Baltimore’s Mark Davison has dedicated the last 20 years to standing out as one of the most prolific artists in the rock music scene. Starting out as one half of duo, Cubic Feet, he’s now joined in his latest project, Nuke The Soup, by keyboardist Brian Simms, bassist Mike Mennell, drummer Chester Thompson, and guitarists Andy Thurston, Rennie Grant and Gerry Leonard. Having released two albums so far since their founding, ‘Make Waves Not War’ in 2009, and ‘Deeper’, in 2018, they’re working on a new album, which is set to be released in 2025.
New single, ‘Bugs’, which is accompanied by a lyric video, was originally a track on ‘Deeper’, and has now come into its own, as a fun dance song, irresistible to bob along to. The lyrics of ‘Bugs’, however, reveal much darker, and more personal themes, with the narrator of the song referring to the struggles of overcoming addition. Inspired by William S. Burroughs’ 1959 novel, ‘Naked Lunch’], as well as the 1991 David Cronenberg film of the same name, which follows an exterminator who becomes addicted to his pesticide, Davison adapts this as “bug powder” in his song. You will likely have already noticed the Bowie connections of Gerry “Spooky Ghost” Leonard, Bowie’s former guitarist, and William S. Burroughs, who inspired Bowie’s songwriting style with his “cut-up” method, and whose 1974 Rolling Stone Magazine interview with the Thin White Duke is legendary. A further connection is producer Kevin Killen, who also produced ‘Blackstar’, Bowie’s final album.
The lyric video for ‘Bugs’ features footage of the 2024 emergence of cicadas across the south and mid-west of the US. It’s been a double celebration this year (if you want to call it that) with both the 13 year and 17 year broods coinciding this year in their emergence from below the ground. Cicadas feature prominently in the clip, showing the audience the uncomfortableness of addiction and withdrawal, and shares the same stark contrast in tones that the song has, with lyrics displayed in bright colours and with wacky transitions, all superimposed against close-ups of the noisy insects.
Find out more about Nuke The Soup and their music online on their official website, and Facebook.
