Pretty Baby – Layaway Plot

In their debut full-length “Layaway Plot,” Pretty Baby is a band realizing itself after years of compiling disparate sounds and influences, and pushing them through the fine mesh sieve of grief. Pretty Baby began as a conceptual solo project for vocalist/guitarist Rusty Colton in 2016 after he took note of how often the narrators of love songs referred to the objects of their affections with the moniker. So, he began writing songs as the character Pretty Baby, a drug-addled and washed up rockstar who still believed deep down he was worthy of being the subject of all of these songs. After several years of toiling in the Charlotte, NC indie scene, Colton recruited a band of friends to flesh out the songs. As they played together, the original concept began to fade in favor of quiet-loud dynamics and emotive onstage performance. The band eventually found footing in 2022 with the release of their untitled debut EP, purging the last of the singer-songwriter tracks, alongside newer, more aggressive ideas, with the final track “Marigold” hinting at sounds and themes to come. In early 2024, instruments were traded and the lineup solidified: Lenny Muckle on bass/synth, Vince D’Ambrosio on drums, Ryan Halberg on guitar/synth, and Colton on guitar/vocals. By then, much of what would become their debut full-length album had begun to materialize. On Layaway Plot, Pretty Baby weaves elements from turn of the century Dischord bands, the emotive Richmond punk scene, the cerebral experimental rock of Olympia, and angular post-punk revival. Piercing guitars, frenetic bass and chaotic drums pulse under layered unsettling synth pads and desperate, throaty vocals. At their apex, distorted walls of sound finally crash and from the dust emerge plaintive and melancholy instrumental sections.The resulting sound pays homage to the progenitors of post-hardcore while resisting the traps of nostalgia. Layaway Plot finds the band vulnerable, angry, sardonic, and at times defeated. But never without hope. Now fully realized, Pretty Baby is a band equally at home in art galleries, basements, and punk clubs alike. FFO/RIYL: Unwound, At the Drive-In, Clikatat Ikatowi, Indian Summer, City of Caterpillar This is a co-release between Expert Work Records, The Ghost Is Clear Records, and Mishap Records. Limited to 330 copies on black vinyl.