Bully Release New Song “Kills to Be Resistant,” Lead the Rock ‘N’ Roll Charge

Bully have left a trail of headbanging angst-anthems to their forthcoming album. Among those jams are “Feel the Same” and “Running,” released at the beginning and end of August, respectively.

On Oct. 20, Bully’s second album Losing will be available via Sub Pop, a label that supports music “built to last,” as rock supposedly is—led by women, female-identifying and femme artists. Whatever The New York Times-proclaimed trend is (which tends to put popular culture in a pen), the nature of rock has changed—for the better. Pop punk, grunge, hardcore and onwards, as the crow flies and the cymbals clash. Bully and frontwoman Alicia Bognnano are at the helm.

She Shreds, a magazine dedicated to female guitarists and bassists, has a philosophy that “shredding” is not how much technical skill you have for screaming guitar solos. It’s the emotion with which you rip. By both philosophies, Alicia Bognanno of Bully fucking rips.

The lyrics in “Kills to be Resistant” don’t expressly zero in on woman-in-Trump-era-America, but rather the tumult in navigating your relationship with that person it just didn’t work out with. The song opens with a catchy, “When I’m around you / I try to keep my distance / ‘Cause what I want with you / Is none of your business,” and continues with “Do you feel something?”

“I feel like all my best work has been born of heartbreak and upheaval; maybe most musicians feel that way,” Bognnano says. “The title of the record—Losing—kind of says it all.” Another not-yet-released track on the album, “Seeing It,” is about living inside of a body that, in this free country, has to be wrangled from societal clutches: “Such a blurring place to be / stuck in your own body.”

Listen to “Kills to be Resistant” and the band’s Daytrotter Session in the players below, and further down, see Bully’s ever-growing list of North American tour dates.

Bully Tour Dates:

November
02 – St Louis, Mo. @ Off Broadway
03 – Iowa City, Iowa @ The Mill
04 – Minneapolis, Minn. @ Fine Line Music Cafe
06 – Madison, Wis. @ High Noon Saloon
07 – Chicago, Ill. @ Thalia Hall
08 – Detroit, Mich. @ Marble Bar
09 – Toronto, Ontario @ Lee’s Palace
10 – Montreal, Quebec @ Bar le Ritz
12 – Boston, Mass. @ Great Scott
13 – Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
14 – Philadelphia, Pa. @ First Unitarian Church
15 – Washington, D.C. @ U Street Music Hall
17 – Charlottesville, Va. @ The Southern
18 – Durham, N.C. @ Motorco Music Hall
19 – Asheville, N.C. @ The Mothlight

December
06 – Little Rock, Ark. @ Stickyz
07 – Dallas, Texas @ Club Dada
08 – Austin, Texas @ Emo’s
09 – Houston, Texas @ Walter’s
10 – New Orleans, La. @ Gasa Gasa
12 – Birmingham, Ala. @ Saturn
13 – Atlanta, Ga. @ Terminal West
14 – Nashville, Tenn. @ Mercy Lounge
15 – Nashville, Tenn. @ Mercy Lounge
16 – Norman, Okla. @ The Opolis
17 – Santa Fe, N.M. @ Meow Wolf
18 – Phoenix, Ariz. @ Valley Bar

February
24 – Eugene, Ore. @ Hi-Fi Music Lounge
26 – Vancouver, B.C. @ Biltmore Cabaret
28 – Seattle, Wash. @ Neumos

March
01 – Spokane, Wash. @ The Bartlett
02 – Boise, Idaho @ Neurolux
03 – Salt Lake City, Utah @ Kilby Court
05 – Denver, Colo. @ Larimer Lounge
06 – Kansas City, Mo. @ Record Bar

May
30 – London, U.K. @ Moth Club