DENM - LIFE’S TOO SHORT

Feeling stressed? Decompress with DENM's "Life Too Short," a dose of breezy, optimistic Garage Pop for the early spring.

Sometimes it seems like every single aspect of life in 2019 is designed to induce lethal amounts of stress. Climate change, income inequality, economic uncertainty, corrupt politicians, back-biting, in-fighting. It's like you need either some sort of heavy anti-anxiety medication or some extreme Zen training just to get out of bed in the morning.

There's a certain amount of confirmation bias in this, however. And if there were some sort of unholy cabal running the show - and we're definitely not ruling that out - it seems like keeping the population in a state of continual panic and pessimism would serve their purposes all too well. Happy, secure, powerful people are much harder to manipulate and control.

No matter how bad things get, there is almost always some sort of silver lining. Forest fires and volcanic eruptions make way for explosive new growth. Pain is a touchstone of growth, as the saying goes. There's no gain without pain, to put it in more t-shirt-worthy terms.

DENM's newest single "Life's Too Short" is the sonic equivalent of Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Newman. "What, Me Worry?" DENM seems to be asking while levitating three inches above the ground. Nothing seems to get to LA' s finest purveyor of Garage Pop, an addictive mixture of beachy acoustic rock and down 'n dirty hip-hop.

DENM - LIFE’S TOO SHORT

DENM's music has always been almost unbelievably optimistic, with previous hits like "Bless Your Heart" or an acoustic piano rendition of Outkast's "Hey Ya." While his lyrics and vocals have always been as light and bouncy as pink bubblegum, earlier singles had a little bit of an ominousness waiting in the wings. The growling synths and drilling Trap hi-hats brought to mind bombed-out inner city tenements as much as days at the beach.

For the first time with "Life's Too Short," the music and the message align. The Trap beats sparkle like seafoam while DENM's guitar glistens like daffodils in the early spring sunrise. It's truly fresh, completely invigorating.

If you need a sonic cleanse from the last 3 years (and we all do), "Life's Too Short" will help remind you of what really matters - love, friendship, good music, and appreciating what you have. We Are: The Guard appreciate the ability to have helped usher DENM into the world. We released his earliest breakout album, Dreamhouse, to rapturous praise. "Life's Too Short" is coming out on Rock Mafia, bringing the Garage Pop gospel to a whole fresh crop of ears, eyes, and hearts.

J. Simpson occupies the intersection between criticism, creativity, and academia. Based out of Portland, Or., he is the author of Forestpunk, an online journal/brand studying the traces of horror, supernatural, and the occult through music, fashion and culture. He plays in the dreamfolk band Meta-Pinnacle with his partner Lily H. Valentine, with whom he also co-founded Bitstar Productions, a visual arts collective focused on elevating Pop Culture to High Art.