SMILE – Gotta Run
Old wounds written off as something you were born with, a punishment you get to pick yourself, and the smallest dog in the pack squeezing out while the rest keep fighting. “Gotta Run” treats leaving a family as a physical ordeal, skin rubbed raw by the getting away, and the rhythm section makes it feel like one: a deep, heavy drumbeat and a thick, dirty bassline take up nearly all the room, with the guitar sawing away underneath. Rubee Fegan half speaks, half snarls in a way that owes something to Kim Gordon, pushing into shouts as the pressure climbs, until gentle strumming opens up around her voice and everything slows to a stop.
Fegan spends the video in a pink poodle costume, walking and driving through her hometown of Albuquerque. Lead single from the post-punk quintet’s second album Gun-Shy, out January 22, 2027 on Siluh Records. Mean, physical, worth every bruise.
