Underground L.A. group Hit Bargain are bringing about the birth of a new genre which is being called "queencore," right at the intersection of queer and hardcore communities—plus a dose of queening, which is an act that involves a woman sitting on her subservient's face. But Hit Bargain's Nora Singh has taken the typical "queening" and transformed it into her own thing: most of Hit Bargain's live shows are spent with Singh standing on men's faces. It's a whole new kind of feminism in music.
While "The Circuits That Cannot Be Cut," the first track from the band's debut, self-titled, self-released EP, is a "reimagining of the major motion picture, Die Hard, disguised as wry social commentary on gun and police violence," "Song For Fainting" is literally a story about witnessing someone pass out on the street. But the point of view of the tale switches between the fainter and the viewer—Down, down, I fell down, Singh chants, and then, He rises from the blood on the asphalt. I'm fully down with any band who can turn a simple story like this one into both an ode to a city and a rallying anthem.
"The song was inspired by a time when Mike passed out in the street outside a Szechuan restaurant in the San Gabriel Valley, hitting his head and ending up in the ER," the band told The FADER in an email. "Anna was inspired to write lyrics based upon the experience, but the perspective shifts back and forth between the fainter (Mike), and a passerby on a bicycle who discovered the fainter—a sort-of existential Los Angeles love story in the making."
Stream "Song For Fainting" below. Hit Bargain will be out March 25.
Track List:
1. The Circuits That Cannot Be Cut
2. Song For Fainting
3. Cheap Death
4. Major System
5. No Body
6. Queening
Tour Dates:
3/11 - San Diego, CA @ San Diego Art Institute
3/19 - Los Angeles, CA @ TBD
3/21 - Reno, NV @ Holland Project
3/23 - Portland, OR @ Anarres Infoshop and Community Space
3/24 - Seattle, WA @ The Vera Project
3/25 - Eugene, OR @ The Boreal
3/26 - Oakland, CA @ The Purple House
3/27 - Pomona, CA @ dA
Album Art: Vashti Windish