“Antisocial Media” by Shiragirl

If the buzz of the guitars doesn’t give you enough of a clue right off the bat, it doesn’t take much more than a couple of beats into the first stanza of “Antisocial Media” to understand how committed to reviving true rock rebellion Shiragirl is this September. Although her vocal is melodic and far from the guttural noise you would expect out of a contemporary hardcore or metal singer, the spunk in her is hardly the product of plasticized pop modeling. “Antisocial Media” throws a black flag up instrumentally, and lyrically asserts this player as anti-virtuosity, pro-intensity vixen worth keeping on your radar. 

URL: https://www.shiragirl.com/

The vocal harmonies in this single have a real sting to them, and I love that they aren’t tethered to the chime of the distorted guitar play alone. On the contrary, the fretwork is only a binder for the melodic componentry in this song; the bassline is where Shiragirl is connecting her lyric in every verse outside of the chorus, and just when we think she’s given us everything she can muster, she pummels us with yet another physical line. She’s a relentless performer, and her muscle in this piece backs up her eminence beyond debate. 

There’s a certain insularity to this mix that spotlights the punishing pressure coming off the percussion more than a lot of other players would have been comfortable with, but there’s nothing here to indicate that Shiragirl can’t handle the heat. Not once does she sound overwhelmed by the bullishness of the bottom-end in this track – instead, I would have to say that she sounds a lot more comfortable in this kind of a setting than she likely would in something a bit more stripped-down and sonically straightforward. You do what works for your skillset, and in alternative music, this notion is becoming terrifyingly endangered. 

I don’t have to try hard to imagine this single being a real hit on the stage, and if Shiragirl can bring the thunder to her live concerts that she in the studio recording of “Antisocial Media,” she could fill a growing void in the mainstream pop/punk market for sure. There’s not a lot of organic development in the genre at the moment, only a lot of crossover players, but she’s giving us something fresh and unparalleled in this release that suggests she could be just what alternative rock needs right now to retain its signature edge. 

Shiragirl isn’t just kicking out the jams this autumn – she’s carrying on a great tradition of rock n’ roll frontwomen almost all by herself. “Antisocial Media” has a venomous profile that doesn’t mince words when it comes to its literal and artistic narratives, and just going off of the aesthetics comprising its cosmetics alone I would tell you that its designer is someone who has a big future ahead of them. It’s true that the stylization of Shiragirl’s music isn’t a completely new idea, but it’s also true that there isn’t another artist around currently making it as convincingly as she is here. 

Mindy McCall