My band, Safe Houses, just dropped a new single and music video, “I’ll Be Bad to You,” and it’s currently available on all the usual-suspect platforms: video on YouTube and Vimeo; audio on Bandcamp, SoundCloud, Spotify, YouTube Music, and the other major streamers. I often describe Safe Houses’ sound as “jangle-garage,” but what that really means is a blend of powerpop, garage rock, “classic indie,” post-punk, and whatever else happens to be in the air. Punk backing and ‘60s pop sensibility that reserves the right to go off the rails when appropriate. “I’ll Be Bad to You” is, to my ear, squarely in the powerpop zone, but we welcome alternate opinions. It’s the latest digital-only release from my label, University of Space Recording Co., and the lead single from our upcoming EP, The Winter I Turned Psychic. It’s also available via a QR code on a business card, and if you’re in a bar or a coffee shop in Bushwick, Brooklyn or Ridgewood, Queens, you might find a few. The QR code links to Bandcamp – you can actually download the song there, for just $1.

We shot the video for “I’ll Be Bad to You” in and outside of East Williamsburg EconoLodge, the long-running DIY spot somewhere in the tangle of the industrial park. We worked with co-directors Tasha Lutek and Jamie Frey, friends of ours – Tasha and Jamie also co-directed our video for “Someday Is Starting Now,” and Jamie fronts the excellent NYC rock’n’roll band Nite Music. (I played guitar for a spell in NO ICE, Jamie’s previous excellent NYC rock’n’roll band.) The concept is that Safe Houses and our fictional “evil” counterparts, Dangerous Motels, are both playing shows, and Dangerous Motels keep trying to undermine Safe Houses’ gig while harassing folks around the venue. Then, of course, Safe Houses and Dangerous Motels face off, or in other words we basically have to fight ourselves in the street. We shot it in one very productive afternoon.

When we play “I’ll Be Bad to You” live, I often intro it by saying, “This song is about what it’s like when you’re single and you’re thinking, ‘If I could convince someone to be in a relationship with me, I’d be a really good partner,’ and then you find yourself in a relationship and you realize you were totally wrong about yourself.”

I wrote it from the point of view of an archetypal Bad Boyfriend, who reacts to being called self-involved and inattentive by explaining that’s just who he is as a person. A while back, after a Safe Houses show, someone in attendance asked me, “Are you really that bad, or are you joking?” I said, “Well, I’ve been with the same person for eight years, so I guess I’m doing something right, but before that I was on the apps like anyone else, and I don’t think that song is autobiographical, but you get exposed to a lot of shit on the apps.” 

As mentioned, “I’ll Be Bad to You,” is part of the EP Safe Houses has been sitting on for some time, The Winter I Turned Psychic. It was recorded with the previous lineup of this band (me on guitar/vocals, Madi Cox on keyboards/vocals, Alex Heigl on bass, Dan Miura on drums), with producer Oliver Ignatius. My guidance to Oliver before recording was, “I want it to sound like it’s played by The Move in 1967, but produced like Big Star’s Radio City.” Oliver said, “I know how to do that,” because he is essentially a psychedelic wizard. While the release of this music has been delayed forever – first on account of an IP dispute that gummed us up for close to a year, then on account of losing our previous keyboard player and integrating keyboard player and singer Kiri Oliver (you may know Kiri from her seriously great “cello punk” band Early Riser) – now we’re looking at a flood of music coming out imminently. Look for the full release (cassette and digital) of The Winter I Turned Psychic later in 2055 on University of Space Records – and then look out for our next album, In Spite of Everything, It’s Safe Houses, which we’re currently preparing to record. The current lineup of Safe Houses is me, Kiri, Jon Mann on bass, and Cory Rohr on drums. We are the Safe Houses/Dangerous Motels who star in the video.

“I’ll Be Bad to You” was given an exclusive premiere yesterday by BandNada, whose Rob Lanterman said, in a nadaLight Feature, “If you know what’s good for you (or just want to watch Jon Mann with a mustache beat himself up), then you’ll watch it. Right. The fuck. Nooooooooooow*!! It’s Telecaster pop at its purest.” Other sonic experts of the 2025 digital blogosphere have said:

“I’m having a hard time listening to anything other than this Safe Houses single today… When you press play on the track, you get instant gratification with clanging guitar riffs and stomping drums… Stomp and pop, crashing organ, and each time the layer of vocals greets your ear, your face breaks out into a huge grin. Go on, try it on.” — Nathan Lankford, Austin Town Hall

“The jangly powerpop truth telling and mild face slapping of ‘I’ll Be Bad to You’ … not only takes me back but gives me grand dreams that late 70’s/80’s-esque powerpop distillations are not only firmly back but will invasively spread like crabgrass… Had me flashing on Paramount, California’s relatively short lived The Plimsouls and Tulsa, Oklahoma’s 20/20. Safe Houses, while wonderfully acerbic, manage to not sound like a strict kitsch or retro band but, instead, pure and purely inspired by iconic sounds while adding their own level of subversions… Like a punkified or garage rock version of the Beatles.” — Robb Donker Curtius, American Pancake

“I actually hear a lot of Britpop in this track… It sounds much more raw than those bands, though; there is an element of garage/punk here in the loudness and the tones of the sound, something DIY and also slightly vintage… something that could be done in the 50s, 60s or pretty much any decade after that. It is not dated by any means but comes across as something intentionally made retro-sounding. I liked the energy and nostalgia.” — Spiros Maus, Start Track

*Lanterman is referencing the earlier Safe Houses single “Someday Is Starting Now.” Also worth checking out.

https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/6bsW7FP14fQd0h5JIBTIFI?utm_source=generator