Bad Stuff release their self-titled debut in June and share the track ‘Summer Girls’

BAD STUFF, the Dallas-based quintet featuring members of True Widow (Dan Phillips and Nicole Estill) with art rock locals Jackie Dunn Smith, Gabriel Spatz and Laura Hartman Pearl, announce their self-titled debut album, due June 5 via Relapse Records. 

Bad Stuff move with mood and momentum: meditative, repetitive, and slow-burning, with dreamlike melodies drifting through something denser and more dangerous, all delivered with a cool, detached intensity.

On “Summer Girls,” a hypnotic, circular drum pattern anchors the track as it unfolds at a deliberate pace, building tension before Phillips’ unmistakable guitar cuts through, with a low, droning undercurrent humming beneath it all.

“‘Summer Girls’ is about a confusing time on the edge of adulthood,” vocalist/synth player Dunn Smith shares. “You are crushingly vulnerable to what others want from you, while desperate to become who you really are at the same time.”

Bad Stuff began as two bands: Latent Print, an instrumental project featuring Phillips and Estill, which would showcase his rockabilly chops and Estill behind the drum kit, and Concord Kill, Dunn Smith’s synth and drum machine driven project. “So these songs from our two bands are sitting there, one set that I wrote for Latent Print and another set that Jackie wrote on a four track recorder, and one day we decided that maybe we’d try to put it all together and see if it worked,” recalls Phillips. “And it did. When we were doing the sequence for the record, that “switching the dial“ thing became apparent– there’s not just one sound or one style. It really makes the pacing of the record work and sort of  showcases each of the songs.”

Bad Stuff is available now for pre-order/pre-saves on vinyl, CD and digitally.

Bad Stuff tracklisting:

1. Sullen
2. Gruesome
3. Summer Girls
4. Invisible Man
5. Creator
6. Hush 1
7. Nepenthe
8. Hush 2
9. Human Crush
10. Work of Art

Bad Stuff is Dan Phillips (Vocals, Guitar), Jackie Dunn Smith (Vocals, Synth), Nicole Estill (Vocals, Drums), Gabriel Spatz (Vocals, Maracas) and Laura Hartman Pearl (Bass). The seeds for Bad Stuff were planted when a friend asked Phillips to start a residency at a Dallas-based lounge, thereby creating an instrumental band with a true crime bent called Latent Print. Those songs, built for a two-piece, would showcase his considerable rockabilly chops with Nicole Estill (also of True Widow) sliding into the drum throne for the first time. Latent Print created several bespoke compositions for the residency as the band was slated to play on a weekly basis, but the COVID lockdown permanently ended those gigs. Fast forward a bit to the lockdown days and Phillips’s partner Dunn Smith revealed her work as Concord Kill– synth and drum machine driven tracks built on a four track. Once Phillips added guitar and the two began reshaping material from both projects, Bad Stuff was born.