Little Hag’s Avery Mandeville takes us track-by-track by means of the uncooked emotion and daring power of her band’s third studio album ‘Now That’s What I Name Little Hag,’ a sonically formidable and expansive indie rock document that shines shiny with its personal fierce, unapologetic, and plain gentle.
Stream: “The Machine” – Little Hag
Little Hag’s Avery Mandeville is usually a musical chameleon at instances, however she is – perpetually and all the time – unapologetic, unfiltered, and uncompromising.
This a lot rings true all through her band’s third studio album, whose sonically and emotionally charged songs run the gamut from punk to pop, folks to neo-disco, and past; regardless of such all kinds of sounds and kinds, Now That’s What I Name Little Hag shouldn’t be solely an exceptionally cohesive assortment, but additionally one which shines shiny with its personal distinctive, cathartic, and seductive gentle. It’s the beautiful, fiery glow of relentless vulnerability and self-exploration; of connection by means of launch; of countless swimming pools of power mixed with the rawest of uncooked feelings.
Little Hag enchants, empowers, invigorates, and conjures up by means of her breathtakingly charming and churning music, pulling listeners deep right into a world ardour and pressure continuously collide and we are able to all be our boldest, truest, fiercest and most f’ed up selves.
You’re like Rapunzel
I’m just like the man
Throw down my charger
The one factor I left behind
Fuel up my dildo
And go f* myself
Eat a patty soften alone
Take into account getting assist
Discover me a human
that may give it to me
Discover me a human
higher than the machine
– “The Machine,” Little Hag
Launched August 23rd, 2024 by way of Bar/None Data, Now That’s What I Name Little Hag is a delightfully unapologetic fever dream from one among indie rock’s freshest voices. The brainchild of Asbury Park-bred, and now South Philadelphia-based Avery Mandeville (whom Atwood Journal as soon as described as “ruthless, reckless, progressive, and grounded”), Little Hag is a dynamic, boundary-pushing “bitch rock” band with a defiant punk mentality.
Comprised of Mandeville along with Cara Introcaso, Matthew Fernicola, Owen Flanagan, and Mitchell Warren-Devlin, Little Hag started its life within the mid-2010s as Avery Mandeville & the Man-Devils; they in the end modified their title and signed to Bar/None Data in 2020, releasing two studio albums – 2020’s No matter Occurred to Avery Jane? and 2021’s Leash – in comparatively fast succession, all whereas gaining native and regional acclaim for his or her “infectious” stay reveals.
So far as the band’s title is worried, Mandeville explains that ‘Little Hag’ was one among many identities (properly, social media handles) she beforehand glided by; it simply so occurs that this one caught in actual life, too.
“I used to alter my Instagram deal with often in like 2016 to no matter struck me,” she says. “For some time it was @officialjoeyfatone, @officialbarbrastreisand, @officialdanitykane, and the like. Then it was @mrnicebutt and @nomoremrnicebutt. Ultimately I landed on @littlehag. I used to be out someday and somebody mentioned, ‘Are you little hag?’ and I assumed… you already know what? I’m Little Hag. I had been performing below my very own title on the time and wished to shift away from Avery Mandeville because the music grew to become extra rock band and fewer singer/songwriter.”
Atwood Journal beforehand premiered the Avery Mandeville single and music video “Get Actual!” in 2018, praising each the authenticity and pleasure of her artistry: “Mandeville brings a stage of readability, vulnerability, and ferocity to her indie rock songs that we haven’t seen or heard in years,” we wrote on the time.
These similar phrases ring true greater than six years later, as Mandeville and her Little Hag bandmates proceed to channel our innermost human experiences into highly effective, palpable moments of musical expression.
“I wrote nearly all of the document in January 2023 following a breakup,” Mandeville tells Atwood Journal. “I went right down to Durham with my greatest buddy Noah (touring drummer for Samia and Willow Avalon, solo artist as Wormy) to go to some mates with the aim of writing a music a day for the month we have been there. Seven of these made it on the document. I felt bizarre and misplaced at the moment, uncertain of the place I’d be residing and what the long run would maintain. So these emotions have been channeled by means of the trademarked Little Hag™ sarcasm and caustic humor.”
“My imaginative and prescient appears to by no means trump the bankroll or the deadline, or somewhat the deadline turns into the imaginative and prescient,” she provides. “I all the time must get issues executed as effectively as potential, in order that concerned making fast time on the songs we did as a full band within the studio and having mates produce the opposite songs from house or with out me. I’d write a music, ship the demo, and say, ‘do your factor.’ This grew to become the power of the document – a really numerous sounding assortment of songs that will not have existed on this kind with out the assistance of eight completely different producers at eight completely different studios.”
Mandeville cheekily describes Now That’s What I Name Little Hag as bitchy, enjoyable, and silly.
