Track Premiere: Negative Blast – “Egghead”

Photo by Becky DiGiglio

One of the greatest things about punk rock is how slippery it is when it comes to nailing down some sort of musical definition. The attitude is a little more easily ascribed, but, man, one generation’s “punk” is another’s classic rock. So, when we encounter a band like San Diego’s Negative Blast in 2023 that has a punk rock pedigree and a name that exudes punk cred, yet draws from both ’60s garage rock and sludgy noise to create a hip-shaker of tune, we’re over the moon. “Egghead” is as punk as it gets, but it’s probably not gonna incite a violent circle pit. Unless people are aggressively doing the Twist, or something.

The quartet—Pat Callaway (bass), Alex Jacobelli (guitar), Rainier Pesebre (vocals), Mario Rubalcaba (drums)—descends from hardcore lineage (Lewd Acts, Hour of the Wolf, OFF!, etc.) yet on “Egghead” they use their combined talents for something even more interesting and timeless. Unlike a lot of hardcore that you can pretty much date to a year, Negative Blast’s groovy gnarl could be from any number of different decades.

The track is the latest single from the band’s upcoming debut, Echo Planet, which was engineered and mixed by Jacobelli at Sunsick Studios and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege. It’s set for release on colored vinyl and digitally via Quiet Panic Records on February 10. You can place your preorder here. The band will also be doing a record release show in San Diego.

Feb 9:  The Casbah, San Diego, CA w/ Unsane, Deaf Club

Here’s what vocalist Rain had to say about the track:

“Egghead is a grooving heavy hitter of a song that pays a nod to ’60s garage like the Kinks as well as ’70s punk staples, and a general ‘fuck off’ to the haters, the critics, and figures in life who seem to know us better than we know ourselves. I imagined I was a rat wearing a leather jacket wading through slummed out alleyways and sneering at grandmas while writing the lyrics to this one. When we get flak back from people we don’t want to hear it from, the walls go up and we just don’t give a fuck anymore. Sometimes the feeling of walking on an asshole’s head is much more satisfying than walking on eggshells around them all day.”