THIS HISSES’ sophomore album “Anhedonia” is a highball of blood and glitter, offering songs for the jilted, haunted and sentimental. This record holds a darkly cinematic yet decidedly rock n’ roll aesthetic, inspired by David Lynch and Wim Wenders as much as it is by The Stooges and Nick Cave. A result of musical greediness, the album wants it every which way: the music contained within aims for beauty laced with dark undercurrents. The title track is a song about rejection and severing one’s self from pleasure and desire. In “Blacksmith”, condensed punk chords are sweetened by crystalline arpeggios, a tale of bruises and bone-setting, snake oil salesmen, and wailing pleas of healing to a secular overseer. “My Love He Shot A Sparrow” takes place in a murder ballad’s alternate reality, where nature is the church, love the religion and death the sermon. A year in the making, the album was recorded in spring 2012 with Matt Peters (Royal Canoe, Waking Eyes) producing and engineering. This is the band’s second release on Transistor 66 Records.

This Hisses is Julia Ryckman, who can croon an aria and/or break glass if need be, Patrick Short, wrangler of ghostly harmonies, and JP Perron, wrecker of all things wood and skin. Alumni of a variety of stalwart Winnipeg bands both vicious and arty (The Gorgon, Under Pressure and Mahogany Frog, to name a few), This Hisses formed in early 2010. The band cranked out debut album “Surf Noir” in Summer 2011, capturing a punkier and more primeval version of the band.

This Hisses’ debut video “Blacksmith” will air in early January 2013 and the band will be touring Canada in April.