“NinetyNinePagesOfBotchInaRow” was how I recently described Seattle’s Mercy Ties to a curious friend. He shook his head, after doing what he thought was an imperceptible double take, gave me the usual suspicious side-eye before asking me to “decode, dumbass.” I set the record straight by laying out the influences that went into Mercy Ties’ new album, Reflections and Criticisms, as original wave screamo ragers, Pageninetynine, evil math rockers Botch and French noiseniks Birds in Row, punctuated by a snarky, “You asked.”
Mercy Ties originally formed in 2010 and have been mostly silent since the touring cycle that followed the release of 2015’s Proper Corruption. But what’s a decade in the grand scheme of things? Well, for guitarist Trevor Bebee, Andre Sanabria and drummer Chris Pereira, it was time taken out to get involved in competitive powerlifting, join Ex Everything as frontman and relocate to Europe, respectively. The Mercy Ties bug started biting once again and after a series of home and transcontinental writing/recording sessions, the band are back with their second full-length set for release on March 28th via The Ghost is Clear Records.
In celebration of their return to active duty and the pending release of Reflections and Criticisms, today we’re presenting a glimpse into the new record with an airing of the track “A New Hell Every Day.”
Says Sanabria about the song: “The moment we wake up we learn of a new hell every day. We’re complicit, like digital serfs toiling and sharing atrocities, catastrophes, scandals with one another; gathered throughout the various fields of social media — while those living in Gaza, Sudan, Yemen, Ukraine, even here in the US, experience it in real time as their daily existence. It’s easier for others to just tune it out, focus on themselves, their loved ones, an empty pursuit of wealth. That’s exactly what the ruling class wants; supplication, division and overall anti-intellectualism. The essential message in this song is that class consciousness is the only weapon we have, and if we as a collective will not rise up against the parasitic billionaire class and death driven crypto-fascist evangelicalism, we’re doomed; not as a nation, or a culture, but as a species.”
“A New Hell Every Day” lyrics:
man will soon be an afterthought / we’re all on borrowed time / bad luck is infinite / life had a great moment / mankind ruined it / in solitude we don’t need mediation / if we choose the lie we must endure / these are the consequences / a fever in the blood / now make your children witness the horrors you construct / trapped in a world legislated by zealots that believe in mystic realms and fables / thousands of children slaughtered / now say to us that any god worth serving would condone such atrocities / we’re condemned to watch it all unfold / rend the heavens / beget ruin / ignite the world / end it
You can also check out the band’s return to the stage next month:
Mercy Ties 2025 tour w/ Throes:
April 18 – Boise, ID @ Realms
April 19 – San Francisco, CA @ Neck of the Woods
April 20 – Fresno, CA @ Destructive Warehouse
April 21 – Los Angeles, CA @ Genghis Cohen
April 22 – Bakersfield, CA @ 415 BKFD
April 23 – Sacramento, CA @ Cafe Colonial
April 24 – Eugene, OR @ Wandering Goat
April 25 – Portland, OR @ Commonwealth
April 26 – Seattle, WA @ The Black Lodge
About this run of dates, guitarist Bebee points out, “When the band began talking about potential shows this year, our good friend Rich Hall — always a strong supporter of our band — stepped in to help us book a tour. We’re grateful for everything he did, not just for us but for the entire live music industry and scene. In honor of his memory, the band will be donating a portion of our proceeds from this tour to his family. On this trek we will be joined by some of our oldest buds Throes and we can’t wait to get in the van with them. We hope to see many friends, old and new.”
Photo: Kayla Tarkalson Bebee
