Premiere: Ellen and The Degenerates – “Not My Friend”
Brooklyn’s Ellen and The Degenerates are getting ready to release their first full length, aptly titled Return of the Herb, next month. The band, fronted by singer Elena Barrio, has seen many line-up changes over the years but seem to have found a solid crew with Josh Gaon on guitar, Johnny Shields on bass, Louis Rabeno on drums and Wisteria’s very own Greg Thornberg, also on guitar. Return of the Herb, which was recorded, mixed and mastered by Will Killingsworth at Dead Air Studios, is heavy, poppy and crunchy and brings the signature high-energy experience of seeing them live to audio with little to no loss.
Last week, Ellen shared a sketch titled “Living the Dream” on Punk News and announced the February 15 release date along with a cover of Billy Idol/Generation X’s classic “Dancing With Myself”.
Today, we are premiering “Not My Friend”, the new single from Return of the Herb.
“Not My Friend” was one of the first few songs we wrote for Return of the Herb. It came together almost instantly and so naturally at practice one night in January 2018 while workshopping new song ideas. Elena shared a 45 sec voice memo she had recorded a few weeks before we toured down to FEST 16 (2017) and we loved it. Just her singing and playing through the verse and chorus riffs on guitar, which became the real bones.
I think it’s a great representation of who we are as a band now. A perfect mix between our older punk songs and our newer more melodic/poppier songs”).”
– Greg Thornberg, guitar
Return of the Herb will be released on War Fever Records on 2/15/19 and cassettes (in clear, pink or purple) are currently available for pre-order.