Hit Bargain - A DOG A DEER A SEAL

Hit Bargain (members of Beach Fossils and Cold Beat), the angular Los Angeles four-piece known for their sardonic explorations of gender, power dynamics, and aging action heroes, returns with their latest album, A DOG A DEER A SEAL. The album is named for the recipe of Chinese three-penis wine, and an apocryphal chimera representing the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the U.S. government. Written and recorded in the heady before-times of 2019 and early 2020, A DOG A DEER A SEAL is a skittish, escitalopram-fueled snapshot of a country on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The deck is stacked with active shooter drills, tech bro millionaires, true crime, general anxiety, and impending catastrophe. In short, nothing much different than now. In opening track  “Immaculate Vaxxer”, singer Nora Singh menacingly wavers “A warning / Or a premonition to be ignored / Superstition buoying us to impossible shores” against Mike Barron’s ragged guitar stabs, while bass player Sean Mon