Anamanaguchi - Anyway (August 8th 2025) Album

Carrow · May 6, 2025

Last summer, after living across the country from each other for several years, the four members of Anamanaguchi decided to try something new. Their label Polyvinyl had rescued the famed American Football house from potential destruction, so the band took the opportunity to move in and write together. Over the course of a month, Anamanaguchi – pioneers of hyper-melodic 8-bit rock, whose extraordinary ascent has led them to topping charts with a virtual pop star – flipped their typically meticulous digital process on its head. The result is Anyway. Written in the converted living room-turned-practice space, Anamanaguchi walked away with the most personal record of their career. And it's a rock record for the ages.

“Crazy sounds come from normal-looking houses,“ notes singer/songwriter/guitarist Peter Berkman. “We made the decision to be physically in the same room for nearly every step, writing everything as a group instead of editing and tweaking files over the internet.”

The band brought these demos to Grammy-winning rock producer Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, MGMT, Sleater-Kinney), whose old school approach drove the point home. Once again staying under the same roof – this time at the Fridmann family’s cozy Tarbox Road Studios in western New York – they recorded Anyway straight to tape, uniting around live instruments and lyrics sung by everybody in the band. Fridmann encouraged live tracking and spontaneous performances, which were shaped by Luke Silas’ propulsive drumming. The album’s analog sound comes in part from their search for vintage gear, including an extremely rare set of Marshall guitar cabinet speakers from the late-1960s – previously used on recordings by Jimi Hendrix, Van Halen, Nirvana, and Weezer – that give Berkman and co-guitarist/vocalist Ary Warnaar their distinct sound. “Every detail came from this need to do it right the first time,” Berkman notes about this significant shift for such consummate tinkerers. Adds bassist/vocalist James DeVito, “This time there was no undo button, no alternate versions. The decisions had to be made before, not after.”

At first, Anamanaguchi aimed to explore rage as the record's main theme, reflecting the various frustrations of the world. But quickly they found themselves distracted by having fun together, and Anyway instead captures a band creatively and personally energized: the experience of four best friends reviving their connection in a disconnected world. As Anamanaguchi has always been an instrumental band, the decision to sing suddenly confronted them with the question of what the band’s voice would ultimately be. They explore this newfound power in every song, making it their most emotionally resonant work yet.

"The overarching theme of [USA] was about a voice forming and learning how to speak–a kind of artificial one. Anyway is the next step – it’s about discovering the band’s voice,” Berkman explains. “There’s a now-or-never feeling to it, a kind of ‘why not.’ Loss is a part of life, no one is immune to it. There’s that Phil Ochs song ‘When I’m Gone:’ ‘you won’t find me singin’ on this song when I’m gone, my pen won’t pour a lyric line when I’m gone, so I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here.’ We’re making the most of our lives and what we love doing which happens to be writing, playing, and singing music all together.”

Anyway has moments of anger, love, humor, paranoia, and sadness – but the band’s sense of light-heartedness shines through. On “Rage (Kitchen Sink),” the band confront loneliness and boredom, two epidemics of the digital age that seem to be humanity’s only common bond. The anthemic, fuzzed-out “Magnet” is about the surreal attraction that’s possible between two people – a feeling echoed by the combination of such a heavy track with delicate lyrics. The power-pop ballad “Darcie” finds inspiration in small gestures from a local unsung hero, who brightens their lives and allows unforeseen amounts of fun to happen. Taut and dynamic, “Buckwild” is a rock sing-along that serves as the album’s genesis story: a band making an effort to do something new, while accepting the risks that may bring.

Formed in New York in the mid-2000s, Anamanaguchi made their name with emotionally-charged turbo-electric experiments in chiptune. Known for programming their early music on Nintendo cartridges you can actually play, their accomplishments include scoring Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game and launching one of music’s most successful crowdfunded projects to this day with their Kickstarter for their debut album Endless Fantasy. The band’s reputation for innovation grew worldwide, leading them to develop and release their own experimental video game (Capsule Silence XXIV), as well as to officially collaborate and perform with the virtual pop star Hatsune Miku on her hologram tour (their collaborative hit “Miku” is not just her biggest English language song to date, it’s also recently a prominent music fixture of Epic Games’ global smash hit Fortnite). They even launched a pizza into space.

