Rising emo bands Kerosene Heights and Swiss Army Wife are both already having great years, and now they’ve come together for a split EP with two new songs from each band. It follows Kerosene Heights’ recent EP Leaving and Swiss Army Wife’s three-way split The Ultimate Emo Album (with Avec Plaisir and Celebration Guns) from earlier this year. It officially comes out on Friday (11/1), but a full stream premieres in this post.
The two Swiss Army Wife songs show off much different sides of their sound–“Idaho” is a yelpy, melodic, ’90s-style emo song, while “Mosquito” fuses screamo shouts with twinkle guitars–but there’s a thematic through-line that ties them together. The Kerosene Heights side finds them continuing to sound bigger, cleaner, and more anthemic than ever; they’re on a trajectory that kinda reminds me of the jump You Blew It! made between Grow Up, Dude and Keep Doing What You’re Doing, and they sound as fresh in 2024 as that band did ten years ago. Here’s what Swiss Army Wife and Kerosene Heights tell us about the split:
Both [Swiss Army Wife’s] “Idaho” and “Mosquito” deal with unsustainable cycles repeating until they hit their inevitable breaking points; at the community level in “Idaho” or in the individual in “Mosquito.”
Set against the aftermath of a disastrous blizzard, “Idaho” speaks to the difficulty of accepting the increasing hostility of “home” as the cycles of poverty and reactionary politics that saturate rural America render it unrecognizable, while simultaneously grappling with the comfort in found in the familiarity of growing up within it.
“Mosquito” turns the narrative towards coping strategies used to help deal with these pressures by examining the dysfunction often present in survival strategies born of necessity. The track flits through a blitz of substance abuse and self destruction to finally explore a brief fallout when these strategies fail.
The Kerosene Heights side of the split deals with isolation and the struggle to make and maintain meaningful relationships in adulthood (“All Your Friends”) and taking chances to find fulfillment and happiness (“Salvador Dolly Parton”). The second track features additional vocals and guitar from Cameron Harrison of emo country gaze band, Farseek. Both songs were recorded by Cameron Harrison and mixed by Billy Mannino at Two Worlds Studios in NYC. This is our attempt to elevate our sound, sonically, with a more modern/polished approach, while maintaining the grit that is essential to what we do.
Kerosene Heights are on tour now with Teenage Halloween and Teens In Trouble and they have a few dates left: Durham tonight (10/31), Charlotte on Friday (11/1), and Roanoke on Saturday (11/2). Tickets here.
Swiss Army Wife have two upcoming shows in their hometown of Portland, OR: a fundraiser for the New Seasons Labor Union at Commonwealth Skatepark on November 9 with How Strange It Is and Mealworm (Colleen Dow of Thank You, I’m Sorry); and the Portland stop of Swedish screamo band 44.caliberloveletter’s tour on November 27 at Bridge City Sessions with fellow Swedes Yamcha and Portland locals Hound.
Stream the new split and find flyers for both bands’ upcoming shows below…
