Hailing from small-town Texas, Dexter and the Moonrocks are about to release their second EP, Western Space Grunge, out tomorrow (July 19). It marks their first on Severance Records, a Nashville-based imprint of Big Loud Rock, and they’re offering up a final preview with the new song “For Once.”
Like much of their catalog, “For Once” sees the band shorten the distance between grunge, space rock, and country. Noah Kahan and Zach Bryan inform the band as much as Soundgarden and Pink Floyd, which is reflected in their distinctive sound — and the name of their EP. By the time the chorus hits, it’s clear that James Tuffs has soul in spades. The rest of the band — drummer Ryan Fox, guitarist Ryan Anderson, and bassist Ty Anderson — back him up with a swirling, grunge-y alt-country pulse. The accompanying video, premiering below, embodies the feeling of losing time and needing to take action. Directed by Michael Herrick, the visual features the band jamming out in their living room and ends chaotically when Tuffs carries a TV outside — only for them to smash it up and douse gasoline over the box.
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“This is our first time ever having any sort of resources to be able promote and showcase our unique style of sad cowboy music,” the band exclusively tell AP. “Before, it was us sitting in our bass player’s side closet after he’d just gotten off work in the oil fields, trying to come up with dumb ideas to get people to pay attention to us. Now we have a captive audience, and we really wanted this video to be an introduction into what Western Space Grunge is and the raw emotion behind it.”