At the start of May, on the day Bandcamp waived its share of profits, Alicia Bognanno’s fiery Nashville-based rock band Bully released a new single with covers of songs by Nirvana and Orville Peck, two artists once affiliated with her current record label Sub Pop. At the time, Bognanno alluded to an upcoming record, and today we get more info on that along with a new song.
The album, Bully’s third, is called SUGAREGG. It’s coming in August. Lead single “Where To Start” is a simple, effective, deeply catchy rager built around Bognanno’s refrain, “I don’t know where to start/ I don’t know where to start with you!” Sounding both exasperated and infatuated, she continues, “You turn me back into a child/ Erratic, desperate, sad and wild.” The music behind her is a reminder of how much can be accomplished with two or three chords. It’s pretty much the platonic ideal of a rock song as a pop song, right down to its exactly three-minute runtime. If you’re thinking of getting into Bully, this could be quite literally where to start.
In a statement to Rolling Stone, Bognanno explains that “Where To Start” was partially inspired by the ’90s pub-chant novelty hit “Tubthumping” by anarcho-communist radicals Chumbawumba:
I was listening to “Tubthumping” by Chumbawamba and picking apart the melodic structure and sort of trying to mimic that. I’m not even joking; it still makes me laugh to think about. But let’s be real, that is undeniably a solid song. ‘Where to Start’ addresses the frustration that comes along with love having the ability to fully control your mood and mental state for better or worse. It was therapeutic to funnel some lightheartedness into what can be an otherwise draining state of mind.
Watch the “Where To Start” video, directed by Alan Del Rio Ortiz and Bognanno, below.
TRACKLIST:
01 “Add It On”
02 “Every Tradition”
03 “Where to Start”
04 “Prism”
05 “You”
06 “Let You”
07 “Like Fire”
08 “Stuck In Your Head”
09 “Come Down”
10 “Not Ashamed”
11 “Hours And Hours”
12 “What I Wanted”
SUGAREGG is out 8/21 on Sub Pop. Pre-order it here.