[USA], Anamanaguchi’s critically-acclaimed second album and debut for Polyvinyl, anticipated a crucial cultural shift in moving from escapist, nostalgic fantasy to a more introspective exploration of digital identity. Described by Pitchfork as the band’s “most emotionally grounded record,” [USA] laid the foundation for the openness and honesty that defines Anyway. Where [USA] made sense of life online, their third album Anyway ventures into the world outside the front door.

Anamanaguchi’s greatest strength isn’t their devotion to doing things differently, or their ability to translate net-life into emotionally resonant tunes – though they are incredible at both. It’s the way their actual, enduring friendships have allowed them to evolve together. “We’ve always stretched the limits of what counts as ‘being a band’,” says Warnaar, “but Anyway honors that special glue that’s kept us together all along.”

Fucking Dustin · May 6, 2025

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

sawhney[rusted]2 · May 6, 2025

wow very excited for this reinvention. so cool that they recorded in the AF house

amorningofsleep · May 6, 2025

irthesteve · May 6, 2025

Their last two singles, both covers, have been straight up rock so I'm not surprised TBH. Both singles were pretty damn good too

TriangularDuck · May 6, 2025

This is fucking incredible lmfao I am so fucking in for this

TriangularDuck · May 6, 2025

Song fucking walked right off Return of the Rentals I am so so so gassed on this. Pre-order in, bring it on

Joe4th · May 6, 2025

Cannot wait for this

wisdomfordebris · May 6, 2025

I’ve never listened to this band but this song is very Blue Album. Sorry to do the whole “sounds like Weezer thing” but it’s true and I love it.

irthesteve · May 6, 2025

wisdomfordebris said:

I’ve never listened to this band but this song is very Blue Album. Sorry to do the whole “sounds like Weezer thing” but it’s true and I love it.

song sounds like a sequel to "Susanne"

blast0rama · May 6, 2025

Best Weezer and Ozma song in years. LFG.

wisdomfordebris · May 7, 2025

Yeah this is immediately one of my favorite singles of the year and now I cannot wait for the album. I listened to a few tracks from their last album yesterday and I wasn’t super into them? I’ll listen to the whole thing later though.

Jim · May 13, 2025

never heard of these guys but I love this song!

Carrow · May 13, 2025

September/October US/CA tourrrr

Matt · May 13, 2025

my only reference point for this band is Pop It and this sounds nothing like that lol. Now it makes sense why they are touring with Ovlov

Carrow · Jun 3, 2025

The album is absolutely fucking tremendous, I think they've surpassed themselves again

blast0rama · Jun 25, 2025

Video is up.

Apparently, I’m not the only one who misses movie tie-in music videos.

wisdomfordebris · Jun 25, 2025

Another really great song. I’m gonna love this album.

Jim · Jun 25, 2025

Yeah this is great!

Carrow · Jul 23, 2025

Third and final single out now

wisdomfordebris · Jul 23, 2025

“Another really great song. I’m gonna love this album.”

That solo rips

Carrow · Aug 6, 2025

Here's 840 words on the new record that were supposed to run today but I got rugpulled on due to a double assignment, lmao. Posted it in the Guchi Discord and now posting it here.

704 West High Street in Urbana, IL has got a hell of a reputation. It’s on the cover of one of the most influential Midwest emo records of all time, namely the first self-titled album by American Football. Now, though, it has another claim to fame: it’s the house in which the New York-formed quartet Anamanaguchi flipped the script on their career and wrote an album that’s less a root-and-branch reinvention and more a rock record for the ages.

It’s got a fair bit in common with the Power Supply and Dawn Metropolis EPs, stripping things back after the gradual expansion of their sound on Endless Fantasy and [USA], with guitarist Peter Berkman assuming his role as the band’s de facto leader, sharing vocals with Ary Warnaar (guitar), James DeVito (bass) and Luke Silas (drums). It’s also the first time the quartet’s written together in a room since the current lineup was established in 2009.

