Psychic Pigs
Psychic Pigs
Slovenly Recordings [2025]
“Short, sharp, and savage—Psychic Pigs is a garage-punk gut punch you’ll want on repeat.”
Album Overview: After years riding the melodic edge of indie rock with Crocodiles, Brandon Welchez punches into rawer territory with Psychic Pigs—a jagged, adrenaline-charged debut that reclaims the bite of his punk roots. Fueled by the snarling chaos of vintage Killed By Death compilations and Dangerhouse-era urgency, Welchez wrote songs that felt too feral for his main gig. So he teamed up with Jonah Falco (Fucked Up), who laid down drums and handled production during a whirlwind London session. What began as a studio one-off quickly morphed into a real-deal band, with members from Surfbort, Fake Fruit, and Choir Boy joining the live lineup.
Psychic Pigs doesn’t ease you in—it grabs you by the collar and throws you into the pit. It’s fast, raw, and totally unrepentant, channeling the energy of ’70s punk with garage-rock grime and razor-wire hooks. It’s Welchez at his most visceral, kicking down the dreamy haze of Crocodiles for something that bleeds, bruises, and barks back.
Musical Style: This album blasts forward on pure momentum. Think: barbed garage riffs, snotty vocals, and drums that sound like they’re trying to break loose from the kit. There’s a rough-edged charm here—every track races ahead like it’s being chased, but never loses its grip on melody. Falco keeps things grounded with tight, relentless drumming while Welchez rips through the mix with enough fuzz and fury to rattle your fillings.
Evolution of Sound: Compared to Welchez’s work with Crocodiles, Psychic Pigs is a full-tilt detour into grit and distortion. The lush textures are gone, replaced by scraped-raw immediacy and blown-out amps. But rather than feeling like a regression, it’s a leap sideways—back to the music that first made him want to scream into a mic. This isn’t reinvention. It’s rediscovery, but with sharper teeth.
Artists with Similar Fire: Fans of Exploding Hearts, Mind Spiders, and Youth of America-era Wipers will feel right at home here. There’s also a heavy dose of Dangerhouse DNA—bands like The Dils or The Bags—and a nod to the sneering attitude of The Damned. It’s punk rock with power-pop smarts, reanimated with veteran instincts.
Pivotal Tracks: “Psychic Pigs” is the album’s manifesto—tight, sneering, and built for stomping around your room like it’s a basement show. “New Dark Age” brings a call-and-response chorus that’s pure gold, made to echo off club walls. Opener “The Law Means Nothing to Us” sets the tone: furious, fast, and catchy as hell, especially when those harmonized vocals kick in. “Everyone Pays” and “Cool Society” rip like a bottle rocket, given pit-starters with their ferocity. And closer “I’m on Drugs” sinks into distortion, with Welchez’s vocals straining above the squall—wild, woozy, and totally thrilling.
Lyrical Strength: Welchez isn’t writing parables—he’s spitting snapshots. The lyrics feel like overheard late-night rants, half memory and half punk zine poetry. It’s grimy, funny, angry, and occasionally unhinged in the best way. There’s a real-time feel to the writing—less “crafted” than “captured,” like he’s flipping through a burned-out diary with a cigarette in one hand and a mic in the other.
Final Groove: Psychic Pigs doesn’t reinvent punk—but it absolutely reignites it. Welchez tears through these tracks like he’s been waiting years to finally scream this loud again, and the result is a riotous, no-filler blitz that rarely stops to breathe. It’s fast, feral, and addictive—proof that classic sounds don’t need polishing to shine. As Psychic Pigs takes its chaotic energy to stages across the country, this debut leaves a clear message: punk isn’t dead, it just needed to snarl a little louder.
PSYCHIC PIGS LINKS
Instagram | Bandcamp | Slovenly Recordings
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