Brooklyn-based three-piece band Pespi released their sophomore album BLT on September 11th. What with their 2000s-2010s indie-mathy rock sound, tongue-in-cheek wordplay, and wacky song titles, Pespi is a band after mine own heart. While I don’t know these guys personally, their personalities ooze through their songs and I can tell they’re funny dudes and have great senses of humor. But the humor is just the ice breaker–as you dig deeper into their songwriting and lyrics, their genuine love for their craft becomes more apparent and their music becomes more endearing.
Made up of brothers Harrison Watters (vocals and guitar), Rob Falcone (bass), and Matt Falcone (drums), the band is self-described as “CT boys raised on Modest Mouse and Weezer who enjoy math rock, a good anime, and dancing.” All three members deliver, creating a full, cohesive sound–a power trio, if you will. They’re kind of like The Police if The Police didn’t make reggae rock but some wonderfully weird amalgamation of indie, math, Midwest emo, pop punk, and garage rock. Their sound is defined by the jangly guitar work, laden with tappy, twinkly leads, the absolutely grooving, riff-forward basslines, and the energetic, in-the-pocket drums–they’re super tight and their studio recordings heavily suggest that you should go see them live sometime. On top of their unique sonic signature, lyrically they revel in the grotesque, with lines like, “But what’s wrong with a little grime / Little darkness, little crime / Is the dumpster just another shrine? / Am I the bad guy this time?” Pespi sounds like if you were to mix Minus the Bear, American Football, and Band of Horses in a shaker still sticky from the night before and concoct a surprisingly delightful cocktail.
The album is bookended by the chill instrumental songs “bread1” and “bread2”–you know, kind of like how you’d prepare a BLT with two breads. If you listen to the album on repeat, the last song segues seamlessly into the first–we love an album that loops. Track 2, “Pespi_29,” picks up the pace with its in-your-face momentum and energy. The ear wormy basslines and sick drum fills will get your face stankin’. Watters belts, “And I wanted something to settle down / Grip-town, hovel, city / But I’ve got no urge to settle down / Stay out with you”–musing about being on the cusp of 30, at the crux of doing what you’re supposedly supposed to do and doing what you want to do, feeling the societal pressures increasingly weighing down on you in a dying world. Similarly, the next song “Chum” explores the theme of fear of commitment: “A quiet and precise ‘I don’t wanna’ / Cheerful for the night on the promise of love / And it happened overnight just like it always does / Buzzing pretty nice but I don’t wanna get stung / So I guess I’ll keep it trite if you wanna.” There’s this sense of relishing in the limbo between major life decisions and in not taking things too seriously. In track 4, “Sorry Charlie,” Watters sings, “And I’m holding / Only a piece of the real thing / But believe me, baby, the grease gets greener / On the other side.” Parodying clichés is not only great for a good chuckle but it also makes us question what has somehow become so commonplace. The grass is greener on the other side of what? Let’s face it, our lives didn’t necessarily pan out like we thought they would when we were younger. We live in a goddamn wasteland–it turns out the grease does get greener, but hey, we have to get our kicks in while we can.
It’s hard to say, but track 5, “Stink,” might be my favorite song on the album. These lines stuck with me: “I’m loving all wrong / With inked palms / And now / I’m stinking of gin / Stinking of sadness and bad information and / Oozing whim / I wish I was stinking of you / So what, get lost / And waste my heart / And ooo you say you love the ugly parts / Now I can’t tell us apart / My, my god.” This is what a love song looks like in the hellscape that is 2026, people–take notes. Oh, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the killer breakdown at the 2:48 mark that, if you love music and water and all the good things in this life, will make you say, “Oh, hell yeah!” The band keeps the frenetic energy going with their fastest song on the album, “Seasoning.” Watters ruminates, “The future’s looking pretty bleak / But at least we’ve got fear / Don’t thank the lord / You got this way all on your own / That’s the seasoning / Hope that you mean it when / You say I’ll see you around.” The world might be ending, but at least we’ve got each other, am I right? It’s this attitude of, “Shit is fucked, but let’s make the best of it,” that makes me love this band. Some other notable mentions throughout the album are the irrefutably catchy hooks in “The Face”; this metaphor in “Down in the Dumps”: “My big clay heart can take the shape of anyone / But it beats too loud / And I drown in its echo”; and this simile in “Fool”: “And you shine like a crisp, clean coin / And get tossed.” Their unconventional lyrics provoke refreshingly unconventional thoughts, while their familiar-yet-unique sound will get your head bopping and body grooving in ways you never thought they would or could.
As I was checking out the band and their new album, I kept thinking, “Are they fucking with me?” It felt as if Nathan Fielder were a band. So I had to reach out and verify whether or not the trolling was intentional. I mean, their Bandcamp page has bright blue text against a bright red background–a notorious graphic design faux pas that makes it feel like your eyes are bleeding–plus, the album’s release date… Given their band name and other comical hints in their presentation, I thought, “These are not accidents,” which makes it all the more hilarious. In response to my inquiry, Watters wrote, “For Pespi, the music, lyrics, themes and subject matter of the songs are all completely honest and very real. There are other aspects of the project that we allow ourselves to take less seriously (the names ‘Pespi’ and ‘BLT‘ definitely make us laugh) but that doesn’t mean there’s not more to it. Many today feel there’s little left to give besides a despondent joke of semi-parody as similarly named mega-conglomerates swallow the world whole.” As a guy who’s in a band called Grampfather with such songs as “Jimmy Buffet (The Vampire Slayer),” “Hot Dog Beach,” and “Eat Shit and Die,” I can relate to writing songs that have ridiculous titles but with sincere lyrics. Humor can be used as a Trojan horse–in other words, the shits and gigs are but the ploys we employ to get into listeners’ ears and ultimately–hopefully–their hearts and minds. So go ahead, let ’em in and chew on Pespi’s BLT a bit.
Pespi’s streaming and social links:
Buy the album on Bandcamp
-Review written by James Kwapisz
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