Stud Farm Mafia – Did You Have A Good Weekend?
Stud Farm Mafia – Did You Have A Good Weekend? EP
Self-Released
Release Date: 17/03/26
Review by Jon Deaux
7/10
There’s that thing that happens when it’s Monday morning and someone asks how your weekend was and you and whoever it is know that it’s a fib before your lips even move. “Good, and you?” Meanwhile, your weekend consisted of Saturday evening’s dose of existential terror in Tesco, and Sunday’s countdown until your clock ran out and your freedom was forfeit in some light-lit hellhole that pays your bills.
Stud Farm Mafia (which I can only assume is either the most insane farm simulator game or what happens when four lads from Oxford get sick of the realization that it doesn’t really, really matter), however, has hung their first EP upon the very moment of shared delusion.
“Did You Have a Good Weekend?” has six tracks that are simply pure baritone-tuned heavy Rock, more so about capturing your unwillingness to engage with late capitalism than actually bashing your brains out with said Rock and Roll.
Recorded by David Radahd-Jones and Red City Recordings, this affair finds itself within the sweet spot between Royal Blood’s two-man maximum damage, the desert-fried boogie with a hint of Stoner Metal complexity by Queens of the Stone Age, and Don Broco’s adeptly ridiculous Pop Rock mayhem, with that gloriously unique British sensibility that tends to favour politeness over raw aggression, even during furious moments.
The opening track ‘Moneymouth’ launches with riffage of the punch-the-timesheet variety, and really, it’s just right for the thesis presented in this EP: your life is now measured in billable hours, and no one is trying to pretend it means anything.
‘So Pretty’ and ‘Gun Show’ are direct attacks on this brand of insecure male posturing, and it shows. There is, of course, the falsetto. There is, of course, the rap-rock swagger delivered with pinpoint accuracy. There is, of course, the feeling that these dudes have actually been in these gyms, where dudes are working on their guns to the soundtrack of Andrew Tate podcast loops, and their only gesture of solidarity has been to belt out the hooks with all the mocking aptness they can muster. It’s Mean Girls spirit reworked into chugging guitar and, remarkably, it’s actually better than it has any right to be.
‘S.O.S.’ goes weird—as if to prove it, the chorus riff actually spells out Morse code, because a lack of subtlety is for bands who don’t have a charity single for ActionAid. The song recognizes we’re all living on our screens as we watch the world go up in flames and do nothing about it, and suggests it’s probably better than scrolling alone.
“Ten Past Ten” is just reflecting the theme with a focus on the alarm, the commute, the spread-sheet, the meeting that was obviously an email, and the dawning awareness that you’ve POOLED the only NON-RENEWABLE resource you possess—the time you actually have on this crap-hole planet—in exchange for just barely enough cash to continue to repeat tomorrow. Stud Farm Mafia is not presenting solutions to any problems. They’re merely holding a mirror with the shape of a very loud guitar riff.
The trick that prevents this from just being another crop of “heavy riff good, society bad” think pieces is the sense of humour the band has with the whole thing. Stud Farm Mafia clearly finds the whole thing hilarious, even as they’re commenting on it in their songs. These dudes are clearly enjoying their indignation on whatever level they can, and I think this might be the healthiest possible response to angst in the year 2026.
The guitars, wielded by Nath Digman, range from brief, staccato bursts to more full-bodied, distorted sections that have more of a trash compacted-on-garage-rock-influenced sound than traditional Metal mayhem. Rikard Ridemark’s bass does more than simply play a background rhythm; it’s a presence that pushes its way into the territory that guitars occupy, lending a satisfyingly crowded, even suffocated feel to the music. Luke Evans’ drums are more bouncy than brutal, creating zones where Cole Bryant’s vocals have space to stretch out in a fashion that suggests he’s always frosty and three sheets to the wind at a party where a bunch of smart stuff is getting hashed out in conversations that are conversational, sarcastic, and even occasionally sneering, never really letting go of what actually is important.
The EP doesn’t pioneer the field of heavy rock or exhibit any sort of new sonic tricks. What it does is take the same elements: chunky riffs, gang vocals, beat-driven rhythms, and British wit—and deliver them all together with the right amount of panache to be more than the sum of its otherwise familiar parts. In this instance, the genre of its own making, often mired by either serious or aggressive posturing, Stud Farm Mafia get to make the crucial impact: to make you understand you are not the only person in the room to notice the water is boiling while we sit back in the pot. How was your weekend? I’m guessing it wasn’t so great.
Will this EP ease Monday morning? Hopefully so. But at least it’ll be something louder than the voices in your own head when you’re pretending everything is fine.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Moneymouth
02. So Pretty
03. Dopamine
04. S.O.S
05. Ten Past Ten
06. Gun Show
LINKS:
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