Stuffed Sloths and Chaos: You Gotta Love Trash Rabbit
Photo courtesy of Noor Shoresh // @_noor_shoresh
“I’m so sick of drivin’ and ending up back home” croons Trash Rabbit’s Mena Lemos on the band’s new single “Rubberneck”. The track combines heartfelt lyrics which have sustained classic emo with broad experimentation in both structure and sound. From Lemos’ corybantic shriek to the sudden spark of sporadic organs and thundering bassline, “Rubberneck” has all the characteristics of a classic rock hit. Though when I got the chance to sit down with the band, I found that they were not the formulaic rock band one may have envisioned from Berklee students but something entirely new; they were uniquely Trash Rabbit.
“It was a lot more evident that people were here to see us,” said guitarist Gia Flores about the band’s recent shows. When I interviewed Trash Rabbit they had just played two back-to-back live shows the night before. Though the band was still filled with undeniably infectious energy.
“The hometown show of any tour is the best show,” bassist Nic Adams chimed in with pride. The pride was for Allston, Massachusetts, whose large college population has led to a growing underground scene, especially for the emo sound. Trash Rabbit grew out of the Allston scene, and their cathartic, moshable, sound became a staple as their live performances grew in popularity.
Lemos said she values that the crowds for their shows are high energy. “Our band is more known for our live shows than the Spotify streams, as of now,” said Flores. Building an audience of devoted fans to flood live shows is an old-school style of building a fan base, and Trash Rabbit seems to have perfected it as word of their shows has spread to colleges across Boston.
Trash Rabbit does carry on the seeds of several classic sounds, but there is experimentation flourishing in every corner of their music. This is a product of their influences which the band said included Rush, Blink 182, PUP, Charles Mingus Jr., Radiohead, and Paramore. This range allows for the band’s sound to be anything but boxed in, which is present in their current discography.
Though emo as a genre has been historically boxed in by the expectation of white, male dominance in the genre. A sad white dude wailing into a mic over some lost high school girlfriend is sadly what some have associated with the emo genre. Though Trash Rabbit has been redefining what real emo looks like through every move they make. As a queer and POC band, Trash Rabbit carries a variety of identities, which add intersectionality to their sound and background.
“I definitely feel like a little bit of an outlier sometimes,” said Flores candidly. “There’s still so much, so much work.”
Adams said their biggest issue is seeing someone who looks like them on stage. Trash Rabbit is changing the game by not just doing things differently, but doing things better. Their sound is undeniably new, their shows are definitively wild, and their traction is authentically homegrown.
Covid interrupted the underground music scene, but Trash Rabbit is determined to move past the pause that the pandemic put on life. Trash Rabbit was originally made up of Mena Lemos, Nic Adam, and Gibran Mobarak. As life began to return to normal, the crew found the profoundly talented Gia Flores as an additional guitarist. Now, they’ve turned the pain that quarantine collectively inflicted into music and are poised to drill their sound into even more ears.
Though the band’s sound is expansive, and their motives serious, they remain undeniably silly individuals. I was blessed to meet a lesser-known Trash Rabbit member during the interview: Ms. Sloth, an adorable stuffed animal sloth. A heated debate broke out as the interview closed and the subject of conversation turned to whether each member would rather fight 1,000 elephant-sized ants or 1 ant-sized elephant. The deciding factor for guitarist Gia Flores? The cuteness of the ant-sized elephants.
Trash Rabbit is an authentic wonder of the greater Boston underground music scene. Their chaotic energy translates perfectly into a wider emo sound, but they maintain their status as a fresh appearance within the emo genre. The band may be sick of driving just to end up going back home, but it appears they’re only going up from here.
Everyone should catch a Trash Rabbit show to see the energy for themselves, but in the meantime, Trash Rabbit’s new single “Rubberneck” is available to stream across all platforms, and their social media is updated with the latest shows and band news.