Off With Their Heads - Nightlife

If this song sounds familiar to you on first listen, there’s a good chance that Spotify did you the service of putting it in every single one of your rock or punk adjacent playlists for the better part of a year.

Not that I’m complaining, however. Minneapolis based punk rockers Off With Their Heads are a great band, with a remarkably varied sound over the nearly twenty years they’ve been putting out stompers. Having only a few core members and the rest being rotating musicians definitely helps on the varied front – at time of writing the band have had 23 different sets of hands on deck at different times. That’s enough for two full-sized football teams (soccer for our friends from elsewhere), with one person left over to get the ball back after it’s been kicked over a fence.

For those who haven’t heard this song before, you’re in for a treat. It’s a blitzing affair, all raw energy and emotion that just about lets you get your breath back on the verse before the chorus runs away with it again. It was one of my most listened to songs for a good while a few years ago, and that’s not just because of the Spotify thing either!

A side-note; lead singer Ryan Young launched a podcast in 2014 called “Anxious and Angry”, where he interviews musicians and comedians, plus has fairly frank discussion and fan Q and A’s about mental health. It’s a dark journey at times, but we all know that being open about mental health is important by now. I’ve been combing the back-catalogue and found some episodes I really enjoy, so seek it out if it sounds like your thing!