Kevin Bronson on March 31st, 2020

0

“Brutus,” the new single from the High Curbs, opens with an Eduardo Moreno scream so piercing that you could probably hear all the way in Washington, D.C. At least, Moreno hopes so.

The song, the first from the High Curbs’ forthcoming album “Happy Daps,” is an overtly political song from a band that over five releases hasn’t written a lot of them. Seesawing between skate-punk and rough-hewn but catchy indie-rock, the quartet has mainly focused their angsty fury on issues relatable to kids who grew up in suburbs such as Chino, their home base. This time, though, frontman Moreno felt compelled to unleash the anger he felt after the 2016 election — particularly the way that the political climate cast a cloud on him, a DACA recipient, and his family.

“There was a part I almost rewrote for ‘Brutus,’” Moreno says, acknowledging his reservations about confronting the growing enmity towards immigrants and people of color. “But then I was like, fuck it, this is something that affected me, why settle? … I talked it over with my bandmates too, and they were like, it’s a part of you, so I think you should flaunt it.”

Moreno and his bandmates — Aaron Korbe and Andrew Palomino, now joined by new guitarist Alberto Alvarenga — made the album at Astro Lizard Records in Long Beach with Brent Lindemeyer and Jarrett Killen, with Killen doing the mixing.

“Brutus” is simply a scorcher, and along with it comes a video directed and edited by Alec Saavedra that captures the explosiveness of the High Curbs live and their chemistry behind the scenes. Kinda makes us even more eager for the next mosh pit we come across. Et tu?

(The High Curbs will celebrate the single release by doing an Instagram Live set at 6 p.m. Saturday.)

||| Watch: The video for “Brutus.”