Dazy & Militarie Gun – “Pressure Cooker”

You know that feeling when you hear a song for the first time and you know, right away, that you’re about to utterly run it into the ground? That you’re going to play this thing so often that your friends and family will either grow to love or despise the song? That initial endorphin-flood feeling when you realize that this song is about to become part of your life for a long time? I’m feeling that right now with “Pressure Cooker,” the new standalone single from the first-time team of Dazy and Militarie Gun. This song is a fucking banger.

Both Dazy and Militarie Gun are relatively new projects that started during the pandemic. Dazy is James Goodson, a punk from Richmond who started recording his own fuzzed-out lo-fi power-pop tracks in 2020. Goodson posted those songs on Bandcamp as two-song singles or EPs, and the tracks were all solid gold. Goodson works as a music publicist, but he did nothing to promote his own project; I had to email him like “dude, his this you?” Still, last year, Dazy grew to the point where Goodson released the complete-discography cassette MAXIMUMBLASTSUPERLOUD: The First 24 Songs last year. There’s not a single skip on that entire thing.

As a music publicist, one of Goodson’s clients is Militarie Gun, the LA-based band that Regional Justice Center’s Ian Shelton launched as a solo project in 2020. Militarie Gun became a full band that also features members of Drug Church and Modern Color, and we made them a Band To Watch last year. The band’s style is a heavy churn that’s a whole lot more melodic than the blindingly fierce Regional Justice Center; it’s soaringly hooky alt-rock as played by hardcore guys who can’t help but sound hardcore. Thus far, Militarie Gun have released three EPs, and all of them rule. Great band.

Look: I’m rooting for both of these bands. I know both James and Ian a little bit, and I’ve hung out with both of them before. I’d be excited to tell you about “Pressure Cooker” even if the song sucked, but I can assure you that the song does not suck. It’s a charged-up rocker with a towering hook, and those two singers sound awesome alongside one another. Dazy and Militarie Gun wrote “Pressure Cooker” together. It probably sounds more like a Dazy song than a Militarie Gun one, but it’s very cool to hear a Dazy track with the force of a band like Militarie Gun playing behind Goodson. “Pressure Cooker” also has a fun video from director Audri Kenley; check it out below.

“Pressure Cooker” is out now on Very Loud Sounds, and you can get the single at Bandcamp.