Head-swirling psychedelic indie maverick, Vanderocker returns with a new EP, The Good Punk, which will also shortly be turned into a short film. Four brand-new tracks (plus an instrumental bonus track) take onboard musical passengers from psych, indie, electro-pop, surf and experimental worlds to set a course for themes touching upon sex, voyeurism and duality in a release which affirms Vanderocker’s place among the most exciting acts in alternative indie.

Vanderocker is the indie music project led by Los Angeles-based Adrienne Vanderocker, originally a performance artist, who comes from a Dutch-American family of classical musicians in Austin, Texas. Writer, guitarist, bassist and synth player across the new EP, Adrienne collaborates with producer Brandon Eggleston and several noteworthy guest artists such as Federico Pol Jr (Joe Cocker), Peter Holmström (The Dandy Warhols, PIA), and Brendan Bond (Black Pumas). Vanderocker has continued to soundtrack its eccentric view of the world, best described by Adrienne herself:

“In my mind, it’s a basic study of humans on different levels, almost from an Alien National Geographic kind of perspective. ‘Here is Earth, a most beautiful place and here are the alluring creatures who call themselves human beings. Let’s observe them when they are just in their bodies. Now look how they change when they interact with other groups’ - like a typical lab observation, right? Which is interesting in itself; but then of course, we have to look at how amazingly powerful humans can be when they disengage from the drama and plug into something bigger than themselves. I find comfort in all of it, when I can step back and observe us the way a newcomer might.”

Vanderocker’s early music was an experimental variation of retro rock blended with electronica but has expanded its horizons on each subsequent release to include devotional music, to roadhouse blues, trip- hop, avant-garde, electro and indie pop. Vanderocker have continued to explore new sonic territories, working with Phil Ek (Modest Mouse; Built to Spill) on single, Dear Future Self in August 2020 and appearing on the soundtrack to the PS4/XBox One/PC game, Beyond Blue. Bringing together Vanderocker’s early artistic life as a performance artist and her kaleidoscopic music, the first of a series of films, Cult for You, will be released as a 1920s-esque erotic film and begins filming (with all social distancing enforced, of course) in November.

The Good Punk is Released on Mint 400 Records
Produced by Brandon Eggleston (The Dandy Warhols; Modest Mouse)
Peter Holmström - guitar on Cult For You, Taking Notes (The Dandy Warhols; Pete’s International Airport (PIA))
Federico Pol Jr. - bass Taking Notes – (Joe Cocker; Tina Turner; Fleetwood Mac)
Brendan Bond - bass Supercell – (Black Pumas)
Andy Stack - drum programming Cult For You – (Joyero; Wye Oak)
Chris Kuffner - bass and vocals Endless City (Ingrid Michaelson; Regina Spektor)
Steffon Moody - vocals Endless City (UMO - Unidentified Moving Objects)

CULT FOR YOU – “Earthly pleasure. Birthright. A pure journey of the flesh. The most basic, primal experiential potential of having a human body. You can get off and go about your day unaffected, or you can reach other dimensions, use sex as medicine and heal yourself and/or your other, or connect to pure God essence, just by knowing how to use your body as a vessel. Sex is a portal. I like the duality there is in sex and the sensual worlds alone- the drama, the meaning, the purpose all begins in our heads and then trickles through our bodies to be expressed and manifested”

ENDLESS CITY – “Now we take the human experience out of the singular and look at it from about 50 yards away, for instance, watching small groups interact in our favourite petri dish - a city at night. This environment is a prime setting for getting the extreme highs and polar opposite lows out of people, often within the same experience. We follow our subject, seemingly feminine, through the streets where she bears witness to all of it. People’s faces become lock boxes for sins, secrets, or resilience, or heroism, and they also become the most open, revealing, expressions of themselves on the flip of a dime. There is also the idea that a city at night is also where you have the easiest access to mind altering substances, either through drugs, or euphoric divination - and seeing how the two paths can have their similarities is interesting to me. The two paths can look the same but feel and affect one in polar opposite ways. Of course, all these experiences lead to the same goal- wanting to feel loved, and oh the trouble humans go through to achieve this feeling. From an outside perspective, it would make you deeply curious what the fuss is about”

TAKING NOTES - “This is the most avant-garde piece on the EP. Establishing a deep funky groove as a setting for a narrative on the human experience and how we have to go through all this strange and often painful play to be able to tap into the higher experience and of course, our true potential. I was setting up a kind of 70’s vibe as the foundation and Pete ended up putting some really cool guitar work, creating this brilliant soundscape over the piece. In case anyone wanted to enjoy this piece without the narrative, we included a bonus instrumental on the EP”

SUPERCELL – “This track takes a look at how powerful humans are when they come together for a cause. Of course, it particularly speaks to all the unrest and upset around the massive corruption and ongoing systemic racism. When I was writing Supercell I was just thinking about that superpower gene that kicks in when change happens. I wrote it thinking about it in that context and then learned what a Supercell actually is- a Supercell is the mother of all storms. It couldn’t have been more perfect”