It doesn’t take long to become enamored with Utah-based 26fix (a.k.a. Erica Goodwin) thanks to a penchant for creating bass-forward, psychedelically-soaked tracks like her new single “Stone Killer.” Formerly of the band Brothers, after the outfit went its separate ways during the pandemic, she returned to making music on her own out of necessity. A need for personal catharsis drove her to write and record the string of singles she has been releasing since 2021 — slowly but surely building toward a debut EP that anyone who is a fan of spellbinding rock soundscapes and bizarre but incisive concept albums will find hard to ignore.
The latest song shared by 26fix is “Stone Killer” and it’s without a doubt her most rollicking hit to date. Against the grumble of elastic bass lines and the dizzying side-winding of a few choice riffs, it’s a song that gets its hooks into you almost immediately. Injecting you with its live-wire energy and punctuating its buoyant rhythm with her own shimmering vocals. You just don’t walk away from this song not possessed by an urge to dance or without a few enthused playthroughs.
Last year 26fix shared two more songs from the forthcoming EP, which will follow a kind of tragicomedy story surrounding a girl who chokes on a pickle and dies. The sluggish dreaminess of “She Hit Me First,” with its woozy melody and somberly wailing horns, unfolds surreally from the point of view of the pickle victim’s p.o.s. boyfriend. While on “Peggy Paradise,” she dives into an afterlife suffused by eerie synths and mutedly-sunny tones that evoke an ethereal shoreline: “I’m breathing, clean spring air / Freedom’s warm and tan and salty hair,” she coos radiantly.
Their debut single “A Pickle” comes from the perspective of the instigating vegetable itself and like “Stone Killer” is woven atop deliciously bumbling bass. Here 26fix’s illustrious songwriting takes center stage as she entwines absurdity with musings on the collapsing state of the world and existential regret.
“You got me thinking how the Government’s been growing / How the middle class is shrinking and how California’s sinking,” she wails sardonically. “The space invasion came, we thought they wanted payment / But all we had to offer was some useless entertainment.” Mark us down as eagerly awaiting the next release from the pickle saga and whatever future bass jams that 26fix has cooking up.
Visit 26fix on their Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Words: Steven Ward
Listen to “Stone Killer” the new single from 26fix below!
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