MDNA Pay Homage To The Queen Of Pop On “Poppers Don’t Preach” EP
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Fire Sale & The Corps Team Up On “Split Decision” EP
LA’s Fire Sale and Vancouver’s The Corps have released their new four-song split, Split Decision, via streaming platforms through Negative Progression Records, the EP is also now available for pre-order on vinyl. The EP pairs two bands with a shared love of fast, melodic punk, Split Decision gives each group two songs to showcase its own distinct personality. Fire Sale brings anthemic urgency and pointed social commentary to Kill the Noise and Dies Irae, while The Corps balance breakneck skate-punk energy with vulnerability and comic book-inspired romanticism on Imposter Syndrome and Another World. Together, the four tracks on Split Decision make the pairing feel less like two separate releases sharing a record and more like a single, cohesive statement. Both bands write from different sides of the same struggle: the noise in your head, the forces trying to control you, the fear that you do not belong and the longing for a life that feels just beyond reach.
Fire Sale opens the split with Kill the Noise, an intensely personal song about the exhausting internal battle that can accompany mental health struggles, and the healing that can begin by confronting those thoughts directly. Musically, Kill the Noise may be Fire Sale‘s most anthemic, dynamic and nuanced song yet. Its darker moments ultimately give way to self-reflection and a determined search for peace. The band follows it with the confrontational Dies Irae, built around an explosive Matt Riddle bass line and the driving guitars and drums that have become central to Fire Sale‘s sound. Fire Sale first attracted attention as a punk rock supergroup featuring former members of Face to Face, No Use For A Name and The Ataris, along with current members of Down By Law and The Iron Roses.
“Kill the Noise is about the daily struggles with mental health and learning to overcome them, There are days when you feel like your brain won’t shut up, as if it’s conspiring against you. I felt really vulnerable writing these lyrics, but in doing so, it became a sort of self-therapy that I didn’t know I needed. I hope listeners find this relatable and that it helps them in their healing journey. ‘Dies Irae’ is a very simple, in-your-face song about our current political and social climate. Right now, there are a lot of powers that be who think they can tell you how to live your life—and some who even think you don’t deserve a life at all. It’s a call to stand up for yourself and your neighbors, and to fight back against any injustice.” (vocalist Pedro Aida)
The Corps pick up the second half of Split Decision with Imposter Syndrome, a full-speed account of achieving the opportunity to share stages with your heroes while privately fearing that you do not belong there. That conflict fuels one of the split’s fastest songs, turning self-doubt into forward momentum. Sometimes the only way through the uncertainty is to keep moving, and, if necessary, fake it until you make it. The Corps then change course with Another World, a mid-tempo, otherworldly love song that draws on the band’s affection for comics and superheroes while exploring the pain of wanting someone who remains unreachable. The result carries intergalactic Descendents energy, imagining a love that may be impossible here but could still exist somewhere beyond this world.
“Imposter Syndrome is about feeling lucky enough to be a part of the music industry and playing alongside your favorite artists, while inside, constantly being riddled with anxiety over the fear of being exposed as a fraud. ‘Another World’ is about living with the unbearable knowledge that a certain person, who means everything to you, can never be yours in this universe,” (vocalist Danny Garrison)
