“All hail my dog,” That’s the surreal mantra that animates Do Nothing on their debut album, Snake Sideways. On the long-awaited release, frontman Chris Bailey finds frustration and fear closing in on him with deadlines creeping closer and little to show for it.
“All hail my dog,” That’s the surreal mantra that animates Do Nothing on their debut album, Snake Sideways. On the long-awaited release, frontman Chris Bailey finds frustration and fear closing in on him with deadlines creeping closer and little to show for it. The meta-adventure of the album is him writing his way out of writer's block and coming out the other side with the band’s most vulnerable and revealing moments so far. Described by Bailey as Do Nothing’s’ most experimental work to date, it’s an anxious and introverted album that offers an arch message of hope through some of the band’s most melodic songs yet. All without losing the absurdist, deadpan lyrics and frenetic energy that endeared them to fans in the first place. The band started making music as teenagers living in Nottingham, eventually taking a year off to regroup and reset with a more honed style. A pair of EPs, 2020’s Zero Dollar Bill and the following year’s Glueland, established Do Nothing among an exciting crop of new British bands huddled loosely under the post-punk banner. Bailey had big ambitions for the first Do Nothing album, though, and even in early interviews was stressing the importance of always evolving. This desire to change, twinned with the time-freezing pandemic that impacted early stages of writing, raised more questions than it elicited answers for the singer and chief songwriter. The resulting feeling was that of a creative stutter; a disconnection between intention and end product.
