London’s Indie Rock rising star Oscar has released the title track from his upcoming EP “Antidote To Being Bored,’ which is due to be released on the 4th of December. The EP is available to pre-order on white vinyl for £9.99 from the Dirty Hit online store. The song, which premiered on streaming platforms 2nd of November, is described by Lang as ‘an absolute blow the roof off stadium rock banger,’ NME reports.
This is an unusual description for an Indie Rock artist to give to their work, which is more informed by Ty Segall and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard than by Coldplay or U2. However, though it may not fill stadiums the track is certainly worthy of garage rock pedigree and would not sound out of play on either of their albums. The EP is set to feature five tracks in total, beginning with ‘Antidote To Being Bored,‘ then following with ‘That Wasn’t What I Said,‘ ‘Pretty Princess,’ ‘Red Cherry Chapstick,’ and finally ‘Something Has Changed.’
It has definitely been a little while since Indie Rock sounded this heavy. Compared to the likes of Declan Mckenna, Lang is practically a heavy rocker, with fuzz pedals and distorted vocals about this is clearly looking back to when rock wasn’t afraid to show its rough edges and before the hyper-clean sound of The 1975 and similar funk-inspired bands who are talented in their own right but lack some of the rough edges that make artists like Ty Segall so captivating.
It is interesting to hear NME also mention ‘King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard,’ as informing the sound, the band have recently released their latest track ‘Automation,’ for free along with all the stem files and video files for fans to make their own remixes and videos completely for free. This type of direct-to-fan approach is likely to be of some inspiration for Oscar Lang and the accessible DIY punk garage ethics of affordable and quirky marketing are not lost on him, his EP is being released on vinyl at a price which most people will actually be able to affordable to the majority of people.
The track will have received something of a boost into the mainstream market today when it was played by Jack Saunders on Radio 1 at 10pm. It is always a pleasure and an inspiration to see indie and alternative acts receiving some airplay on Britains premier radio station, allowing them to compete more fairly with some of the more mainstream acts. Unfortunately for fans of London’s answer to Ty Segall, we are not likely to see any live music for at least the next mont and he has not announced any dates for next year as of yet.
According to NME, the last time Lang performed in the UK was in December 2019 before the country’s first lockdown. Now with the UK heading into its second national lockdown for at least the next four weeks, fans well be looking back on December last year and hoping that this year’s December will see at least some music.
