Old Joy faces a reckoning on “Gut Shot”
Photo Credit: Vanessa Valadez
Austin-based scum pop act Old Joy, the solo project of songwriter Alex Reindl is back with a new single “Gut Shot”. The song is taken from Old Joy’s upcoming album Why Burn Bridges You Can Live Under, which is set for a fall release.
Before moving to Austin, Reindl spent years in Chicago playing in bands like Sonny Falls and Dogs at Large. Before leaving for Austin, Reindl recorded the new album at Jamdek with collaborators Doug Malone (NE-HI, Glyders) and Keifer Douglas (Chaepter, Sick Day).
The song traces the steps of a couple who see the world through haze-covered glasses, opting to hold on to hope in spite of their own doomed actions. "I wrote this song a long time ago at this point, probably 2014,” says Reindl. “I was a junkie, I was dating a junkie, we had these kind of ridiculous dreams about having a life together, ‘we will buy a house, have kids, love each other forever,’ that kind of thing. The kind of delusional shit that only makes sense when two people are too high to think clearly. So the song is kind of about that, a doomed relationship based on fantasy, bleeding out slowly, shot by something you “didn’t see” coming, even though it was right there in your face the whole time.”
“Gut Shot” puts the troubled couple at the center of an upbeat power pop song. The two voice harmony emphasizes their optimism, making the case that everything will turn out great. Reality always wins, however, and it could be painful. “You know being gut shot was the thing soldiers feared most of all,” Reindl explains, “it takes about 20 minutes to die after being shot in the stomach, it’s the most horrific shit ever.”
The lesson here: ignorance is bliss - until it shoots you in the stomach.
Why Burn Bridges You Can Live Under is out this fall via Candlepin Records. Follow Old Joy on Instagram.
Austin scum pop act Old Joy returns with "Gut Shot," a deceptively upbeat power pop single about a doomed relationship built on delusion. Taken from the upcoming album Why Burn Bridges You Can Live Under, the song pairs two-voice harmonies with a gut punch of a reality check. Listen now before it’s official release.