MR.PHYLZZZ - Fear the Lord

MR.PHYLZZZ: Amphetamine Reptile to release new album "Fear the Lord"; new single streaming now; US tour in September

From Chicago, Illinois, the duo known as mr.phylzzz has revealed its newest single, "Emma Draws a Dog." The song will appear on the band's upcoming album, Fear the Lord, coming September 4th on Amphetamine Reptile Records.

Stream "Emma Draws a Dog" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rhJtKjXJ1Q

Formed in 2015 and signed by Amphetamine Reptile founder Tom Hazelmyer in 2019, mr.phylzzz has the distinction of being one of the only active bands on the legendary label's current roster, alongside The Melvins. Clad in cheap suits, vocalist/guitarist Clinton Jacob and drummer Danny Sein deliver an irreverent take on noise rock, lacing their songs with epic hooks and dark humor. Playful and theatrical in a way that most bands would not dare, this pair thrives on the subversion of all expectations. 

Fear the Lord opens with piano and falsetto, setting a wistful, classic rock tone for two minutes before devolving into detuned chaos. Track 2, "Build to Nothing," is a stadium-sized call-to-arms, built on an earthquaking drum beat and Jacob's soaring vocals. New single, "Emma Draws a Dog," an infectious banger propelled by a bouncing riff and rhythmic wordplay, might be mistaken for a merrier Rage Against The Machine.

A reflection on menial jobs and odious coworkers, "Emma Draws a Dog" is a song about the triumph of creativity in the face of oppressive circumstances. It is arguably one of the catchiest songs to ever bear the AmRep logo.

"I think the best thing about mr.phylzzz is the fact that there are zero rules," states Jacob. "We write what seems cool to us and we disregard genre. Sometimes it's metal, sometimes it's pop, sometimes it's acoustic. The important thing is that it's fun for us. If it makes me laugh, I'll probably explore it. Thats what I love about this band, nothing is off the table."

Even the head-scratcher of a band name is intended to challenge the audience and amuse the band – contrary to the spelling, the correct pronunciation is reportedly "Mr. Flies." Jacob describes it as a test to filter out the truly dedicated fans: "I say it wrong on purpose and spell it wrong on purpose because if someone does find us, they really must like us to go through all that. Nothing good should be easy!”

Given the band's penchant for humor, it is no surprise to discover that Jacob spent time in the standup comedy scene and that he derives as much inspiration from comedians as from musicians. "Andy Kaufman and Doug Stanhope are big influences for me. Kaufman for me is where the antics come from, from me thinking 'what if Kaufman was in a band?'. I think humor is so important and we need more of it. I worked in comedy clubs for a long time and was highly influenced by how standups will grind something down till its perfect. It really inspired me as a musician and changed my perspective of playing. I can treat shows as open mics and test songs just like comics test material. Gauge the response and cut the fat."

The freedom with which mr.phylzzz operates is refreshing and it might be attributed in part to the fact that there are only two members. Like a speedboat outmaneuvering an ocean liner, a duo can shift gears and change course with greater speed and ease than, say, a quintet. Drummer Danny Sein elaborates: "There’s something to be said about the special musical bond a two-piece shares. After you’ve been playing with one person for so long, it almost feels like you are one unit. Also, I feel like in a band the chemistry is always best when you can tell the people on stage are real friends. Clinton is my best friend. Everything is easier as a two-piece: songwriting, decisions, scheduling, finances. As soon as you get more people involved, things drag."

Truly unfettered, mr.phylzzz is right at home on AmRep, the label that nurtured the careers of outliers such as Helmet, Today Is The Day, The Cows, and the aforementioned Melvins, and came to define an entire sub-genre of iconoclastic music.

"I love AmRep and Tom," says Jacob. "Tom found the band on Facebook because I would constantly be making these crazy videos of the band playing these insane places and having the cops called on us for noise. One day I got a call from Tom and the rest is history! We've been working together now for 10 years and he's been a huge supporter of what we do."

Upcoming new album, Fear the Lord, is mr.phylzzz's fourth release for AmRep. Apropos of the album title, the majority of the songs were recorded in a church in rural Wisconsin. "We recorded the bulk of the album in a beautiful church in the middle of nowhere," recounts Jacob. "A huge Victorian-style cathedral. We just set up our gear amongst the pews and on the stage. The place was absolutely not meant for recording but we made it work."

"I am not religious," he clarifies. "I find religion, and the way people will take a book and twist it for their own gain, fascinating. I think more then ever I'm seeing people use 'that's my religion' as a way to cover for their shitty behavior and as an avid reader I can say without a shadow of doubt that God is definitely up there going 'yo, those people aren't with me, my original recipe for the human race must have been misplaced.'”

