Bass Drum of Death

Born in the Oxford, Mississippi, rock scene around John Barrett, Bass Drum of Death took shape in the late 2000s as a project initially recorded solo, before becoming a band with a variable geometry on stage and in the studio. The name Bass Drum of Death sits in a register of garage rock, garage punk and noise rock, with short, tense songs, marked by abrasive guitars, dry rhythms and writing that draws as much on punk as on American indie rock. After the first EPs Stain Stick Skin (2008) and High School Roaches (2010), Bass Drum of Death released GB City in 2011, followed by the album Bass Drum of Death in 2013 and Rip This in 2014, a period during which the project moved more clearly from solo format to a touring band. After a mid-2010s pause, John Barrett relaunched Bass Drum of Death with Just Business in 2018, then continued with Too Cold to Hold / Wait in 2020 and Say I Won’t in 2023, marked by the band's return to Fat Possum. Between Oxford, New York and numerous dates in the United States as well as Europe, Bass Drum of Death has retained a direct and rugged aesthetic, centered on live energy and on a nerve-wracking rock that remains faithful to its lo-fi roots.