American Motors are back, and they're not slowing down. The Lancaster, PA trio floored us with 2024's Content, and now they've announced Functional Music, a new album of scraping, pounding, ominous underground rock arriving in November. This is a band that knows exactly what it sounds like.
Once again they hit up J Robbins at his Magpie Cage studio in Baltimore, the same room that shaped their debut. That partnership pays off: Alex Steward's drums thwack extra viscerally, every hit landing like a fist through drywall. Singer-guitarist Dustin White steers the whole thing with a snarl.
Lead track "No Horses" is a ripper. It builds on the tension Content teased and cranks it further, all coiled menace and controlled chaos. If you loved how dark that first record got, this is the next step up.
The underground rock scene needs bands who commit like this. American Motors do. Mark November down and get loud.