Seattle’s Chastity Belt and Austin’s Holy Wave split a dreamy 7-inch for Suicide Squeeze Records out Feb 7.
Chastity Belt’s offering, ‘That Guy’, out now, rings with the band’s signature laid-back-yet-precise style. Jangly, intricate guitarwork plays off easy rhythms; an upbeat tranquility buoys wistful riffs. The lyrics are honest and introspective as Julia Shapiro admits to being “that kind of guy”—the type who just wants to feel alive, despite the pull of screentime, and the tendency to hold onto something until the life has been sucked out of it. “Maybe quitting is okay, but I don’t like giving things away,” she sings, backed by warm vocal harmonies. “I’d rather hold on for too long, until all the feeling’s gone.”
On the track, Julia Shapiro of Chastity Belt offered “We recorded this song in LA in November 2022 with a bunch of other songs that ended up on Live Laugh Love. It didn’t quite make the cut, but I’m excited to release it now! I really love Lydia’s meandering lead guitar line. I remember her having so many different ideas of what she could do, and we were like, do them all! I wrote the lyrics after Chastity Belt had just come back from doing a bunch of touring, and I had to go back to normal life. It’s always a rough transition for me. I feel so alive on tour! There’s this one line in the song about this habit I have with music where, when I find a new song that I love, I listen to it on repeat until it no longer makes me feel anything. Like I’ve drained all the blood from it.”