Public Practice Burn the House Down on “Foundation”

Public Practice have shared “Foundation,” the second single off their forthcoming debut EP Distance Is A Mirror, out Oct. 26 through Wharf Cat Records.

The Brooklyn-based band bill themselves as a DIY super-group of sorts, combining members from recently deceased punk band WALL and the pop group Beverly. Their sound is an intersection of those two styles, the sort of sound that excels in Brooklyn DIY spaces like Secret Project Robot and Silent Barn, places where art-funk, disco and barebones punk collide.

For what it’s worth, “Foundation” is as new-wave as they come. Remain in Light-era Talking Heads grooves? Check. Talk-sung vocals straight out of Grace Jones’ “Warm Leatherette?” Check. Chunky, disco-drenched guitars? Oh yeah. Some post-modernist-type lyrics about distance and mirrors? You bet.

But Public Practice turn all those influences, and the song itself, inside out in marvelous little ways. There are giant, angular steps between what could be generously termed “verses” and “choruses,” the groove halting and skipping half-beats until it becomes something totally different at minute three than it was at minute one. It’s a pop song with hard edges, one that has its genesis in the basement, rather than the bedroom. As the band say in a statement, they are focused on bringing sharpness to “a scene growing all too warm and fuzzy.” Sharp they are.

The band will be touring for the remainder of the year—find those dates further down.

Listen to “Foundation” below.

Public Practice Live:

October
05 – Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Music Hall of Williamsburg (w/ Shame, BODEGA)
26 – Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Alphaville (Record Release Party)

November
30 – Washington, D.C. @ Black Cat (w/ Flasher, Gong Gong Gong)

December
03 – Cleveland, Ohio @ Beachland Tavern (w/ Flasher, Gong Gong Gong)
04 – Chicago, Ill. @ Hideout (w/ Flasher, Gong Gong Gong)
05 – Columbus, Ohio @ Ace of Cups (w/ Flasher, Gong Gong Gong)
06 – Paterson, N.J. @ A Red Wheelbarrow (w/ Flasher, Gong Gong Gong)