Very much a band-focused venture, Anyway goes for the throat immediately, kicking the door down on ‘Sparkler’, the chiptune elements of their previous work folded into an engrossing wall of sound that leaps out of the speakers, surfacing one moment to be buried beneath the song’s frantic lead riff the next, as it generates enough energy to power a mid-sized town. To put it bluntly, it’s an absolute shitkicker and signposts some satisfyingly heavy left turns the band take across the album’s 12 songs.

There’s an incredible amount of detail and weight to the likes of ‘Rage (Kitchen Sink)’, the band cannonballing into a pool of shoegazey fuzz and light-footed slacker rock vibes, contrasted sharply with the song’s lyrics about being paralysed by rage and overwhelmed by negativity: “So annoyed, you got to the point / It smothered all your joy, jumped into the void.” The song was initially the jumping off point for an abandoned lyrical throughline about anger—for better or worse, a driving force in a world short on empathy—but the band found themselves having too much fun in its creation to fully commit.

Instead, it’s one of several lyrical angles explored, rubbing shoulders with the gritty love song ‘Magnet’, which redirects those powerful feelings into adoration so strong it’s borderline suffocating. It’s a moment of pure expression, musical motifs pinging off each other before colliding in the chorus. Speaking to the wider presentation of the record, it’s got a raw, punk rock sound to it, setting up the controlled chaos of ‘Lieday’; a song whose bridge interpolates ‘I Wish’ by Skee-Lo in a moment of bewildering brilliance. There aren’t many bands who could pull that off, but thankfully, doing so with a straight face isn’t necessary. The fun is its own reward.

Anyway barely gets a chance to slow down until we’re done with ‘Sapphire’, a song that tips the hat to the band’s early days in more ways than one, with big Power Supply energy; you could put it next to ‘Helix Nebula’ or ‘Airbase’ and not even flinch, particularly when everything bar the chip lead drops out for two bars around the halfway point, slamming back into full-band intensity which goes on to feature a powerhouse, fill-heavy performance from Silas. It accomplishes enough that its sub-3-minute runtime comes as a genuine surprise, placed before a pair of back-to-back epics in ‘Valley of Silence’ and ‘Fall Away’. The former is driven by DeVito’s bass and swirling guitars, with Berkman’s vocals floating over everything; seeming to create a world in itself. The latter, meanwhile, takes the torch passed to it by ‘Meow’ and ‘BSX’, sprinting through its opening two minutes and (literally) taking a breath before all hell breaks loose in what’s probably the most joyous musical moment of 2025.

After that (yeehaw), we’re left with the closing stretch of ‘Darcie’, ‘Really like to’ and ‘Nightlife’, which all tie together themes of support and community; whether it’s the co-founder of Polyvinyl (without whom there’d be no ‘writing a record at the American Football House’), the band’s legion of fans, ‘all apart but still together’, or the things we do to support ourselves, the things that keep us going in a world that seems more unstable every passing day. “What are you doing? What dream do you have? What lack are you seeking? What hope can outlast?” the band ask collectively as the album’s closing moments land a gut punch, the final stop on a musical rollercoaster with many peaks and valleys (of silence and otherwise). “In sapphire light, we’ll rage all night, ‘cause nothing comes out of nowhere” runs the chorus to ‘Sapphire’, and that creative spirit is the album’s calling card; Anamanaguchi got in a room and made it happen, providing little pockets of meaning and catharsis on a record that’s determined to exist in spite of everything, that defiance captured in its title. The result may well just be their masterpiece; an album where the joy wins out even at its most intense; a band still all-in on the vision, still fired up on the dream.

wisdomfordebris · Aug 7, 2025

Ahhh didn’t realize this was out tomorrow! Thought we had another week or two

Carrow · Aug 7, 2025

Guchi szn

Y'all should come hang with us on Bandcamp at 3pm CT for the album premiere:

wisdomfordebris · Aug 7, 2025

This rocks. It’s as good as I was hoping it’d be after hearing the singles.

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