“Many people see us as a boozy punk band, so I had the idea of writing a song with a very party-drink-the-saddest-away chorus while the verses and bridge are a critique on bars and “drinking culture”, says front person Erik Button. “The chorus of the song is about trying to drink away your problems, and the verses reveal all about how that is impossible”.
“Hearts of Gold” is Dollar Signs’ most powerful statement to date. The band’s third LP — and first for Pure Noise Records — is a boisterous masterstroke from the Jeff Rosenstock school of punk: resourceful and scrappy, catchy as it is cathartic. And they got jokes. The upcoming album feels like listening to an old friend recount some absurd anecdote that’s hilarious to you about three other people, like getting hit by a car outside Taco Bell, narrowly avoiding serious injury, and some cop shrugging it off by handing you a lollipop (hear the aforementioned jubilant barnburner “Negative Blood”).
“Comedy is a defense mechanism” says Erik, with a chuckle that comes off like a backslap from your best friend. “Sometimes we get labeled as a comedy band, but I use comedy as a tool so I can say shit that really matters to me”.
“The album is about recognizing the need to change in your life, and how difficult it is to make that change happen” Erik continues. “When we were writing and recording it, I don’t think any of us anticipated just how much change would occur in the following year. This is the first Dollar Signs record where we were able to write all the songs together”.
Dollar Signs is Erik Button (guitar/vocals), Dylan Wachman (bass, vocals, visual art), Arion Chamberlain (drums, mail order), Luke Gunn(horns, glockenspiel, synth, vocals), Tommy McPhail (lead guitar, spirit leader). The group is made up of career creatives of various mediums; part videographer, part visual artist, part creative marketer. For Dollar Signs, the band acts as a conduit for growth and self-preservation for the overworked and the underpaid.
