We Speak Rock
The World/Inferno Friendship Society Releases 20th Anniversary Reissue of Red-Eyed Soul on Ernest Jenning Record Co.
“Combine equal parts Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, rock & roll bombast, add a dash of vaudeville, play at top speed, and you’ve got World/Inferno Friendship Society.” – Rolling Stone
“The best punk-slash-klezmer band in history” – VICE
“Red-Eyed Soul, and by extension, the World/Inferno Friendship Society, doesn’t just defy categorization, it spits in its face… It’s memorable, it’s anthemic, it questions and it rips at the beliefs that we base our society on.” – Punknews
“The best live performance you’re bound to see on the circuit today.” – Punk Planet
Stream: Red-Eyed Soul on Bandcamp
Today The World/Inferno Friendship Society and Ernest Jenning Record Co. are excited to release the 20th-anniversary reissue of the legendary band’s classic double LP Red-Eyed Soul, available on vinyl for the first time since its original 2006 release. Newly pressed at 45rpm under the supervision of original producer Don Fury, the reissue is available now on Bandcamp.
Self-described at the time as “New York and New Jersey’s disturbingly cult-like, circus-related, Halloween-tent-revival orchestra,” World/Inferno became a northeastern punk phenomenon in the 2000s, drawing hitchhiking, trainhopping anarchists, misfits, and theater kids to their legendary live shows and Halloween spectacles, and becoming arguably (alongside sometime collaborators Leftover Crack) the biggest NYC punk band of the decade. They were equally able to share stages with hardcore and art-rock bands without being domesticable into any one scene — “a band,” wrote The New York Times in singer Jack Terricloth’s obituary, “that melded punk defiance with the decadent theatricality of Weimar-era cabaret.”
Red-Eyed Soul was the culminating statement of the group’s classic second lineup, a tightly-arranged nine-piece juggernaut (including the three-piece horn section of Peter Hess, Maura Corrigan, and Dan Bailey; percussionist Semra Ercin, drummer Ben Kotch, guitarist Lucky Strano, bassist Yula Be’eri, and piano/accordionist Franz Nicolay) which solidified from the group’s 1990s incarnation as a loose collective to become their longest continuous lineup 2000–07, captured on 2002’s Just The Best Party and 2004’s Hallowmas Live at Northsix. After a series of EPs, the group (augmented by Bang On A Can saxophonist Ken Thomson and a string quartet) completed the sprawling RES sessions with producer Don Fury (best known for his work with NYC hardcore acts like Agnostic Front and Gorilla Biscuits) at his Cyclone Sound studios in Coney Island. The original vinyl release, reproduced here in improved fidelity and on tan/smoke colored vinyl, was conceived and executed as an omnibus anthology of five years of the group’s songwriting 2002–07, including the EPs Speak of Brave Men and Me V. Angry Mob as well as the unreleased tracks “Please My Favorite Don’t Be Sad” and “We Will Never Run Into One Another On Trains.”
From the infectiously danceable and politically astringent “Brother of the Mayor of Bridgewater” and “Paul Robeson,” to the ferocious, anthemic “Fiend In Wien,” to the spiraling melodicism of “Me V. Angry Mob” and “The Devil’s Ball;” from the acoustic to the orchestral, Red-Eyed Soul stands as a definitive assertion of the breadth of the musical and philosophical ambition — to make punk a treat again! the vaudeville circus you always wished your life could be, can be! fate loves the fearless! — of one of the 21st century’s most inimitable, indefinable, and irrepressible bands.
Red-Eyed Soul was released in April 2006; by September of that year, World/Inferno was debuting its evening-length theatrical concept piece about the life of Peter Lorre — in keeping with the fertile productivity of that time, look for ENRC’s twentieth-anniversary reissue of Addicted To Bad Ideas: Peter Lorre’s 20th Century in 2027!
Red-Eyed Soul Track List
SIDE 1
Brother Of The Mayor Of Bridgewater
The Velocity Of Love
Your Younger Man
Only Anarchists Are Pretty
SIDE 2
Let’s Steal Everything
Annie The Imaginary Lawyer
Me V. Angry Mob
Hothouse Flowers
Leni Riefenstahl At The End Of Time
SIDE 3
Paul Robeson
Me And The Mad Monkettes
Please My Favorite Don’t Be Sad
Fiend In Wien
Cats Are Not Lucky Creatures
SIDE 4
We Will Never Run Into One Another On Trains
Jerusalem Boys
The Devil’s Ball
So Long To The Circus
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Brooklyn’s Sledding Announce Debut EP, Share ‘Covert Station’
Brooklyn’s Sledding announce debut EP Sleep Tight, out November 20th, and share new single and video “Covert Station.”
