New Jersey duo Raised On Candy are back with Red M&M, the second single from their new album Play Marbles on the Turnpike, out via Magic Door Record Label in mid-November. It's a dark one – singer and guitarist Joe Penna says it's about "someone who wants what someone else has and is using fear as a means of obtaining it, disguised as seduction," before the tables turn, "like an epic David vs Goliath battle."
The press release name-checks Fugazi, Soundgarden and the Pixies. It's a confident track and it's not quiet, but it never mistakes being LOUD for having an impact – the best bits come from good songwriting and carefully judged playing rather than bombast for the sake of it.
Raised On Candy is Penna and drummer Scotty Imp, who formed the band in 2022 after years apart – they'd met 20 years earlier through a mutual friend, then played together briefly in Buteo before going their separate ways. Their self-titled debut was recorded with the late Steve Albini at Electrical Audio, one of his last projects before he died in 2024, and this one was made with Ray Ketchem (Guided By Voices, Luna, The Dambuilders) at Magic Door Recording in Montclair instead.
Red M&M follows September's Pickle Eyes, and the album is out 13 November, with pre-orders open now.