One of my favorite COVID-era Bandcamp finds was Plague Skater, the lo-fi rock project of New Jersey's Will Schwester. Under the Plague Skater banner, Schwester kicked out two albums' worth of genre-hopping DIY intensity, 2020's self-titled debut and 2021's Plague Skater II. Since then, the Plague Skater account on Bandcamp has yielded lots of experimental releases under various guises, but not until today did he give us one last Plague Skater album.
In a statement on Bandcamp, Schwester says Plague Skater III will be the final release under this name. It's a wild ride, merging heavy grunge power chords, shoegazey passages, out-of-control punk segments, noise-shrouded power-pop, as well as detours into everything from acoustic balladry to abstract electronics. In terms of buzz bands from two decades ago, it's a little bit Wavves, a little bit No Age.
I had assumed this project was already toast, so the existence of an album this bracing is exciting. Schwester will take it from here: way too long of the same day, the same bullshit, all the same, all the same, over and over, again and again, and i got sick and tired of being sick and tired so i hatched a harebrained, convoluted, hours-and-money-burning plan to shatter that loop beyond repair. eventually i crawled over the finish line, with barely a day left before i had to go on tour with another band. here is the result. even now, here i am, typing these liner notes when the record’s already been released. i was never one to respect a deadline. this is the final plague skater album. i always meant for it to be that. i also meant for this record to be a lot different in a lot of ways. but you can only make what you can make… so here it is. acoustic guitars, auto-tune, keyboards, violin. songs that are just verses and songs that are just bridges. a blues song, a free jazz song, a house song hidden in another song, a seventeen minute long krautrock noise jam. twenty tracks. one continuous, hour-long piece of music. at last, my greatest failure and my goddamn masterpiece.
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