STREAMING: Listen and look back longingly with new Menzingers song ‘Lookers’
NEPA Scene gave you a little live video preview of The Menzingers’ new album back in June when the punk band returned to their old hometown for an outdoor show at The Vault in Scranton. Now they’ve officially released a brand new song, “Lookers,” via Vice’s Noisey.
The song comes on the day they kick off their national tour with Bayside, who is stopping in Wilkes-Barre for an acoustic show at the Gallery of Sound on Aug. 22, and Sorority Noise. They’ll all be performing in The Menzingers’ current home of Philadelphia at the Electric Factory on Aug. 18.
Noisey also dissected the new track, which may or may not be on their upcoming album, “After the Party,” a bit in their premiere:
The song sees guitarist Greg Barnett looking at an old photo of himself with someone, and longing for the youth captured within, a time when they were more adventurous, when they “were both lookers.”
Thematically, “Lookers” is reminiscent of the sentiment behind songs like the Lawrence Arms’ “Seventeener” and Japandroids’ “Younger Us” – the desire to tell your younger self not to take the prime of your life for granted, and to cherish memories with another person. “You little Kerouac, always running like Dean and Sal,” Barnett says to his partner in crime. “Always waiting on a freight train, always looking for a story to tell, but that was the old you.” He also throws in a reference to hanging around smoke-filled diners, which makes “Lookers” feel like a close companion to “On the Impossible Past’s” standout “Gates.”
While there’s no word on an official release date for “After the Party” yet, “Lookers” can be streamed now below:
Read a full review of The Menzingers’ recent Scranton concert with exclusive photos here and watch videos of new songs that debuted at that show here.
Photo by Charles Wrzesniewski