The album’s title, she says, is a direct nod to the beloved Now That’s What I Name Music compilation sequence. “I like the Now That’s What I Name Music CDs as a result of I grew up on them and have a small assortment of them,” she explains. “I’m a really nostalgic particular person. I assumed it could be humorous to current this batch of songs that approach and actually rip off the aesthetic. It was becoming as a result of there’s so many genres occurring on this document like punk, industrial, pop, hip-hop, dance, alt-country, and folks. So it’s actually a Little Hag sampler in the way in which the ‘Now’ information are.”
Whereas it might be house to a smorgasbord of musical kinds and influences, Now That’s What I Name Little Hag however feels just like the definitive Little Hag document, bringing Avery Mandeville’s unapologetic power and brutal vulnerability to the forefront on every of its 13 tracks.
“I feel the manufacturing remaining cohesive regardless of its sonic variety is a testomony to the power of the songwriting and my distinctive voice,” she displays. “These songs might be actually darkish but additionally actually humorous, and as all the time very uncooked. They’re a lot much less generically rock than our first document No matter Occurred to Avery Jane? and Leash, as I’ve grown and my palate has expanded.”
“There’s additionally lots of pent-up queer power right here that I didn’t know what to do with earlier than. That is undoubtedly my popping out document as a result of I had by no means written about queerness earlier than, no less than not deliberately. Like a straight lady couldn’t write ‘which one among you schlubs am I gonna wind up with’ about all males (on ‘Schlub’ from 2021’s Leash). However I had by no means confronted it head on in music as a result of I had by no means confronted it head on in life.”
The way in which that you just
The way in which that you just
I do know that you just
The way in which that you just
Y O U O Y O U blew it (oops!)
You blew it child you had all of it
I do know that’s why you’re upset
You blew it child you had all of it
I do know that’s why you’re being a prick
Highlights abound on the dramatic journey from Now That’s What I Name Little Hag’s album opener “The Machine” to nearer “Suck Out the Ache” as Little Hag invite listeners onto their musical and emotional rollercoaster. Standouts embrace the brooding, melancholy indie pop anthem “The Suburbs,” the raucous, feverish, and messy upheaval “Oops!,” the angst-fueled eruption “1000 Birds,” the sample-forward, jazz- and nostalgia-soaked reverie “All 3,” and the seductive sapphic love music, “King Cake.”
“I like the final two minutes of ‘Hell Sure.’ It’s big and you’ll not see it coming,” Mandeville says of her personal favourite moments. “I like Dana saying ‘I would like the web within the sky’ as a result of that’s the place we’ll all be going someday. I like ‘King Cake’ simply because it’s actually the one honest love music I’ve ever written, however I nonetheless by some means handle to make use of a phrase like ‘slaughter’ in it. I like ‘You Blew It!’ as a result of it’s so aggressively bitchy and the right ‘f-you’ music. However if you happen to pay attention to 1 Little Hag music, let it’s ‘Oops!’ please.”
As for favourite lyrics? There’s no less than one apparent reply: “I like ‘gasoline up my dildo and go f* myself’ on ‘The Machine,’” she smiles, “[as well as] ‘do my little dances, shake my little ass’ on ‘Oops!’ and ‘received’t any individual come fast and simply Everlasting Sunshine me?’ on ‘Suck Out the Ache.’ I like being silly. Music actually shouldn’t be severe; it’s the least severe factor an individual might do.”
1994 known as and mentioned
“Get up Avery,
Time to be a bitch
With excessive requirements and poor well being”
Opened up a can of worms
It tasted nasty
Blamed it on any individual else
Then felt unhealthy for myself
If I do my to-do listing
I’m allowed to be completely satisfied
Or simply shut my eyes
And put it again up on the shelf
I wished to really feel full
So I allow you to fill me
Let’s keep away from the world
And act like it will all go properly
I wished to really feel one thing
Oops! All nothing
Unserious although Mandeville could really feel at current, Now That’s What I Name Little Hag feels tailored to be right here for us all through life’s good and unhealthy moments. It’s a concurrently polished and uncooked document that hugs the ears and the guts, providing itself as each a comfy blanket and a cathartic cuddle buddy; a comforting musical companion able to soundtrack all these lengthy nights forward.
Regardless of the place they go and what they do, Little Hag stay unapologetic, unfiltered, and uncompromising – a calling card that’s, and can proceed to be, their biggest power as a gaggle.
“I hope folks really feel daring sufficient to say their ugly, boring emotions in addition to their ugly fascinating ones,” Mandeville shares. “It’s okay to behave f’ed up, to be f’ed up, and to f up. Life is artwork and also you’re residing it!”
“Additionally, be homosexual if you happen to can. It can repair all the pieces.”
