Chipper Bones, the Savannah-based project of former Charleston resident Kyle Brown (who also runs Dog Days Presents booking and promotion), dropped a new single, “Let It Ride,” on Friday. The track is the artist’s most recent release since the 2020 EP Freer Mind.
“Let It Ride,” with its over seven minutes of joyous noise, will feel like a breath of fresh air to anybody who’s tired of formulaic, predictable, overly-polished tunes.
According to Chipper Bones’ Instagram post, it’s “a song about nihilism and giving into your alcoholic tendencies and saying “fuck it.”
This spirit shines through in the beautiful chaos that is the track. There’s a big bass line, and the vocals repeat “It was the end of times / It was a good time” with all-consuming reverberation.
About halfway through the song, the tempo shifts to focus mostly on the bass line and one long note, ringing in your ear like tinnitus. Then the guitar comes in and pulls a captivating riff.
The vocals in this portion are lower and clearer, with lines like “But I don’t want to talk today / Cause I just can’t.”
You can sense references to classic punk and even new wave rock, but repackaged in this sort of collage of sound, it feels new.
At the end of the song, the instruments play off one another again, ultimately burning out in an explosion of drumming and strumming, an eruption of noise.
“Let It Ride” is the first preview of what we’re getting from the new Chipper Bones album, You Know What I Mean, which is slated for release on May 23rd.