Having toured in the recent past with the likes of The Melvins, Boris, and fellow duo Venus Twins, mr.phylzzz will hit the road for an extensive headlining tour of the US in September to celebrate the release of Fear the Lord. Expect the unexpected!

Tour:

Sep 3 - Kalamazoo, MI @ The Run Off
Sep 4 - Detroit, MI @ Paris Bar
Sep 5 - Canton, OH @ The Auricle
Sep 6 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Roboto Project
Sep 7 - Rochester, NY @ Bug Jar
Sep 8 - Troy, NY @ No Fun
Sep 9 - Somerville, MA @ The Rockwell
Sep 10 - Brooklyn, NY @ Lucky 13
Sep 11 - Philadelphia, PA @ Love City Brewing
Sep 13 - Raleigh, NC @ Neptunes Parlor
Sep 14 - Asheville, NC @ Grey Eagle Taqueria

Sep 15 - Chattanooga, TN @ JJ's Bohemia
Sep 16 - Birmingham, AL @ The Nick
Sep 17 - Nashville, TN @ The Cobra
Sep 18 - Little Rock, AR @ Whitewater Tavern
Sep 19 - Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves
Sep 20 - San Antonio, TX @ The Lonesome Rose
Sep 21 - Austin, TX @ Crow Bar
Sep 22 - Oklahoma City, OK @ 89th Street
Sep 23 - Tulsa, OK @ The Whittier Bar
Sep 24 - Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive
Sep 26 - Omaha, NE @ Reverb Lounge
Sep 27 - Dubuque, IA @ The Lift

Sep 28 - Chicago, IL @ Casa Cafe

Tracklist:

1) A Plea
2) Build to Nothing
3) Switch Bitch
4) Emma Draws a Dog
5) Over and Over Again
6) Rodeo Clown

Lineup:

Clinton Jacob - guitar, vocals
Danny Sein - drums

Production:

Tracks 1, 2, 3, 4:
Recorded by Evan Douglas Peters at an undisclosed church in rural Wisconsin
Mixed and mastered by Evan Douglas Peters

Tracks 5, 6:
Recorded and mixed by Taylor Hayes at Electrical Audio
Mastered by Greg Obis

Photos by Madison Rease

Cover art by HAZE XXL

Discography:

Fear the Lord (2026, Amphetamine Reptile)
Fat Chance (2023, Amphetamine Reptile)
Cancel Culture Club (2022, Amphetamine Reptile)
Penitent Curtis (2019, Amphetamine Reptile)

CHAINLINKS 068: Kilter

Chainlinks is a series we started back in 2017 to give our friends a space to share the stuff currently inspiring them — music, film, books, or anything else they wanted to recommend to the world.

For Chainlinks 068, we have Laurent David, founder and bassist of Kilter. Based in Paris and New York, Kilter’s highly experimental music exists in a space between John Coltrane, Sunn O))), and Meshuggah. The new album, Ten Billion Years, is a musical rendering of nothing less than the birth and death of our solar system. Using bass, drums, and sax, Kilter trace the journey of one water droplet as it travels and transforms through space and time. Inspired in part by John Cage’s explorations in time-stretching, the trio’s process was to record 10 minutes of music, slow it down to 25% of its original speed, then recreate the pieces from scratch at the new, glacial tempo – a process of reinterpretation and rediscovery they liken to the way in which entire new worlds are revealed when looking through a microscope.

A review in the new issue of August 2026 issue of The Wire Magazine states: "The music seems to suspend time, hovering in place like a black cloud ... a sustained low growl, halfway between jazz and noise rock or arty doom ... the roaring power of Melvins, if Buzz Osborne was a saxophonist."

1) Becoming a Listener Again

Even though I’ve always loved listening to music, somewhere along the way I developed the habit of listening like a producer: analyzing sounds, production choices, compositional systems and arrangements. After finishing a major project, I try to let go of that mindset for a while and simply become a listener again, whatever the style of music.

Last fall, I spent weeks listening to hundreds of new releases. Some of them stayed with me—not because I admired the craftsmanship, but because I genuinely wanted to hear them again. That’s a very different feeling. Here are three of them.

Caroline – Total Euphoria

Exactly the kind of song that reminds me how important time is—and how differently we perceive it depending on our musical references. The constant shifts between moments of acceleration and deceleration fascinate me. They challenge the way we experience musical time while remaining surprisingly emotional.

