Hello reader,
How are you today? Ready to channel your inner little rascal?
Today, we’re excited to introduce you to an artist that has been making great tunes for the past decade, with a fantastic name to boot –Asbury Park, New Jersey-based alternative indie rockers Yawn Mower.
The group is made up of vocalist/guitarist Mike Chick, drummer Biff Swenson, bassist Dana Yurcisin, guitarist Rudy Meier, and violinist Nicole Scorsone.
Since forming in 2015, the group has released a handful of EPs – Get to the Boat (2016), Yawn Mower Ruins Christmas (2016), What’s All This New Piss? (2017) and Could Eat, Would Sleep (2018) – and in 2022, they released their debut album To Each Their Own Coat. They’ve left an undeniable mark on the New Jersey music scene and shared the stage with bands like Mannequin Pussy, Oso Oso, The Good Life, and Hot Snakes.
On August 15th, Yawn Mower will release its sophomore album I Just Can’t Wait To Die via Mint 400 Records. The album, according to a press release, is “equal parts joyful, reflective, and humorously absurd. Across its 10 tracks, Yawn Mower weaves together various vignettes and observations on life, both profound and relatably ordinary, holding them all in place with a bath of fuzzy guitar tones and the occasional dose of strings for an added epic or frenetic flair.”
The band got the itch to start writing songs for the album after playing the Sea.Hear.Now festival in Asbury Park. After the biggest show yet, they wanted to write songs that would suit larger stages.
The band has a very DIY mindset when it comes to making music. Almost every sound was recorded, engineered, and produced by the band. It was mixed and mastered by Dana Yurcisin and Rudy Meier. Drums were engineered by their friend Evan Bernard (Mannequin Pussy, Soul Glow), while Steve Riccobono engineered the bass. They also brought in pianist Justin Sanford, Ian Grey on trombone and flugabone, and Joe Gullace on trumpet.
I Just Can’t Wait To Die is also the group’s most collaborative album to date. While past songs were largely constructs of Chick and Swenson, every member contributed to writing and arranging the new songs.
“There was a fair amount of argument and collaboration with the making of “Rascal” and the album, I Just Can’t Wait to Die, in general, due to us engineering, producing, mixing, and mastering the album ourselves,” says Chick. “We all had strong opinions about how the album should sound overall, but in the spirit of this being a band effort, some ideas had to take a back seat to others.”
“The album is a good representation of the talents and personalities of the band members coming together and making it happen, egos (while sometimes bruised) be damned. Besides the actual process of making the record, the inclusion of piano and violin throughout these songs has added a depth and newness to our sound that isn’t found on our past releases.”
With it being such a group effort, it was “inevitable for the crew to get caught up on minute details,” says Swenson.
“I love that shit though. We care so deeply about what we’re doing, and we commit so much of our lives to doing this – arguing is fun!” he says. “Winning ‘best idea’ is a badge of honor. For all intents and purposes, being in a band is a marriage. Marriages only thrive when you’re able to blow past the hard parts and still find love or joy towards your partner(s), even if you had to argue to get there. I doubt each member has more than a singular second of a track or two they’d change. We were hyper vigilant in making the best representation of these 5 musicians, making a larger piece of work. No stone was unturned.”
Chick used to think that “lyrics needed to tell a cohesive story throughout a song,” but lately has let life and the music “dictate how the lyrics get laid out.” That includes lead single “Rascal,” which we’re stoked to highlight as part of our Singles Spotlight series.
“Sometimes multiple stories get told throughout a song, which is interesting to me,” he says. “Life is happening around you all of the time and I try to be as aware of that as possible and document what I see and experience.”
“Inspiration can come from anywhere- from walking my dog around my town and observing the neighborhood living and breathing to more insular things like from the times spent with the band at local shows or tour that made us laugh, mad, whatever. We are constantly telling each other to ‘write that shit down’ because you never know when it might be able to be used in the future.”
In SWT’s opinion, “Rascal” is a great place to start listening to Yawn Mower. The song is partly about the kids of their families and friends. The song also focuses on how people grow up and move out of town, only to return later, as evidenced by the repeated chorus “Go ‘head and run until you get back home.” It’s a very relatable sentiment.
Lyrically, the song features humorous and lovingly written lyrics such as “Here she comes now / What a little rascal / Food all over her face” and “Here he comes now / What a little asshole / Fuckin’ up my place.”
You can watch the music video, featuring some of the band’s rascals, below:
For Chick, the use of “Rascal” as the title of the song “leans more towards the actual definition of the word than the show.”
“But I don’t think you can use the word Rascal without thinking of the OG Little Rascals,” he admits. “I think historically the band’s favorite little rascals would be Ren, Stimpy, Rick, Morty, Tim, and Eric. Right now, it would be Tim Robinson.”
Adds Swenson, “My dad would make me watch old reruns of Our Gang, but I don’t remember feeling a strong bond to any of the characters that far back. Once they did the ’90s remake of Little Rascals, though, I felt like Buckwheat and Porky were my dudes.”
“A solid pair that would inevitably join the ranks of Jay & Silent Bob, Wayne & Garth, Cheech & Chong, or Bill & Ted. They had a strong bond and a sense of lightness in their execution of the gang’s plan. Spanky always had his shit in order too though. Dude ran a tight ship!”
I can certainly relate to that sentimentality, having grown up as a child in the ‘90s and being immersed in that pop culture. The song really excels thanks to a rich, melodic sound that’s given an orchestral boost through Scorsone’s commanding violin playing. The song’s great, whimsical lyrics and delivery also make me want to give it repeat listens. When a song can be playful but carry an important message, you’re doing your job right. Kudos for making a song in time for the summer to let your inner kid run wild.
Below is the tracklist for I Just Can’t Wait To Die:
- 1 Windshield Wiper
- Igor The Exetor
- New Years At The Airport
- Rascal
- Squirming
- Speedboat!
- $12 & A Winepress
- Geothermal Springs
- $5 & A Handshake
- Floorboards
You can catch Yawn Mower at the following tour dates:
July 24th – Jersey City, NJ @ Pet Shop
August 30th – Asbury Park, NJ @ Wonder Bar
You can follow and listen to Yawn Mower at the links below:
- Instagram: instagram.com/yawn_mower
- Facebook: facebook.com/yawnmower
- Bandcamp: yawnmower.bandcamp.com/
- YouTube: youtube.com/@yawnmower9346
- Spotify: Yawn Mower on Spotify
- More of the band via other links: linktr.ee/YawnMower
Joshua is co-founder of Scummy Water Tower. He’s freelanced for a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including: Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Guitar World, MTV News, Grammy.com, Chicago Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, MKE Lifestyle, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, A.V. Club, SPIN, Alternative Press, Under the Radar, Paste, PopMatters, American Songwriter, and Relix. You can email him at josh@scummywatertower.com.
