One of Brooklyn’s busiest punk bands shares the lead single off their debut album.
Brooklyn post-punk favorites Groupie have spent the past few years grinding their teeth across pretty much all of the borough’s DIY venues from shuttered haunts like the Silent Barn, Brooklyn Bazaar, and Sunnyvale to bars and clubs like Saint Vitus, Alphaville, and Our Wicked Lady. Along the way they’ve shared bills with locals Pom Pom Squad, THICK, Painted Zeros, and plenty of others.
Two years ago the band celebrated the release of their sophomore EP, Validated, over at Union Pool with Shybaby, True Dreams, and TASHA. Now Groupie is gearing up to release their debut LP, Ephemeral, later this summer, with the scuzzy lead single “Half Wave” premiering today via AdHoc.
“I wanted to make light of the detritus of a bad relationship by writing a fun, danceable song with tongue-in-cheek commentary about unrealistic standards in dating,” vocalist / bassist Ashley Kossakowski tells AdHoc over email. “The dude didn’t even know how to boil water or cook an egg before he met me,” she says of the person who inspired the song.
Kossakowski’s lyrics speak to that sense of exasperation, but she delivers them in playful, punchy melodies. “We’re all chasing happiness / It’s all so fleeting / Give up on perfection,” she snarls before pivoting to a surfy outro: “I’d like to think I don’t need nobody / And I’d like to think I could have some standards / But here we go, riding this wave again.”
Groupie formed in 2015 after Kossakowski met guitarist Johanna Healy on Craigslist. Now the band is rounded out by guitarist Eamon Lebow and drummer Aaron Silberstein, with Hunter Davidsohn providing backing vocals on “Half Wave.” Their debut LP comes as a follow-up to two breakout EPs—2018’s Validated and 2017’s self-titled—both of which showed Groupie to be spunky, guitar- and bass-wielding executioners of politically-minded post-punk in the vein of fellow Brooklyn punks Grim Streaker or Surfbort.
“Ephemeral is a ten-track introspection on the transience of life—specifically memories and heroes,” says Healy of the LP. “We explore this theme through warm yet dissonant tones and energetic, impassioned vocals.” You can scope those tones and vocals on “Half Wave” below.
Ephemeral (self released) is out this summer.