Teen Suicide Find Forward Momentum on “Suffering (Mike’s Way)”

Teen Suicide have spent years building one of underground indie rock’s most singular catalogs entirely on their own terms — lo-fi, home-recorded, dense, and unapologetically themselves. Nude descending staircase headless, their first proper studio album, trades the laptop-and-tape process for a widescreen sound produced by Mike Sapone (Taking Back Sunday, Oso Oso, Cymbals Eat Guitars) without losing a single one of the qualities that made the old records matter. It arrives April 17 on Run For Cover Records.

“Suffering (Mike’s Way)” is the brightest thing on it — jangly indie punk with bubbling keyboards and a hook that arrives fast and sticks around. Sam Ray started writing it in 2022 with The Feelies, The Thermals, Wire, and Jonathan Richman in his head as targets. The parenthetical in the title is earned: producer Mike Sapone pushed for a one-note change in the chorus melody, Ray pushed back, they tried it both ways, and Sapone was right. That kind of attention is all over this record.

Lyrically the song covers a lot of ground — love, the world, getting clean from opiates, the sensation of feeling everything instead of nothing. Ray calls it one of the band’s more optimistic songs despite its title, and he’s right. Earlier singles “Idiot” and “Spiders” showed the heavier, fuzzed-out side of the record; this one shows the other side. The full album wrestles with nihilism, addiction, and what it means to make lasting art when the world keeps choosing the path of least resistance. It’s sweeping, aggressive, catchy, and completely worth your time. Pre-order it below.

Pre-order Nude descending staircase headless ↗

1“Anhedonia”

2“Idiot”

3“Suffering (Mike’s Way)”

4“Spiders”

5“The Knives”

6“Everything in My Life Is Perfect”

7“Candy / Squeeze”

8“Living Death”

9“Keeping Her Keys”

10“Hypnotic Poison”

11“Kindnesses”

12“Not Born to Run”

13“Come and See the Clown”