How does one even choose a Bad Moves single? When there are literally no wrong choices, can there be a correct answer? Thankfully, we don’t have to lose sleep over such quandaries. At Ocelot Brewing, we only make beer. In fact, tomorrow we’ll release an IPA created in collaboration with the hard-charging DC quartet. It’s called Outta My Head… just like the latest single – unveiled today – from their forthcoming third LP Wearing Out the Refrain. Unsurprisingly, “Outta My Head” (the song) is outstanding. Full throttled, effortlessly melodic, a total earworm. Of course, the same can be said of the record’s other ten gems.
Outta My Head (the beer) was designed to mirror the band’s distinctive power pop. It’s a power hop IPA, if you will. The body is luxe and polished, rendered silky smooth with copious additions of malted oats and flaked wheat. The hop character is bright, bold, and immediately engaging. But lest you think we’re descending into cloying sweetness, this IPA is balanced with a refreshing dryness and ever-so-slightly prickly bitterness. And just as Bad Moves can pack an album’s worth of hooks into less than four minutes, Outta My Head lands at a tight 6.3%.
It's a harmonious ale. Bad Moves’ songs are defined in no small part by their communal vocals – Emma Cleveland, David Combs, Katie Park, and Daoud Tyler-Ameen all singing together or weaving in and out of the mix, creating something bigger than the sum of its parts. In that spirit, Outta My Head harnesses the chops of four hops: Nelson Sauvin, Simcoe, Amarillo, and Vista. Each New Zealand or Pacific Northwest varietal could carry an IPA on its own, but in unison they belt a soaring, seamless tune of white grape, melon, passion fruit, and orange citrus.
Wearing Out the Refrain is flooded with ominous oceanic imagery. The record begins with a drowning confession and goes on to depict a relentless world of undertows, riptides, and the high tide of evolution. Eloise Shir-Juen Leigh’s cover art captures that spirit in a swirling, sinister whirlpool. And Outta My Head’s label, designed by Ocelot Creative Director David Kammerdeiner, offers its own interpretation of that eddy, a maelstrom of orange and purple and blue.
If we’re going down, at least it’s with a tremendous LP on the stereo and a good beer in hand. Let the hops inherit the earth.
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Wearing Out the Refrain arrives September 13 via Don Giovanni Records.
DC natural wine bar and vinyl lounge No Kisses – in partnership with Smash! Records and Ocelot – will host a Wearing Out the Refrain listening party on Wednesday, September 11.
Bad Moves celebrates the album’s release with a show at the Black Cat on Friday, September 27, then subsequent concerts in Philadelphia and Brooklyn.
Outta My Head will be available at both the No Kisses listening party and Black Cat concert.
The IPA follows Ocelot collaborations with Mary Timony, Sheer Mag, of Montreal, and Merge Records earlier this year and beers with The Clientele, Protomartyr, Superchunk, Palehound, and Fucked Up during 2023. The brewery is located in Dulles, Virginia.
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