Minneapolis’ indie rock heroes Bad Bad Hats have announced their brand new self-titled album due out April 12 on Don Giovanni Records. The new collection packs the band’s ebullient sweet-and-sour indie pop chops, playful lyricism and signature sense of humor into every bite – this time taking their creativity to a new level with a little help from their mighty fanbase.
In the Fall of 2020, songwriter Kerry Alexander (guitar/vocals) and Chris Hoge (guitar/bass) collected prompts from their active Patreon fanbase, writing one-off songs based on the requests. The untraditional process challenged the band to write songs of country, pop punk, surf rock, disco, and countless other genres and provided a joyful freedom to collaborate on new music during an otherwise very hard time. It also set the blueprint for Bad Bad Hats’ new album and planted the seeds for several new album tracks such as lead single “TPA” recently released alongside an official video featuring cameos by Kerry’s mom and stepdad playing older versions of Kerry and Chris.
Kerry shares, “This song began with a guitar line I wrote, which I referred to as “the sauce”. “The sauce” sat languishing in my voice memos until we heard “Wake Up” by XTC and knew my guitar line could fit perfectly in an intertwining guitar part. From there, we ran to buy bongos from the Music Go Round down the street and, before long, we had our sideways, dance-y track, “TPA”. Lyrically, I was inspired by the summer my family moved to Tampa, FL. I was in between my freshman and sophomore years of high school, very surly, very sweaty, and very self-conscious amidst the tan, glamorous, and bikini-clad locals.”
How are we feeling about Bad Bad Hats’ new single + video “TPA”?
