GIANT DAY – “DEVIL DOG”
A SPILL EXCLUSIVE MUSIC PREMIERE
Athens, Georgia ex-pats Giant Day, a duo of Derek Almstead (Olivia Tremor Control, the Glands, Circulatory System, of Montreal) and Emily Growden (Faster Circuits, Marshmallow Coast) release the first single today titled “Devil Dog” off their sophomore album ‘Alarm‘ due out on October 10th, 2025 on the Elephant 6 Recording Co label. “Devil Dog” is a nervy somewhat dark post punk bop that still rings out with a bit of hope. It has flashes of retro-futurism, dada, and a groove that nods to the krauty-jazz-rock of Can if they had Grace Jones channeling the B-52s before the song kicks in overdrive in a claustrophobic sprint down a hallway that is closing in around them seeing light at the end of it, picking up the pace leaping out the door before everything crashes down behind them. It’s the perfect dance party anthem to put on to sway to after a long day protesting in the hellscape that is the current vibe in the United States. ‘Devil Dog’ is an intense single to start off with given the Elephant 6 sound is so connected to lots of sunshiney pop, but it shows how the sound is growing in new and exciting directions.
“Devil Dog” is an intense intro to the album, but ‘Alarm‘ also has its moments of optimism with washes of dreampop, danceable post punk, even some chill drones of meditational bliss, but the underlying theme is a bit of unease. It’s the soundtrack to living in what could be a sci-fi fever dream of non-stop surveillance, and the eerie calm before the storm, but it still reaches out for human connection and the urge to build community even as the tones are mostly electronic. ‘Alarm‘ isn’t overly political in a punk or folk traditionalist way, but it is political in the way that just trying to exist and create in this climate is a political statement. ‘Alarm’ is a record of revolution for a generation who were promised flying cars, but ended up watching their creative culture being destroyed by AI.
In talking to Derek Almstead of the band we got a little background about the single, “Mike Watt was my biggest influence when I was learning bass as a teenager, and I even had a Minutemen cover band in Athens, GA in the 2010s. The song started from the bass line and that’s where I hear it coming from. Lyrically, it’s a reminder to those in power that their lives are equally as worthless and/or important as everyone else’s. We wanted to surround it with danceable angularity, à la early Athens art party bands like Pylon and the B52s.”
Giant Day
Alarm
(Elephant 6)
Release Date: October 10, 2025
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