Two weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic shut the live music scene down, Linnea Herzog was getting things started with her new band. Herzog was winding things down with her previous sex-positive punk group PowerSlut, and the transition to her latest project Linnea’s Garden happened “pretty much immediately after the last PowerSlut show.” But, the band’s plans for practice, recording, and live shows were “dashed pretty much immediately” once lockdown took effect. The initial Linnea’s Garden lineup — made up of Herzog on vocals and guitar, Amy Galavis on bass, and Steve Nisotel on drums — changed with the pandemic, as Herzog adapted to jam and record with her quarantine pod consisting of her partner Hands O’d and Tom O’Donnell of Corner Soul over the summer instead. The result is Nowhere Friday Nights, a five-song EP premiering today with Allston Pudding.
Consisting of songs written after the inception of Linnea’s Garden as well as ones from years prior, Nowhere Friday Nights sees the band delivering consistently catchy and subversive takes on power pop and punk. Much of the EP’s sound and recording is tied to Herzog’s own DIY philosophy she’s carried through her approach to music, one that she developed while working toward a PhD in neuroscience. “I was combining techniques from two different labs I was in,” she says, “and I had to figure out how to write code that didn’t exist.” Linnea’s Garden gave Herzog an opportunity to develop that philosophy even further, from practicing as a lead guitarist in order to best perform older songs, to working with self-taught producer O’Donnell to bring the record to life. In each aspect of Linnea’s Garden, Herzog recognizes the ways in which her studies inform her mindset toward her music. “Like science, it’s a lot of teamwork. But it’s also a lot of believing in your own ideas and having passion and working hard enough to make sure it happens.”
That outlook applies to the holistic blend of genres and influences Herzog brings to Nowhere Friday Nights. Inspired by everything from girl groups of the ‘60s, to the glam rock of the ‘70s, to “all the alternative ‘90s weirdos” and pop music (“because [I] always want to be ahead of the trends”), Herzog specializes in synthesizing various differing eras to define her own sound and innovating in tried-and-true songwriting forms. In the case of EP opener “Nondramatic Breakup Song,” Herzog inverts the expectations of a ‘60s garage rock song to create a lyrically atypical track about an uneventful end to a queer relationship. Breaking the norms within these established styles is what Herzog believes is “part of any great artist,” stating, “you have to do stuff that’s a little bit crazy to make a mark on the world.”
“Science and You” and “Glitter” take similar approaches at reworking familiar song structures, the former a twist on ‘60s mid-tempo girl group songs and the latter being the EP’s most directly punk-oriented song, to subversively sex-positive and gender-inclusive effect. “Sexuality and queerness are part of who I am, [and] I really struggled with [it] for a long time,” Herzog says. “But to really live in it and express it was hugely rewarding for me with PowerSlut. And so, it’d be kind of weird if I didn’t continue that with Linnea’s Garden.”
The track that gives the EP its title, “Friday Night,” takes a different approach, though. Operating as a booming melodic power pop anthem, the song is an ode to the power of self-expression even when there’s nowhere to go. Built around the bombastic refrain “the music is our fight,” Herzog evokes the feeling of missing shows in quarantine and the strength in making music in those shows’ absence. “This was the last song that was written on the EP and we actually already started recording [before it was written],” says Herzog. “It really captured the vibe of the whole recording and tied together the theme, [so] that’s why I took the title from that song.” Herzog also sees it as a microcosm of how Linnea’s Garden has evolved as a project since its beginning: “The band evolved from trying to do the live show thing at first to finding meaning and recording even though [we’re] not performing it to an audience.”
One way Herzog is adapting to the lack of shows is in her newfound focus on the visual side of things. “I realized I actually really liked making [music videos] even though I’m kind of a beginner at it,” she says, expressing a strong interest in creating more going forward. Speaking of her current strategy of taking advantage of things she comes across, Herzog mentions how the striking purple and white wall the “Nondramatic Breakup Song” video was shot against came from a chance opportunity in the studio the EP was recorded in. “It was sort of the lobby, and an actor’s troupe was actually using this as a set to film these quarantine performances. But the thing is, in a week, it was gone.” Between that serendipity and editing the video in “a mad frenzy” over the course of two days (“I don’t remember getting that into anything in a while,” Herzog says), working on more videos has become a big priority for the future of Linnea’s Garden.
It’s an approach that Herzog plans to incorporate into Linnea’s Garden’s virtual EP release show at ONCE’s Virtual Venue on March 5th. “It’s gonna be a bunch of music videos [from other artists] and live performances, with commentary in between by me,” along with an interview between Linnea and Justine Covault of Red on Red Records. “And there’s gonna be a premiere of a live Linnea’s Garden video,” Herzog adds, “as well as two music videos.” Like “Friday Night,” the gig is expected to be a much-needed celebration of expression and music amid the pandemic, and a wholly unique show among the virtual concert landscape.
Nowhere Friday Nights is out now. Stream it on Bandcamp below, and tune into the virtual Linnea’s Garden show via ONCE at 8 pm on March 5th.