Stripes

Stripes is a Brooklyn-based indie rock band led by singer/songwriter Izzy MK, operating within the blurred boundaries between jagged post punk and jangly indie rock. The band got their start while Izzy was living in Tucson, debuting with their first album 520 in 2019 and following with their 2021 home-recorded album, How Should I Know? Since then, Izzy relocated to New York and reformed the band with a new line-up, Riley Morgan on guitar, Mitchell Davis on bass, and Dave Possehl on drums.

Along the way, they also brought out more of their original punk edge, returning this year with their third full-length album, Running + Hiding, followed by a pair of new singles, “Operation: No Hell” and “So Fucked.” Today, they’re back with another new track, “Forever, It Won’t Change,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Forever, It Won’t Change” is equal parts catchy and disheveled, sporting all of the frayed edges of a garage rock rager alongside a rush of wiry hooks. The track’s verses buzz along in an acid-fried haze, laced with stabbing guitar lines and Izzy’s bleary vocal melodies. The tension builds to a breaking point before exploding outwards with the chorus. All of the knotted guitar lines quickly unspool into jangly and jagged pop chords, sprawling out beneath a massive sing-along melody. The resulting track is an unstoppable garage pop machine, steamrolling along with desperate, wild-eyed intensity until it crashes down into silence in it’s final moments.

The single cover also features Luna, a beloved canine friend of Stripes. “She embodies the yearning of the track; she’s an intensely emotional dog,” Izzy says. Possehl adds of the track, “We yearn for love and security in the same way a dog yearns for a tennis ball.”