In my preview of Jane Remover’s co-headlining slot at the Brick & Mortar last year, I wrote that the next Remover show in San Francisco would probably feel quite different. I was right, but I didn’t expect their metamorphosis to be quite so fast. At their last appearance, Remover was playing songs from their 2023 album Census Designated, a rich, widescreen indie rock record that took its cues from shoegaze, grunge, noise, and ambient music. It could be abrasive, but at its heart lay a deep, solemn desire to be taken seriously.
Revengeseekerz, Remover’s new record they will perform at The Independent on Tue/20 (the show is sold out), is practically the polar opposite. Where Census Designated cuts like “Video” and “Always Have Always Will” stretched outward, evoking a sense of horizontal luxury, the songs on Revengeseekerz are fast and dense. It’s vertical music, made for jumping up and down, fighting, grinding, dancing.
On “Psychoboost,” featuring the underground hip-hop stalwart Danny Brown, Remover drops the line “Feel the beat and rip out your ribs,” a perfect lyrical reflection of the song’s acid-bath synths and corroded swarms of percussion; a couple of tracks later, “Experimental Skin” crescendos to a beat drop so utterly monstrous that its sheer audacity makes me laugh out loud every time I hear it. There is a song literally titled “TURN UP OR DIE,” and the apocalyptic density of its soundscape makes both options feel equally possible.
In an interview with Paper, Remover describes Revengeseekerz as “a ‘blind rage’ album,” comparing it to the climactic scene of the first Kill Bill movie: “I feel like I have a big sword… It’s like that one scene where they are at the bar, where the Yakuza come in, and she is just literally swinging her sword at everyone.”
This description certainly bears out on a sonic level, and it feels like a reflection of the album’s lyrical themes, too. There’s an omnidirectional viciousness to their words here; on album opener “TWICE REMOVED,” Remover slurs “speak on me and kill yourself” and then, a few seconds later, repeats “Grim Reaper on my ass.” Death is an indiscriminate presence here, an idea that grounds the album’s hypermaximalist sonic approach.
Remover sings about the thrill of hearing crowds scream their name and spending thousands of dollars at once, but simmering track “Star people” still connects to a deeper sense of anxiety and impermanence: “What you think you put on this earth for?,” they inquire. “Love’s fleeting, but you’re still getting fucked/My body breaks apart as I record.” One gets the sense that their art is the only thing keeping them tethered to reality.
Then again, they could just be letting off steam. Talking with Vogue, Remover distances themself from the rage they express on the album, saying, “I don’t even act upon my anger most of the time. I feel like this album is a result of bottling everything up—a release.” And in an hour-long video interview with Anthony Fantano of The Needle Drop, they describe the album’s creation as more intuitive than strictly purposeful: “I kind of just shut my brain off. I was on autopilot the entire time.”
From this angle, the take-no-prisoners sonic and lyrical attitude is less an expression of a deep inner turmoil, and more of an opportunity for Remover and their listeners to reach a shared catharsis—to just do what feels good in the moment and push their energy outward, rather than holding it in.
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Later in their discussion with Fantano, Remover says, “The one thought that I did have making this album, I was like, ‘This album has to go crazy live.’” It’s perhaps the closest they’ve come to giving a mission statement.
Where their previous album felt personal, with a softness inviting a sense of intimacy, Revengeseekerz is bent toward the collective energy of a crowd. In this, it bears the marks of a year of intensive touring; Remover spent most of 2024 on the road, first on their Designated Dreams tour with quannnic and then as a supporting act for the rapper JPEGMAFIA. Now, they’re poised to take what they’ve learned to new heights, as they bring their Turn Up Or Die Tour to the Independent.
And while Remover hasn’t revealed too much about what the show has in store, it’s hard to imagine that this touring cycle won’t be an absolute blast. With so many shows now under their belt, and an album specifically designed to stoke the adoration of throngs of fans, Remover is in a new position: that of the professional road warrior, dedicated to giving the audience exactly what they want.
Just try not to go too hard. “Don’t die at my show,” they joke in their discussion with Fantano, “Because that’s not cute.”
JANE REMOVER sold-out show May 20. The Independent, SF. More info here.
