Music Listeners

music moots with Vivian ("Big Ass Truck" by Big Ass Truck)

We are extremely back with Music Moots™, the blogseries where I ask someone to recommend me a song they like, and then I listen to the song and then write a little about it.

Today's recommender is the band Vivian, who describe themselves as "Trans Shoegaze Emo Brooklyn Thing" on their Bandcamp page. They put out a self-titled EP last November and it's a banger if you're into things like 'contemplative guitar parts', 'soft loud soft' and 'brain-sedating distortion.' If that all sounds too abstract or same-y, do not fear—Vivian (that's Christine Barcia on vox/guitar, Michael Donovan on vox/bass, Michael Ruocco on drums, plus John Stanco on keys) know how to write sneakily catchy material, and just when you're getting used to any given vibe, they switch things up: riffs go wonky, tempos pick up or relax, aggro chords give way to consoling piano. A lot of ground is covered in just 4 songs! I crave more songs from the band Vivian!

They recommended to me a song that, even before I played it, I knew I was going to like: "Big Ass Truck" by Big Ass Truck ("we love the song and play it to hype ourselves up before practice"). This isn't just because I like songs about trucks and truckin'; it is also because I am obsessed with self-titled songs. It's the ultimate mission statement for a band, your own theme song, a chance to say who you are and what you're about. "Bad Company" by Bad Company off the album Bad Company is the golden ideal, but any song that follows that format is good with me.

Luckily, "Big Ass Truck" also goes hard as hell. The band is from San Bernardino—"Straight out of the Inland Empire / Where all the best shit comes from," as the song goes—and their music is good old-fashioned ass-kicking metal-tinged hardcore. The drums are punishing, the riffs are chunky, and most importantly, the song involves lead singer Abel shouting "BIG! ASS! TRUCK!" with a loud ass truck horn as punctuation.

The band has a delightful all-caps social media presence ("WE GOT VEGAS THIS WEEKEND. WHERE MY CHRONIC GAMBLERS AT") and sick imagery (skeletons, pistols, trucks of course). It's important to note that the truck adoration that Big Ass Truck puts forth isn't your standard-issue country music "I enjoy doing some casual drunk driving in my certified pre-owned Ford F-150" type of thing. Big Ass Truck is about...big ass trucks. Semi trucks. Monster trucks. They even have a song about the legendary monster truck Grave Digger. They take the concept of "truck" to the extreme, the absolute limit of what a truck is and what trucks mean for society. Truck as fantasy, truck as divine being.

I love the song, thank you Vivian for the recommendation. BIG! ASS! TRUCK!