With the announcement of their new album Pacific Highway Music — out October 18 — Skegss, the Australian duo of Ben Reed and Jonny Lani, previewed the record today with a new single, which finds the band doing their best Strokes cosplay.
Fittingly, the song arrives alongside a video of the band doing karaoke — not "Last Nite," but "Out of My Head," a Kooks-y jangle pop/indie sleaze number that harnesses the egos of both Julian Casablancas and Iggy Pop, but with a more palatable attitude.
Imagine a young Casablancas with this mindset: "Don't get caught up on how someone makes you feel for too long in a negative way, pretend you get to restart life again and go do the things that make you thrive," Reed said of the track in a release. "We all say and do dumb things no matter how wise someone seems. So don't get too hung up on your mistakes if you recognize them."
Apathy and substance abuse might have been the marker of cool in the Strokes' heyday, but these kids are alright: Reed sings with a familiar melody, "Got to get out of my head / Make my own bed / Forget what you said / Forget what I did / And try get ahead." Unlike Greta Van Fleet's Zeppelin thing before them, Skegss are actually making the music their own, replacing the blasé outlook of the 2000s with joie de vivre.