Kevin Bronson on April 28th, 2022

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New Media, the L.A. four-piece who debuted in the early days of the pandemic, still guitar (yes, a verb here) like they mean it.

That’s a good thing on their new single, “Slackers,” which, with its twining licks and big bursts of energy, recalls the heyday of the ’90s alternative movement. Thematically, though, the song looks askance at a time when slackerdom was celebrated, or at least viewed ironically.

The quartet — Zach Noel, Jack Meighan, Tamara Simons and Julien Nicolai — call it an anthem for a “slacker in recovery.”

In the space of four verses, lyricists Noel and Meighan touch on depression (“They say the glass is half full, but I don’t see the cup”), economic hopelessness (“Short on funds and running out of gas / Short the stock: begin the crash”), gentrification (“What started with something here is quickly being rebuilt”), personal failures (“I thought I would blossom, but I’m starting to wilt”) and the solution to all those woes and more … tacos (“Go get tacos and blow the weekend away”).

The single is the second since their EP “How It Was.” Says the band: “We decided to write it true to our own experiences living in L.A. … working multiple jobs at once to make ends meet, ‘being coveraged, but not feeling insured,’ just barely making rent.”

Tacos on us.

||| Stream: “Slackers”

||| Also: Stream “April Fool”

||| Previously: “Tunnel Vision”