Have A Nice Life

Mixing gloomy ambience with bits of droning shoegaze and an industrial strain of post-punk, Connecticut duo Have a Nice Life rode a wave of grassroots Internet support in the late 2000s and were embraced as champions of the distressed and depressed. Following their self-released 2008 debut, Deathconsciousness, the experimental band's reputation slowly expanded into vaunted cult status, setting the stage for similarly morose releases like 2014's The Unnatural World and the slightly more uptempo Sea of Worry in 2019. Musicians Dan Barrett and Tim Macuga started out in the mid-2000s, deflating crowds at local open mikes with their usually desolate songs which they soon began recording at home as bits of lo-fi experimentation. Without having any real expectations, they released their first collection, Deathconsciousness, in 2008 on their own Enemies List Home Recordings label. A sprawling double album that careened between ethereal opiate textures, dark-hued post-rock, shoegaze, and melancholic post-punk, the album had no publicity campaign to speak of, but thanks to online communities like Sputnikmusic and 4chan's /mu/, it took on a life of its own, surprising Barrett and Macuga with the ferocity of its supporters. Emo-rapper Lil Peep even sampled the opening track, giving Have a Nice Life additional cred and exposure. The band played live sporadically, releasing a follow-up EP, Time of Land, in 2010 before teaming up with West Coast outsider label the Flenser to deliver their next album, The Unnatural World, in 2014. The album doubled down on the noise and goth sides of Have a Nice Life's sound and was well-received by their fervent fan base. Meanwhile, they continued to manage their Enemies List label, releasing like-minded albums that catered to their brand of doom rock. A more energetic-sounding third full-length, Sea of Worry, appeared in 2019 in conjunction with the Flenser label. ~ Timothy Monger, Rovi