Rubber Band Gun Shares Surprise New Album Bloodwork Feat. Sam And Louise Sullivan & Star Moles

Within the independent music world, there's been a growing enthusiasm this year for Historic New Jersey, a recording collective and/or record label in Philadelphia making retro-tinted pop-rock, scrappy yet finely crafted, familiar but seemingly beamed in from an alternate timeline. The hype started to build in February, when Emily Moales graced us with her brilliant Star Moles album Highway To Hell, and it intensified this summer, when siblings Sam and Louise Sullivan released their charming and inspired Love & Devotion. Kevin Basko, whose home studio plays host to all this creation, has been regularly name-dropped in coverage of these projects, and it's left me wondering when we'd get a potential breakthrough release from his own project, Rubber Band Gun. Without notice, that time has come.A whole new Rubber Band Gun album called Bloodwork materialized online Wednesday night. It of course features ample contributions from Moales and the Sullivans, and if you're into the classic, slightly off-kilter vibe supplied by those artists, you'll find a lot to love in Basko's work too. He sings with subtle conversational swagger, slightly detached yet never lacking in conviction, mostly hanging out in his lower register, not unlike Nate Amos. The arrangements are loose and lovely. Sam Sullivan's lead guitar on "Carlo" is especially appealing, and the album wouldn't be what it is without the backing vocals from Moales and Louise Sullivan throughout. And like his talented friends, Basko litters his songs with memorable lyrics. "Zombie In The Country" alone is full of quotable pop culture references that situate Rubber Band Gun in the present despite its out-of-time qualities. I can't decide which sequence I like better: "We found love in a homeless place/ We found blood where the bulls parade/ Think I get what Rihanna was saying/ Think I hate how the sausage is made" or "Prince would be mad at us/ Prince would be mad at us/ Lynch would be rippin' up our guts/ Like a zombie in the country."Bloodwork comes with this artist's statement on Bandcamp:Records are blood testsBlood changes fast these daysBlood breaks, blood buildsBlood legos, blood hot wheelsBlood falls asleep, blood wakes upWe are up and at 'em, up and atom, up and Adamand my temperatures a risingThis blood feels hotter than everThis blood needs to be tested its so bubbling overWe cant even afford to get this blood out of meWe want to keep these precious bodily fluidsI don't want to change a thingI don't wanta close my eyes,dont wanta fall asleep cause i miss you babyAnd i dont wanta miss a thingBut a little change would do some goodAnd every little thing she does is magica wop bop a loo bopCount these platelets and hit me one more timeAnd Basko shared the following stories on Instagram announcing the album:They're back, and there for so are we. Stream Bloodwork below.Bloodwork is out now on Historic New Jersey. Buy it here.