Expertise the total document by way of our beneath stream, and peek inside Little Hag’s Now That’s What I Name Little Hag with Atwood Journal as Avery Mandeville goes track-by-track by means of the music and lyrics of her band’s third album!
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Stream: ‘Now That’s What I Name Little Hag’ – Little Hag
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The Machine
“The one factor I left behind once I moved out my my ex’s condominium was my vibrator charger. He threw it down from the balcony someday as I walked by after work so I didn’t have to come back upstairs. I felt lonely and bizarre and uncertain of the long run, consuming patty melts alone at Bond St. Bar in Asbury Park and questioning if it could ever be worthwhile to be with somebody once more. I felt like all I wanted was myself, my mates and my vibrator. That’s, till I met my girlfriend. I wrote the bridge after I met her on the sensation of the machine not as a alternative for love however a welcome addition. Producer Josh Perna (of King Leer and Saint Slumber,) inspired me to write down a bit that elevated the story and introduced it someplace else.”
Oops!
“Oops! is a music for bathing in your poisonous traits and being an agent of chaos. Textual content your ex, ghost somebody earlier than they grow to be your ex, have a look at your face till you want botox, submit a cry for assist, impulse purchase, eat sizzling chip and lie. I wished to have enjoyable and discover pleasure in all of the issues we’re purported to really feel ashamed about, some for good motive and others not a lot. Typically it’s enjoyable to be loud and messy and self obsessed and unhealthy. I ought to in all probability speak about this with my therapist. That is my favourite music to play stay as a result of we do it only a few BPM sooner and it feels actually punk and off the rails. In case you hearken to only one Little Hag music, let it’s Oops! The music video, directed by Mickey Mann, makes use of actual cameras, camcorders, telephones and an endoscopy digicam which add a lot texture to this actually chaotic world that Mickey creates.”
The Suburbs
“My mother all the time says ‘you’re not in heaven with God’ as a reminder to remain conscious of my environment. Nevertheless it feels just like the worst factor that might occur to me within the suburbs is demise by boredom. I felt this longing to get out of Jersey for the primary time, coupled with the equally paralyzing worry of change and beginning over someplace else. I couldn’t shake the imaginative and prescient of changing into a tragic outdated townie who complains as each place I ever liked closed down or modified dramatically. So now I’m a tragic displaced Asbury Park townie residing in Philadelphia, which looks like the perfect of each worlds. The suburbs will all the time be house, they usually’ll all the time be there for me, however now I don’t should get in my automotive each time I would like one thing from the shop.”
1000 Birds
“Thought this one up as I cleaned the bathrooms at The Saint in Asbury Park. Typically, Scott (the proprietor) would make you mop twice if you happen to didn’t actually get in there the primary time or left streaks. It was all the time humorous how a lot he cared in regards to the look of the place as a result of it was the epitome of a shitty little dive bar venue. It received me considering of the tens of restaurant and bar jobs that I’ve labored, and the way you actually shouldn’t be allowed out in society if you happen to’ve by no means lived that life. So it’s probably not about The Saint, or Scott, however the issues we do to outlive in capitalism, and the way pointless it feels to make artwork when your life is f*ing silly and a cliche and you haven’t any cash. I miss The Saint badly and would do something to wash these bogs yet another time. I labored the door and in addition performed the final present that ever occurred there, in December of 2022, which was pathetic in its townie approach but additionally sort of iconic. It was the primary place in Asbury that I ever performed. It felt like a bit signal that it was time to go.”
All 3
“What can I say! I’m a most cancers. I’m approach too nostalgic, particularly when triggered by the notion that anybody I’ve ever liked prior to now has survived with out me? Moved on, even? The world nonetheless turns? Actually what offers. This one was completely out of pocket about an outdated ex who had each proper to be residing their life. I simply couldn’t assist however get in my emotions and take into consideration us.”
You Blew It!
“Banger of the album award goes to You Blew It! I used to be pissed off (clearly) as a result of my ex was f*ing my buddy so I needed to dismiss him from his bass participant duties. I hoped we might nonetheless be in Little Hag collectively after we broke up however when I discovered that out it was all an excessive amount of. He texted me ‘I do know that you just’re making an enormous mistake, nevertheless it’s your mistake to make’ which was so pompous and delusional that it was truly iconic. What else is there to say however YOU blew it, buddy! It was so cathartic and enjoyable to name it out time and again with these repetitive, layered lyrics. By the point we received to the top vocal takes I used to be screaming in a approach I didn’t even know I might. I used to be impressed by New Physique Rhumba by LCD Soundsystem and Into The Void by 9 Inch Nails, and producer Joe Zorzi (of Trendy Chemistry) actually understood the task.”
Would It Kill You?
