Shady Nasty's 'AA' is a reality-blurring trip into mental health & tension

'AA' is the third single from Shady Nasty's forthcoming EP, 'Bad Posture,' out February 21st.

Sydney's Shady Nasty are set to have a mighty fine 2020. With an Australian trek happening later this month, seeing the group appear at Wollongong's Farmer & The Owl Festival, as well as hitting up New York's New Colossus festival and SXS in March to mark their first-ever international appearances, the only direction for this weird alternative Aussie three-piece is upward.

The trio's new EP, 'Bad Posture,' arriving February 21st via Royal Mountain Records and Inertia Music, has already had three of its dark, distorted jams released - 'Jewellery' way back in 2018, the terrifically vulnerable 'Get Buff' last year, and now 'AA' - with the EP's final song, '77SUNK,' yet to be released.

In a presser for their latest deep-dive into the topic of mental health, the band shared that 'AA' is about a "...band member speak to his declining mental health after a painful lung operation. Sinking untold hours into FPS and RPG video games during his recovery, his grip on reality begins to slip.”

Beginning with atonal guitar noises and galloping metal drums, the takes on a boomy, experimental mood, with harsh distortion, jagged rhythms and a lurching feel, making 'AA' an incredibly uncomfortable in sound and feel. Yet that's why it's so visceral. As it often suddenly thumps into full view with big crashes, skin-crawling guitars, and loud vocals, before retreating again under the cover of feedbacking guitars and grimy bass notes. Shady Nasty's music always sounds like overwhelming tension, like crushing anxiety, and like someone is only just getting by on a minimum wage life slowly eroded away at by big business ideals. 'AA' is no different; an arresting and interesting mixture of rap, post-rock, punk, noise-rock and experimental music.

Directed and shot by Harry Welsh and Luca Watson, the music video for 'AA' plays out like combination of a bad bender out in the city on a messy Saturday night, a reality-blurring nightmare of real-life and video games, and a How To Basic video with but with more crowbars and gloves and fewer eggs. It's a trip, one that may have been cheap-as-chips to make, but it helpfully plays up the nightmarish, dissociating distorted quality of the music and the lyrics. Experience it below: