Formed in 2017, Slaughterhouse is a band influenced by punk, goth, and new wave, and the music scene in their homebase of South Bay, Los Angeles. Made up of 16 cities, the region is integral to the group's members.
"Growing up as a kid, the vibe in Hermosa Beach was super cool," bassist Eddie Cairns tells No Echo. "It was full of skaters, punks, hippies, surfers, bikers, and volleyball players. Very 'California.' You could still hear bands in garages and make friends running a muck around town. San Pedro is like a sister city to a lot of us who were bonded through channel street skatepark. Both San Pedro and Redondo / Hermosa beach have a very DIY ethic that was most notable to us from Black Flag and the Minutemen."
Some of the pivotal bands to come out of the South Bay include Circle Jerks, Redd Kross, and Minutemen. Slaughterhouse guitarist Taylor Ramirez's uncles played in the hardcore bands Detonators and Instigator back in the day. "Yeah, my dad and his sisters, and their husbands, were all young punks running around the South Bay and Hollywood so I was very much raised with that influence in my house," says Taylor.
Slaughterhouse have kept up a busy working schedule since forming, playing alongside such bands as Bad Religion, Amyl & the Sniffers, and Destroy Boys. In 2023, they kicked off the year supporting Joyce Manor at Long Beach Arena, another band entreched in the South Bay punk tradition.
Since releasing their debut album, Fun Factory, in 2021, Slaughterhouse have released a slew of singles, and tomorrow the quartet will be releasing a new EP called Sick and Tired. The song's propulsive energy and vocal hooks should appeal to fans of everything from melodic hardcore to Fat Wreck Chords to '90s alt.rock. Taylor explains the group's stylistic ethos. "We try not to let strict sub-genres limit our sound. All of us as individuals have pretty different tastes and influences within those genres which I think all come together in a unique way."
Slaughterhouse teamed up with director Angela Ricciardi to create a music video for "DNA," and No Echo got the hook up. Vocalist Meriel O’Connell offers: "[DNA is] more of a larger scale fuck you to living in this cis-, hetero-, Euro-centrist, ableist, capitalist hellscape…isn’t that cool?!"
Sick and Tired was recorded by Cameron Webb (Bayside, Alkaline Trio), and its title track is very close and personal to Meriel. "I’d written the lyrics in my Notes app, and one day Eddie and Taylor had brought in a riff they were working on and it just fit perfectly," the singer says.
"I wrote the lyrics when I was struggling a lot with myself and my identity, and I feel like the song is really about how I imagine people see me in this really horrible lens. But that being said, it’s also about how people can judge others in whatever way they want to, and regardless it really has no bearing on who you actually are."
For its music video, Slaughterhouse collaborated with directors Rye Beres and Nick Green:
Slaughterhouse hooked up with the nice folks over at Pirates Press Records to release the Sick and Tired EP. The NorCal label has also issued releases by the likes of Subhumans, Rancid, and Cock Sparrer throughout the years.
"While we were on tour with UK legends Grade2 in 2023, we got to visit the Pirates Press warehouse because that’s where the band was staying, so we were invited to come by," says Taylor about Slaughterhouse's initial connection to their future label. "That’s where we met Gowdy who works for the label, he showed us around their incredible space in Oakland.
"Since then, we’ve kept in touch and he has become a fan and advocate of the band. The stars had lined up that we’d recorded some songs I had told Gowdy about, and he immediately said we should do something with them. Pirates Press Records has been so supportive and it’s great to have people like Gowdy, and now Vique, on our team. We’re very excited to release this EP with them."
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Sick and Tired will be released tomorrow (February 7th) via Pirates Press Records (order vinyl | pre-save digital).
Slaughterhouse on social media: Facebook | Instagram | TikTok
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