Kevin Bronson on October 16th, 2015

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Alex Casnoff writes songs that go for the jugular, and the frontman of the L.A. quartet Harriet — newly signed to Harvest Records — has turned his attention away from the roiling waters of relationships to direct his vein-bulging disgust at life in the good ol’ U.S. of A. Harriet’s debut full-length, which comes three years and many lineup changes after the former member of Dawes and PAPA set off on his own, is titled “American Appetite” (set for a Jan. 29 release). The album is billed as exploring “the American condition, and the power and greed that ensues” from the perspective of “a lost, 20-something-year-old living back at his parent’s house trying to figure out his own ‘purpose.’”

On Harriet’s 2012 and ’14 EPs, Casnoff demonstrated an audacious lyrical approach, and on “American Appetite’s” title track he points his darts at the suits. “I had just finished watching the Enron documentary – ‘Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room’ – and I came away so angry,” he explains. “I mean, how could you not? But I also became obsessed with Jeff Skilling. I watched his congressional testimony on repeat. I needed to get inside his head, because it wasn’t just pure evil, it was a sociopath condoned by the entire financial system. I started to feel like he wasn’t just lying in that testimony, he really believed he hadn’t done anything wrong. And to me, there’s nothing more interesting than an unreliable narrator.” Thanks to the video directed by Macklin Casnoff (Alex’s brother) and Ben Watanabe, none of the message is lost.

||| Watch: The video for “American Appetite”:

||| Previously: “Irish Margaritas,” live at the Roxy, “Ten Steps,” “Burbank,” a 2012 interview