On their new album Wild Life,  Light Beams paint a surreal portrait of a world filtered through front person Justin Moyer’s recent experiences as a protest reporter (and a member of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team that covered the Jan. 6 attack on the United States Capitol). The shadow of the attack looms large over the record as the quintet acutely distills nine songs into a twenty-five-minute package that voyages through insurrection deep into the bittersweet heart of 21st-century America.

From their self-titled debut album through 2020’s Self Help, Light Beams have eschewed traditional melody instruments in favor of Moyer’s minimalist samplers and vocals, Sam Lavine’s drumming and Arthur Noll’s basslines. On Wild Life, they expand this palette with the addition of Leah Gage (vocals, rototoms) and Erin McCarley (vocals, timbales, samples). The result: bigger sounds, bigger themes, and a bigger canvas. 

This is a split release between Dischord and Mud Memory Records.

In January 1983, Minor Threat went into Inner Ear Studio for the first time as a five-piece (Brian Baker had moved from bass to second guitar and Steve Hansgen was now playing bass). They had six new songs that would end up being the center piece of what became the Out of Step 12" EP.  The band had also decided to re-record the song "Out of Step" with some extra language to try to clarify the lyrics, as well as "Cashing In", a tongue-in-cheek song about the DC punk scene which they had only played live once.  After much debate, "Cashing In" was added as a hidden track on the original vinyl release though not listed on the cover or label. There was still blank tape on the reel, so they decided to record an instrumental with the working title, "Addams Family" and then recorded new versions of "In My Eyes" and "Filler" to hear what they sounded like with two guitars. "Addams Family" ended up being used as a coda to "Cashing In", but the other two songs were never mixed and largely forgotten for over 35 years until the multitrack tapes were taken into the studio to be digitized in 2021. Surprised by the discovery, Ian and Don Zientara mixed the two songs along with the complete take of "Addams Family". These outtakes are now released on a 7" to mark the 40th anniversary of the release of Out of Step. The 7" of these outtakes is available now for ORDER.