Laura Marling – What He Wrote

This is pure emotion to me—but never sentimentality. You can feel how strong and deep Laura Marling is as a singer. It feels as if the song comes from a place we don’t rationally understand, but instantly recognize.

Duke Dumont

Even though I’ve always considered myself an open-minded metalhead, electronic music has always interested me. Especially old-school house music from the ‘90s. I can hear that influence very clearly in Duke Dumont’s music, and it’s good to hear.

2) Walking Alone / Philosophy

I enjoy spending time alone, walking for hours while listening to philosophers. I think many people look for answers by trying to fix what’s wrong with them. Philosophy doesn’t necessarily provide answers, but it constantly offers new perspectives. Seeing how different thinkers have approached the same questions throughout history is full of lessons. It changes the way I think about society, human nature, and the role artistic creation can play.

I often find these ideas reflected in music. Meshuggah makes me think about the complexity of the world. Cattle Decapitation raises profound ethical questions about our relationship with animals. The list is endless. I can make the same connection with opera, where so many stories revolve around moral dilemmas and human tragedy. Different artistic languages, but often the same philosophical questions.

As a jazz musician, this has also changed the way I relate to jazz. I discovered much later—especially after spending time in the United States—how deeply political this music is, and how much of its history is inseparable from social struggle. For a long time I approached jazz mostly as an aesthetic language. Today, that no longer feels sufficient.

I don’t feel I have a personal struggle to express through jazz, and because of that I sometimes feel less legitimate than musicians whose lives are directly connected to that history. Yet I still love playing it. Maybe that’s precisely why philosophy fascinates me so much: it reminds me that art doesn’t always provide answers—it asks questions, creates perspectives and invites us to rethink the world.

3) Knowing My Limits

For a long time, I tried to become as complete a musician as possible. I wanted to understand orchestration, composition, production, and become the best bass player I could be. I don’t regret any of it. Every new skill changed the way I think about music.

But today, I know much better what I’m really good at—and what I’m not.

Rather than trying to become excellent at everything, I’d rather focus on what I naturally bring to a project and surround myself with people who are much better than me in other fields. I think this is the direction my next projects will take. Not because I’ve lowered my ambitions, but because I’ve become more realistic about where I can contribute the most.

BODY STUFF - "Hysteria"

 

 

BODY STUFF releases "Hysteria" single and music video

"Hysteria," the second single from Body Stuff's sophomore album, Body Stuff 5, is now streaming.

Stream the official music video, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4oqxahuHqw

The solo project of NYC artist Curran Reynolds, Body Stuff's cathartic rock music is bolstered with metallic power and cloaked in a dreamlike haze. At times, yearning, at times, euphoric, Body Stuff seems to encompass the extremes of NYC, from the sewer to the skyscraper.

“Springsteen fully embracing his Suicide influence," was Stereogum's summary of Body Stuff's unique style. A recent write-up from Decibel Magazine calls it "a very New York City sound." Reynolds opts to call it, simply, “hard rock.”

Coming October 16, 2026, sophomore album Body Stuff 5 brings the project to new depths and heights. Eight anthemic songs hum with longing and triumph. Big, slamming drum beats, seemingly echoing the boomboxes of NYC summers past, are peppered with storms of double-bass. Guitars, performed by Reynolds’ friend Andee Blacksugar (Blondie) ravage and glisten, transmitting from a place where hair metal and post-punk converge. The album was engineered and mixed by longtime Body Stuff collaborator Ryan Jones and mastered by Ted Jensen (Madonna, Metallica).

New single "Hysteria" is driven by the tones of a string quartet (or a synthesized facsimile). Reynolds states: "My dad was a classical music fan and some of my earliest memories are of Mozart, Tchaikovsky, etc. As a kid, I was excited to hear pop and rock bands of the 1980s play around with classical elements, in songs like 'Rock Me Amadeus' and 'The Final Countdown.' The strings on 'Hysteria' are a nod to that tradition.”

"Hysteria / in America / twisting like a worm / you're in a room, high above the herd," Reynolds sings in the song's first verse. He explains: “'Hysteria' is a simple song that equates turmoil in the world with turmoil in the body, then suggests that love is the way out."

The video features theater masks, created by artist Matt Kepler to resemble the masks he drew for the Body Stuff 5 cover art. 

With recent shows played this year with Martin Rev, Swing Kids, and Dazzling Killmen, Body Stuff will return to the stage for a Body Stuff 5 album release show in the fall. Stand by for details.

More info about Body Stuff: https://linktr.ee/bodystuff

Photo by Paul Roura

Cover art by Matt Kepler