At Arm's Length //
At Arm's Length //
Released 6.23.23 on Mint 400 Records.
Brooklyn’s Le Big Zero continues to develop their unique, approachable sound. Through cross-country moves, DIY tours, and a rotating cast of crucial but temporary bandmates, Michael Pasuit and Ben Ross have held it down as the core of the group.
Their latest, the At Arm’s Length EP, is rounded out by Katie Cooney and Lukas Hirsch, who have taken the band even further since 2022’s excellent and critically-praised, A Proper Mess. And this is a far more collaborative effort for Le Big Zero, with much of the album coming together organically in the rehearsal space, over the course of extended jams.
At Arm’s Length asks you to come check this out, look a little harder. Because the songs, especially the EPs lead single, “Toy,” are right to the point. Inspired by indie acts like Parquet Courts, Les Savy Fav, and Speedy Ortiz, it’s all unconventional hooks and weird charm. Lock-step male-female harmonies for days. Beautiful and intense. But hang out with them for a bit longer, take another run-through. There are intricacies, unexpected time changes, syncopation. They switch without warning between big, deep, churning chords and jagged driving garage rock. Then it’s on to art rock, angular tunes. There are moments of tension throughout, and not one is anything like the other. Because we’ve all felt and internalized a steady tension over the last few years, in some way or another. This album got it all down on one EP.
“A Proper Mess”
Blending 90’s garage rock with complex, yet poppy song structures, Le Big Zero are taking a huge leap forward with their sophomore album A Proper Mess. The experimental indie quartet have Frankensteined their iconic predecessors with the energy of early slacker grunge groups and the brains of math rock outfits.
Merch, cassettes, downloads, and streams here.
The Brooklyn based group was originally founded by vocalist and guitarist, Michael Pasuit, and soon joined by vocalist Carolina Aguilar. Once merely dusty cassette-tape demos written in the aughts of a cheap Seattle apartment, Le Big Zero is now a fully fledged indie-rock manifestation come to life. The group presently features the stylings of Ben Ross (bass), Lukas Hirsch (drums), and Katie Cooney (guitar/keyboards/vocals)..
Le Big Zero’s debut 2019 LP Ollie Oxen Free wasn’t as much of a fleshed out album as it was a collection of songs previously written by Pasuit for other projects that never quite fit. However, Le Big Zero was always meant to metamorphe from its original cocoon. Right before the pandemic hit, the band began recording. With a new collaborative effort, Le Big Zero began to fully transform. The result was the high energy, messy love-letter to uncertainty that is A Proper Mess.
With angular song structures and amenable harmonies, A Proper Mess is as unique as it is introspective. Now a complete collaborative effort, the group has really taken traditional indie rock and flipped it upside down. Tracks like “Horror Movie Pie Fight” and “Beach Seance” feature a sense of absurdity and abstraction. With influences from Sleater-Kinney to Better Oblivion Community Center, there is a wholly unique aspect of A Proper Mess that can’t really be pinned down but offers an edge that can’t be chiseled down.
“Horror Move Pie Fight” Single and Video
We filmed the video with Jeanette D. Moses, award-winning director and Brooklyn music scene wunderkind. Starring (and choreographed by) Gillian Visco, of Shadow Monster, it’s a fun vignette. Carolina even gets murdered!
It was blast making it, so we hope you enjoy.
That first album we made.
Our debut album Ollie Oxen Free was released in September 2019. Take a listen, and if you like it, tell your friends and make us some back–we’re only in it for the money. The story behind the album is more-or-less the start of the band.
Michael had a collection of songs he had written over the years that never really fit in a current project he was in. Most of them were written in his apartment in Seattle as rough demo recordings. After jumping back to the east coast and landing in Brooklyn, he got together with good friend Carolina to start the band in earnest.
Drummer Dylan Thurston stepped in on drums and we laid down the album, creating the blueprint for the band’s sound: garage-y, angular indie-rock with dialed-in boy-girl harmonies.
Cover artwork by Arthur E. Giron.
A pandemic happened.
In the thick of April 2020, it was a complete bummer being a musician in New York City and/or a human being anywhere. With the prospect of being on indefinite hiatus, to stay safe and sane, we created seven covers to work on while in isolation from each other. The songs reflect a wide array of influences we thought we could do interesting things with and explore different musical ideas in preparation for our next full length release.
Songs were released on a pay-what-you-want basis with all proceeds donated to Doctors Without Borders.
The tracks are now free to download.