Nightmare Antidote, Happy Birthday to Get Hustle’s Rollin’ in the Ruins, Released 11/08/01

Being alive in the months following 9/11 was some weird-ass shit. The world was changing fast, and in the worst, dumbest, ugliest of ways. Of course the United States of America has always been a genocidal shit-hole, but post-9/11 things became a circus—a circus that continues to entertain in nightmare fashion to this day. The no-fun-at-all circus. The circus of your demise.

Listening to Get Hustle’s Rollin’ in the Ruins during that stupid time period felt like listening to a cross-section of my brain and a bloody snapshot of the American experience. It is a hectic, violent, hard-charging onslaught in the most cathartic, relatable sense. You can’t stick a label on this band. It’s some kind of dark punk cabaret fever trip and looking to put this band in a box is a futile endeavor. Don’t do it. Just throw it on and smash your heart up. It’s healthy. I promise.

In a time period that made you want to punch things, it was nice knowing Get Hustle was doing some of the punchin’ for you.

–Adam Gnade, author of After Tonight, Everything Will Be Different and The Internet Newspaper