Every week, the Milwaukee Music Premiere sponsored by Density Studios connects the city’s artists with our listening audience. If you’re an artist with a track you’d like us to debut exclusively on Radio Milwaukee, head over to our Music Submission page to learn how.
Don’t be fooled by that homage to the Scooby Gang in the image above. We’re not in spooky season quite yet, but Milwaukee alt-rock outfit Socially Suspect are getting us in the mood with Ghost Stories — their soon-to-drop debut EP that includes “Sideswept,” which makes its Milwaukee Music Premiere today.
The theme that unifies the song with its five fellow EP tracks isn’t scary in the least, although it does have a “back from the dead” flavor. As the band put it, “These are songs written in our parents’ basements in the early 2010s, songs that were rejected by other projects, songs that only ever existed as demos for short-lived bands.”
Well, they’re demos no more, and the full studio treatment serves “Sideswept” well. It’s a track that feels indebted to early ’90s alternative, with a propulsive rhythm and a general tone of … maybe not darkness, but definitely a few notches down on the dimmer switch:
Gotta hand it, tell you I can't stand it
When the whole world keeps on saying no
Try to trick ya, but they miss the picture
Sit beside me tell me everything you know
Waiting cold and bitter
Gem without the glitter
The band explained the sentiment in a very double-edged sword kind of way, saying that the song is about “coming to a new place in life and realizing there's more to the world than you previously knew, and the feelings of displacement that come with that.”
It’s almost asking you to question whether ignorance really is bliss as you listen to a truly ripping guitar solo. Maybe not the usual setting to wrestle with such things, but I can think of worse ways to ponder your place in the wider world.
Give it some thought as you listen to “Sideswept” on demand using the player at the top of the page or catching it on 88Nine throughout today (6:30 and 10:30 a.m.; 2:30 and 6:30 p.m.). The track will get its wide release along with the rest of Socially Suspect’s Ghost Stories EP later this week, an occasion the band will celebrate with a release show Saturday at Cactus Club.
