Pants Exploder
Brooklyn sludge titans Pants Exploder return with a bone-crushing new track and video, “Last Thing He Did Was Lose.” As the first taste of their upcoming third album, Pants Exploder III—out January 24, 2025—the song delivers a searing fusion of pulverizing riffs and relentless grooves that define the band’s signature sound.
The accompanying video, directed, filmed, and edited by Stevie T. Ungureanu, immerses viewers in the band’s world. Shot at their HQ—the hallowed BC Studios in Gowanus, NY—the gritty, atmospheric visuals mirror the cavernous intensity of Pants Exploder’s music. With stark lighting and claustrophobic angles, the video captures the raw power that fans have come to expect.
Drummer Grady Walker explains the inspiration behind the song and video: “The song is about working a depressing job in a dark place with dark characters. You’re overworked, underpaid, and then you find a band-aid in your tuna sub. We shot the video in our basement space at BC Studios/Seizures Palace with our good friend Stevie T. It’s where we write and record all our music, so it felt natural to make our first video there.”
Grady cites The Lighthouse and Eric B. & Rakim’s “In the Ghetto” as visual influences, particularly the swinging lightbulb motif, but credits Stevie for the rest: “He’s good.” The song title nods to a Norm Macdonald joke about cancer and the absurdity of framing death as “losing a battle.” As Grady puts it, “Nobody should die a loser—not even a loser.” That dark humor is woven into the track’s pummeling sonic landscape.
Formed in 2011, Pants Exploder—Robin Fowler, Jason LaFarge, and Grady Walker—emerged from the depths of BC Studios with a tongue-in-cheek name that quickly became synonymous with uncompromising heaviness. Their debut, Pants Exploder (2016), and its sequel, Pants Exploder II (2020), showcased the band’s seismic soundscapes, both recorded by LaFarge and paired with Seldon Hunt’s striking artwork. Fans can find both albums on vinyl via the band’s Bandcamp.
With Pants Exploder III, mixed by Jeff Berner and mastered by Jason LaFarge, the trio promises their most crushing effort yet. “Last Thing He Did Was Lose” offers just a glimpse—a foreboding harbinger of the sonic destruction to come.
Watch the video for “Last Thing He Did Was Lose” below, and prepare for Pants Exploder III to obliterate eardrums this January.
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