“Identical ex, completely different vibe. I felt let down by him so much all through our relationship, nevertheless it was actually encapsulated in a battle the place he mainly mentioned that he wouldn’t go to the ends of the earth to guard me if I wanted it. Not even hypothetically. He wouldn’t defend my honor a la Will Smith slapping Chris Rock, which is clearly when issues ought to’ve ended. I’d, with out query, go Will Smith Mode for the folks I like and if you happen to wouldn’t, you’re pathetic lol”
HHSTTHN
“Typically I’m only a rotisserie hen cooking on a spit of my 5 completely different emotions after which sitting below a warmth lamp in a plastic bag. Emotions are simply emotions, they’re not all the time logical or truth, so it’s silly however enjoyable to stew in them and take into consideration all the pieces unhealthy that’s ever occurred to you. Will I ever be liked? Was I hotter once I was 21? Am I sufficient? Is it okay to say ‘attractive’ 4 instances in a music? Will I ever get un-banned from Twitter? Sure, no, sure, sure and no.”
King Cake
“It’s loopy to write down your first sentimental, saccharine and honest love music at 28 (once you’ve been writing songs since 15). I feel that’s what falling in love with a girl can do for you. Or perhaps it’s simply that writing a love music for a person appears embarrassing? (The decision continues to be out if I’m bi or a lesbian, we’re engaged on it, however somebody please verify again in with me about it to replace this text in like 2-5 years. I’m positive by then we’ll have it sorted.) The vibe was impressed by Andromeda by Weyes Blood, the slide guitar and drama and plush panorama. Cara (vocals/keys) cried the complete time we recorded this as a result of she loves love too. It felt so good to fall in love with Emily, and she or he actually is surgically implanted in my mind just like the little child within the king cake. She has agreed to remain there for the foreseeable future and to be sincere if she ever tries to go away me we’re going to have an enormous drawback! Love is actual!”
Hell Sure
“It was that a part of COVID the place all of us wished extra authorities cash and fewer mind cells. I had this music in an enormous pile of ‘I don’t know what to do with this’ as a result of it was the primary pop/dance monitor I’d ever written, as a part of a COVID-era songwriting problem by my buddy Rick Barry. I introduced it to producer/multi instrumentalist Dana Why who imbued it with a few of our favourite influences on the time like Good-looking Furs. To be frank, he went completely apeshit with it. The guitar solo that ends in screams is one among my favourite moments on the document. Simply unabashedly enjoyable and completely distinctive.”
Hangin on a Factor
“Did I point out that I’m nostalgic? There was a degree the place I assumed an ex and I have been going to get again collectively, which felt so snug and secure. We have been hanging out once more for the primary time since we broke up and it was enjoyable indulging that feeling. I wished the facility again and a way of peace. So we went to the ballet and the bar nevertheless it all shook out the way it did earlier than, and I knew it could, or so I informed myself. I placed on a courageous face like I used to be over it, and sane, and I feel so did he, nevertheless it was all so way back now that I don’t bear in mind why I fell so onerous or cared a lot.”
God I’m So Annoying
“It’s bizarre to make a person’s mattress when you already know you already slept in it for the final time. I used to be so connected to my ex, maybe too connected, and felt like if I didn’t finish it proper then, stroll out the door and never come again, that I by no means would. It was heartbreaking to go away him as a result of I nonetheless liked him and maybe all the time will in a approach. He’ll all the time be the final man I ever liked. However I used to be additionally pissed off for his shortcomings. I felt annoying for being dramatic and having these large emotions (nevertheless it’s not annoying to solely settle for what you deserve and nothing much less.)”
Suck Out the Ache
“Suck Out The Ache was a type of songs that wrote itself in quarter-hour. I hummed the verse melody right into a voice memo (which in keeping with my cellphone was April twenty third, 2022) earlier than I had an idea for the music. I assumed it after which forgot it. Every week later I fell asleep watching Jersey Shore, the episode the place Snooki and Deena are wasted and making out for hours in Italy. I dreamed a couple of woman I used to have an enormous factor for taking place on me with 4 rows of tooth like a shark. It was sizzling and scary and once I awakened I used to be simply on the sofa in my boyfriend’s condominium. I feel this triggered a profound eager for “the earlier than instances” as a result of, although they have been enjoyable, I had additionally romanticized them past actuality. The reality was that I used to be bartending and ingesting an excessive amount of and residing at my mother’s home, and this temporary fling felt so magical and easy inside all that. I remembered the massive homosexual feeling of strolling to my automotive within the morning after the primary night time we kissed and feeling nearly manic, like God was actual and this was proof and He actually had my again. I’d have a look at photos of us on my cellphone and really feel unhappy that I’d by no means be homosexual once more (unfaithful), regardless of being actually completely satisfied in my relationship with a person on the time. So I feel it’s regular to desire a lobotomy generally from the issues that you just’ve blown out of proportion once they maintain you hostage. Or perhaps that’s simply being a Most cancers.”
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