Don't Play

Have you ever gone out and asked yourself, "What am I doing here?" What about "Am I dancing because it's what someone wants me to do, or because I want to dance?" or "Am I trapped in a trying, crappy limbo in which I fail to connect with other people? Is this where I truly want to be?" Don't Party, the debut album from Slashed Tires, is the sound of these questions being asked and dissected in real-time. It is a collection of twelve songs exploring one's inner monologue, the ups and downs of friendships, and the unfulfilled promise of a night out. Using deconstructed funk, pounding drum machines, and New Wave and No Wave horns alike, Kenneth M. Piekarski dives deep into the unease and anxiety of social interactions, community drama, and paranoia. Inspired by iconoclasts like Arthur Russell, Sade, and Prince, Kenneth has turned the party soundtrack inside-out to capture the moods and feelings bubbling underneath any given party - anticipation, elation, and the inevitable, bleary-eyed cleanup, whether it's you or the sun that's just coming up. Across this suite of grooves and synth workouts, they find themselves struggling to navigate confounding situations. On "Maybe, a field recording gives way to a dialogue about the fact that none of us are owed anything, and on "Prospective Decline," they try to make sense of flirting with someone - and how easy it is to get wrapped up in expectations and social cues as the world continues to move around them. On the title track, Kenneth examines the dreaded feeling of not being friends with someone anymore and having to inevitably see them in social situations. "Can we talk it out?" they ask. "Can we speak clearly?" The answer isn't always yes, but Kenneth has found a new - and utterly unique - way to move forward, alone and together.