland, CA *

3/27 – Tractor Tavern – Seattle, WA *

3/28 – Wise Hall – Vancouver, BC *

3/29 – Aladdin Theater – Portland, OR *

3/30 – Treefort Fest – Boise, ID *

4/1 – Meow Wolf – Santa Fe, NM *

4/3 – Resonant Head – Oklahoma City, OK *

4/4 – Rubber Gloves – Denton, TX *

4/5 – Hotel Vegas – Austin, TX *