Dan Friel spent years making noise in Parts & Labor before starting Upper Wilds, and Mars is the sound of him deciding a power trio needs less math and more volume. Cut at Martin Bisi's BC Studio in Brooklyn with bassist Zach Lehrhoff and drummer Jeff Ottenbacher, it's a riff first record that still finds room for guests, Katie Eastburn adding vocals on a few tracks and Jeff Rosenstock piling into the backing vocal chorus on the title cut. Thrill Jockey put it out, which tells you roughly which side of the noise rock aisle this one lives on.