PRAISE FOR SLEDDING
“Brooklyn froze over last winter, and Sledding answered by getting loud. The indie rock four-piece arrive with “My Golden Tempo,” a hard-hitting debut single crackling with raw heat and the pent-up energy of a band ready to break out” — Atwood Magazine
“a rhythm-driven and austere sound” — Alt Citizen
“Sledding is a poster band for the power of networking in Brooklyn’s fertile music scene” — Magnet Magazine
“Brooklyn’s Sledding have officially arrived, and their debut single, “My Golden Tempo,” is the kind of first impression every young band hopes to make.” — Get Some Mag
This past summer, Brooklyn rock band Sledding released their debut single, “My Golden Tempo,” a hard-hitting, ’90s rock-adjacent anthem that quickly earned them support and recognition as a band to watch. Making music together since their undergraduate days at Fordham University, where they were immersed in the school’s DIY house show scene, the members have collaborated across various projects including Boy Factory and Veronica, while remaining deeply involved in Brooklyn’s local music community.
Comprised of vocalist/guitarist Aidan Drouse, vocalist/guitarist Khadija “Deej” Aslam, and bassist Kelsey Kussman, Sledding formed in a Ridgewood basement last winter during New York’s historic back-to-back blizzards. With the addition of guitarist and keyboardist Woods Prewitt, the band found its final form and quickly became a fixture of Brooklyn’s live music scene, performing at venues including Baby’s All Right, Night Club 101, and Le Bain.
Today, Sledding announce their debut EP, Sleep Tight, due November 20th, alongside new single “Covert Station,” a moody, raw, and eerie heavy hitter that draws from the darker side of ’90s alternative rock, pairing brooding guitars and atmospheric textures with the band’s knack for cathartic songwriting.
Evoking the shadowy, dreamlike qualities of acts like Slowdive and The Cure while maintaining a distinctly modern edge, “Covert Station” finds Sledding pushing their sound into darker and more immersive territory.
“When you’re writing music in the general arena of “rock,” the associated energy can be heightened and frenetic. Obviously we dabble in this as well, but the intent with our discography is to be able to subsume a breadth of emotion; we don’t want the ambiance of any two songs to feel redundant,” Drouse explains. “We deal with a lot of ominous energy in our music, and Covert Station just leans into a more ominous sub-genre of angst. We’re angst connoisseurs. This is a song about when you never fall asleep, but you also never wake up and when you get loud because anything is quieter than silence.”
Deeply rooted in New York’s DIY community, Sledding has shared bills with bands including fashn and tal castle. Beyond the band, Aslam was recently recognized by Paste for her work on Adam Offitzer’s concert-tracking platform Encore, as well as her own platform, Backline NYC, an app that helps musicians find and offer equipment, services, and resources.
Built on years of creative collaboration, a DIY ethos, and a commanding live presence, Sledding are introducing themselves as one of Brooklyn’s most exciting new rock bands.
“Covert Station” by Sledding is out October 30th. Sleep Tight EP is out November 20th, 2026.
SLEEP TIGHT TRACKLISTING
1. My Golden Tempo
2. &Again
3. Lorelai
4. Covert Station
5. Did you know there are chords living down here?
SLEDDING BIO:
Sledding is a rock band from Brooklyn comprised of drummer Connor Middlebrook, bassist Kelsey Kussman, guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Woods Prewitt, and singers/guitarists Khadija “Deej” Aslam and Aidan Drouse. Equal parts somber and seductive, Sledding’s overdriven groove takes cues from post-punk of all ages, while its songwriting ventures into murkier, more expansive terrain. The blistering heaviness of Sledding’s sound, propelled by high-energy guitar work, jagged rhythms and deep, throbbing bass, belies the clever songwriting that sets them apart from Brooklyn’s average indie act. The interplay between the two lead vocalists represents the finely tuned product of two young veterans of New York’s alternative rock scene honing their craft. The often conversational, sometimes confrontational vocal tension at the center of these songs raises the emotional stakes and keeps the listener guessing, even as all three guitars coalesce into searing walls of distortion. At their passionate, pummeling peaks and in their mellower, more tender moments alike, the nuanced songcraft of five seasoned musicians firing on all cylinders can be heard in high fidelity across the music of Sledding.
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