New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Rock band Have Mercy have teamed up with international label Rude Records to release a brand new CD re-pressing of the band's debut LP The Earth Pushed Back. Additionally they have shared an unreleased b-side from their 2012 EP, My Oldest Friend, titled "
Seventeen".
Have Mercy reunited earlier this year and released new music for the first time since 2019, capturing the attention of Brooklyn Vegan, FLOOD Magazine, The Noise, and more. The self-titled EP features recent singles "
Fast Car", "SIO", and "I'm Gonna Be Ok", and is out now via ZODHIAC Records.
When the world shut down in March 2020, it took Have Mercy's victory lap with it. The beloved Baltimore-based emo/indie quartet had called it quits after a decade-long career and were wrapping their time together with sold-out, sweat-and-tear-soaked performances across the country - then, seemingly overnight, everything changed. There was no hometown show at the Ottobar, no final bow to thunderous applause and bittersweet emotions alike. It was like slamming the book shut before the final pages were even written.
A lot changed for front man Brian Swindle after that. He got sober, got engaged, and got creative, releasing a string of solo singles that built on the foundation he'd laid with Have Mercy while expanding it in new ways. Soon, though, he felt the pull of his past, texting his bandmates: "I wrote a song. It sounds like a Have Mercy song and not a Brian Swindle song."
Before long, the band's classic lineup - Swindle, guitarist Andrew Johnson, drummer Todd Wallace, and bassist Nick Woolford - were turning the singer's acoustic demo into "I'll Wait," a big, bold reintroduction for the group and their first new music since 2019's The Love Life (Hopeless Records). Autobiographical and teeming with the same heart-on-sleeve honesty that endeared them to the underground in the 2010s, "
I'll Wait" is now the kickoff to the band's brand-new Have Mercy EP and encapsulates the mission statement they've set for this new chapter of Have Mercy.
As such, the EP feels like a rebirth for Have Mercy, a throwback to the early days when Swindle, Johnson, Wallace, and Woolford were friends first and business partners second, turning heads and winning over fans with a swirl of punk, pop, emo, and alternative rock - all underpinned by Swindle's distinctive, moody delivery and emotive lyricism.
Entering this new era, Have Mercy have made it a point not to make too many plans for the future - after all, they know all too well how easily those set-in-stone commitments can get upended. But they're still excited about the future nonetheless, because whatever happens will happen on no one's terms but their own, with all of the freedom but none of the pressure.
