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Jan 17, 2024 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Bridget Hagen

Last year, Rochester-based punk outfit Carpool announced they’d signed with SideOneDummy and returned with an anthemic new single, “Can We Just Get High?,” the first taste of their forthcoming album, My Life In Subtitles. Fans last heard from the band with their 2020 effort, Erotic Nightmare Summer, and their upcoming record hits on a similarly riff-heavy style of emo and indie punk, complete with barrelling rhythms, hooky gang vocals, and an existential lyrical bent.

Today, they’re back with the record’s second single, “Open Container Blues,” featuring Bri Wright of Tulsa emo band CLIFFDIVER, premiering with Under the Radar.

Where the band’s previous track leaned hard on a towering hook, “Open Container Blues” throws math rock guitars and rollicking rhythms into the mix, bolstered by an equally infectious chorus. Meanwhile, the band pairs the churning builds and throat-shredding vocals with a pop-friendly melodic side, including an interlude laced with synths and keys and a yearning verse from Bri Wright. The results are hard-hitting, intensely catchy, and instantly cathartic, the kind of song that feels tailor-made for you to scream along with.

Stoph Colasanto says of the track, “‘Open Container Blues’ is a song about toxic relationships, money, and substance (a real 3 for 1!). Its hook relies on the premise that somehow the grass is always greener on the other side. ‘Everything I’m chasing is a dollar away’ is a very common school of thought. It’s similar to the old adage ‘another day another dollar,’ in the sense that we’re literally miserable toiling our lives away for that next best thing; but once you get it, you’ll want even more. Or on the other side of that very same coin - you’ll always be so close to your goal (want or need) and always be just a dollar short (or a second late).

My favorite thing about playing music in this scene is the friendships that I’ve made along the way. One of the best friendships that has come out of us playing and touring has been with our cousins in Cliffdiver. All 876 of those cats mean the world and more to us (they have a lot of members haha). I sent Bri the track and asked if she wanted to sing the second verse, and lucky for us she said yes! Her voice is so good, it literally gives me chills every time I watch her or hear her perform. Gas up cousin, happy new year! Shout out Rochester New York.”

Cliffdiver’s Briana Wright adds, “My infatuation with Carpool has been ongoing for years, so just as a fan I have been dying for new music. Being invited along for OCB was an honor and I can’t wait to watch them blow up from the 50 go bills”

Check out the song and video below