ULTRAPOP—the latest record from the Detroit hardcore collective known as The Armed—feels frenzied, but it also features slicky catchy grooves. 

The Armed blend scorching hardcore with caustic blasts of pop, soaking their musical ventures in distortion and effects that make the adrenaline-drenched album feel immersive and vigorous. The powerful sound is physically formidable, and the enlivening streaks of energy that rush through the album make it pop like a sudden dance party in the middle of a somehow neon-tinged thunderstorm. 

On ULTRAPOP, out now via Sargent House, songs including “Masunaga Vapors” and “Where Man Knows Want” feature particularly whimsical apparent guitar lines whipping through the mix, while “A Life So Wonderful” and “An Iteration” hinge upon comparatively breathable and oddly danceable performances, like sudden rushes of emotionally oxygenating relief.

The album culminates, in part, with cathartically resounding rhythmic blasts on “Real Folk Blues”—where Troy Van Leeuwen, longtime guitarist for the California rock group Queens of the Stone Age, makes an appearance. 

“I was entirely unfamiliar, but an extravagant monetary offer came in through my agent. It wasn’t awful, so I decided to go for it,” Van Leeuwen shares, discussing his connection with The Armed ahead of recording.

Full Interview via New Noise Magazine

LTRAPOP—the latest album from the Detroit hardcore collective known as The Armed—is ferocious, and part of that intoxicating frenzy comes from drummer Urian Hackney, who ordinarily performs as part of the rock band Rough Francis but recorded with The Armed for this new full-length effort.

Full Interview via New Noise Magazine

The Armed may be the most mysterious punk band in the world. The anonymous Detroit collective has collaborated with movie stars, finagled its way onto national TV, and duped media publications. Various semi-substantiated rumorsidentify the band’s puppet master as either Tony Hawk or a shadowy corporate ad agency. As a private detective who has unmasked instances of corporate malfeasance, hidden assets, and political corruption, I’ve seen my share of convoluted cases. None are quite like this band. When I trailed them in 2018, a carousel of “members—”some real, some fake— led me on a tour of midwestern fish markets, gambling dens, and ice cream parlors. 

While stitching together various new threads of inquiry into the Armed, I stumbled upon a tape-recorded interview with their enigmatic ringleader Dan Greene. Greene has been the subject of much speculation—some believe he’s a shell spokesperson, or a character played by various people, or someone actually named Dan Greene who performs an exaggerated version of themselves, like a punk-rock Nathan Fielder. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. 

I would best describe my relationship with “Dan” as fickle, and my opinion of him as “suspect,” particularly as over the years, the band has presented multiple people as “Dan Greene.” But leading into their new album ULTRAPOP —a terrific blend of hardcore punk, noise, and yes, pop—I promised I would try to write a story dedicated to craft, rather than characters. Unfortunately, many of the recordings I made of those conversations were lost in a late night cell phone robbery outside of a McDonald’s (a story for another time), but these excerpts survived. As with many of my experiences with “Dan Greene,” within moments, this train is off the rails.

Full interview via interviewmagazine.com

The Armed's Adam Vallely sat down with The Creative Independent to discuss vitality in art and the conspiracies that surround the band, among other topics.

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"It’s heavy and immediate, enough to break through an overstimulated modern mind and a stagnant pop landscape."

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