Old Joy - Trash Your Life (2021)

This is a "scum-pop" record that we started back in January of 2017. We wanted to make something that sounded like it could have been on the radio in 1994, that you would only hear one time (due to having bad label support) while driving 2 hours from Chicago to Indianapolis to visit a girlfriend who had been cheating on you for several months only to be broken up with once you got down there and had to spend the weekend in some dingy motel six watching a "Naked Gun" marathon on early cable. The trip was a bust, but you heard the coolest song on college radio and as soon as you get back to your trash apartment (that's still super affordable because its 1994) you run to the nearest record store to try to find the single, but can't, because the band had bad label support and no distribution deal.

Sonically we were influenced primarily by The Jesus & Mary Chain, Teenage Fanclub, Elliott Smith, Paul Westerberg & the Replacements, T-Rex and Fountains of Wayne for this record. The songs are all about relationships, be they friendships or romantic, and changing expectations as you get older, with the final thesis being "don't be afraid to make mistakes. You only get one life, but that should make you feel free, rather than trapped. Be reckless with your joy."