this black woman-fronted indie rock band is nostalgic lo-fi greatness

Founded in 2011 in Hoboken, NJ., Erica Butts, Gabriel Bond, and Isabelle Diamond are math rockers, Rest Ashore. Led by the a black female rock singer (Butts) and driven hard by their female drummer (Diamond), Rest Ashore’s sound immediately transports us old timers back to the early 2000s lo-fi indie rock wonderland. “We’re making a statement with every performance,” singer Butts tells AFROPUNK. “We play outside the box; a black front-woman singing about girls, and a female drummer to challenge the boys. Math rock lets us push each other to play harder and faster with each song, so stereotypes on our musicianship based on how we look will be defeated.
We hope our shredding will inspire other young women to take up their instruments unapologetically.”
Pornoviolence by Rest Ashore
“[Our] upcoming third album ‘Psychogore’ utilizes a female perspective to talk about the mentally traumatic consequences of gender violence,” says Butts. “Use your music to tell the story everyone should know, which is the first step to changing the world for the better.”

Photo courtesy of the band

“No genre of music can enclose us. We celebrate our labels to exceed the expectations and make it known that Rest Ashore will never hide or apologize for who we are. Everything that makes us different is worth singing about, and worth listening to. We look forward to proving our guts on stage.”