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Brooklyn trash-pop punk band Nihiloceros spent the summer making up for lost touring time – playing shows on rooftops, at DIY street pop-ups, and basically anywhere with a feasible outside area. And until they connected with Totally Real Records<\/a> for their newest album, Self Destroy<\/em>, they pretty much did everything themselves. Released September 17, the record still retains plenty of grimy personal touches: the duct-tape logo lifted from someone’s homemade Nihiloceros sign<\/a>, left behind in the detritus of Warped Tour 2018, that somehow followed them through their subsequent East Coast tour dates; the cover shot of a derelict building taken by the band’s bassist, Alex Hoffman (he’s also a civil engineer).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was ominous dark and grimy, but there was a little sunshine poking through. That all seemed in line with the themes of the record,\u201d says vocalist and guitarist Mike Borchardt of the album cover<\/a>. But rather than self-release this project, Borchardt, Hoffman, and drummer German Sent wanted to press the album to vinyl and see it reach a wider audience. \u201cUltimately, we decided Self Destroy<\/em> was just too good to not have a home. We also wanted someone with a different perspective to help us not fuck it up when we rolled it out,\u201d Borchardt tells AudioFemme<\/em>. \u201cSecretly, I already had Totally Real Records at the very top of my short list of labels.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nihiloceros never planned to write a concept record, but it just kind of happened in the months before the pandemic hit, stemming from a conversation Borchardt had over dinner one night with his wife, Sarah. The couple contemplated how much our human experiences have varied based on the time period in which we’re alive. \u201cLike to be born, exist, and die. Cease to exist without ever experiencing Netflix, the Internet, electricity, indoor plumbing, modern cities or spoken language. The further back you pull, the more it seems these modern amenities are both so arbitrary and necessary, yet, at the same time, so crucial to our comfort and happiness,\u201d Borchardt elaborates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n