Los Angeles punk band Mermaid Island have announced their self-titled debut album, arriving Friday, June 12. The record will be released digitally via No Dad Records, with a vinyl edition through Anxious and Angry.
Alongside the announcement, the band have shared a new single and video, “Ice Cream,” which captures the aggression, urgency, and ethos of the band. Guitarist and vocalist Alex MacDonald explains that its lyrics grapple with anger, fighting burnout, and the fervor to keep going when the search for comfort comes up empty.
At the center of the song’s inspiration was an absurd moment of clarity. “A five-year-old was running a toy ice cream shop,” MacDonald recalls. “I handed over fake money, asked for chocolate, and got vanilla. I pointed out that paying customers should get to choose their order. The kid was unmoved and said: ‘You get what you get, and don’t get upset.’ I tried to teach her about capitalism but she didn’t seem to care. She was using this mantra to placate me and it cracked me up. But it did stick with me, and I used it to get through some annoying situations of my own.”
The accompanying video bites back: an automated robot-run ice cream truck denies the crew the single cone they can afford, and it sparks a revolt. They steal the truck, drive through the streets of LA, land in a parking lot and hand out all the ice cream for free.
Mermaid Island are set to take the stage this spring and summer with more shows to be announced soon:
5/9 — Los Angeles, CA — Bar Sinister
5/25 — Highland Park, CA — Arroyo Secodelic Festival
6/14 — Long Beach, CA — 4th Horseman
7/17 — Los Angeles, CA (Record Release Show) — The Slipper Clutch
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