Blondshell is back with a new single/video for "Sepsis" - she performs at the Casbah in San Diego on Sep. 6 and Lodge Room in L.A. on Sep. 7

Blondshell continues to take the world by storm with the release of their third single “Sepsis,” along with a tour that will see them perform at the Casbah in San Diego on Sep. 6 and the Lodge Room in Los Angeles on Sep. 7. The creation of Sabrina Teitelbaum as a vessel for her visceral and unbridled rock anthems, Blondshell has dropped another bombshell with their latest combustible track. Over grinding riffs and shrieking guitars, “Sepsis” is an electrifying song about her run-ins with toxic men and finding the right kind of validation.

The track opens as a tongue-in-cheek confessional, with Blondshell lamenting her therapist’s anger at her decision to go back to a toxic ex. “He wears a front-facing cap / The sex is almost always bad,” she sings, “I don’t care cuz I’m in love.” But by the song’s end, she’s realized that — not unlike sepsis — unless she gets this guy out of her life everything will be infected by him. And the song’s chorus adequately surmises Blondshell’s expectations for herself in the future: “It should take a whole lot less / To turn me off.”

In the music video for “Sepsis,” directed by Seannie Bryan, Blondshell performs the song with her band under the grainy film recording. The whole thing has the warmth of a familiarly intimate home video, which deeply contrasts the song’s melancholia but also highlights some of its hopeful warmth. After all, “Sepsis” is about letting go of the things that might adversely worm their way into our lives, so it makes sense for the video to emphasize all the good that can come from such a decision.

“In the thick of COVID, I became obsessed with Hole’s song ‘Doll Parts’ and it inspired me to write something cathartic and pissed. I wrote ‘Sepsis’ as a way of getting anger out – anger towards people who have treated me as if I didn’t deserve very much care and anger towards myself for accepting that treatment. I wanted to create some accountability with this song and also sing about the counterproductive nature of trying to outrun loneliness. Most importantly I wanted to give myself permission to be as dramatic as possible and say aloud that I’m afraid bad feelings might actually kill me.”