The Thing’s rough and tumble, self-titled third album defends NYC's gritty rock history

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The Thing’s rough and tumble, self-titled third album defends NYC's gritty rock history

THE THING’S ROUGH AND TUMBLE,

SELF-TITLED THIRD ALBUM DEFENDS

NEW YORK CITY’S GRITTY ROCK HISTORY

THE THING OUT NOW VIA ONION RECORDS

WITH THE RELEASE OF FINAL TWO TRACKS

“MALÖRT” AND “IRRESISTIBLE” — STREAM

WRAPPED UP MONUMENTOUS, SOLD-OUT NYC RESIDENCY + ADDED 4TH SHOW DUE TO POPULAR DEMAND — HEADED TO

SXSW SYDNEY NEXT — SEE ALL TOUR DATES HERE

The Thing album artwork

Rewiring and rewriting the state of NYC rock and roll, The Thing today releases their third album, the fully analog, self-titled The Thing. Released via the band’s own label, Onion Records, the album has gradually been rolled out since March in a series of thematic A/B-sides. Rounding out the project today, the four-piece releases the final two tracks “Malört” and “Irresistible,” now giving listeners the entire journey meant to be listened to in sequential order, loudly — Stream.

What is The Thing? It’s a New York band, sure, but it’s also an ethos. A return to rock and roll’s roots — to garage bands toiling between the family minivans, to groups like The Beatles and their unique alchemy, to tape machines and live band recordings instead of slick studios and myriad songwriters. “We've kind of adapted the ethos of: with restriction comes creativity — old becomes new. And throughout every part of the process that remains true,” says guitarist/vocalist Jack Bradley.

Never is that more apparent than on their self-titled third record. A rough and tumble suite of 12 songs that nods to everyone from The Kinks to The White Stripes, The Thing sounds like old New York revivicated and remixed. “It showcases all of us, all of our different personalities,” says bassist/vocalist Zane Acord. “In The Thing, we’re a collective band. We hang our hats on being a true band — where we all have the spotlight. I think that gives us a different edge.”

The four members of The Thing came from intersecting backgrounds, lending to their rock-and-roll-as-melting-pot vibe. Acord grew up with a drummer dad who hipped him to bands like Led Zeppelin and Grand Funk Railroad; he met guitarist/vocals Michael Carter — an avid Beatles fan — in middle school. The duo went on to collect Bradley in high school, an aspiring producer with a studio in his basement and a yen for psych rock. Jazz drummer Lucas Ebeling linked up with the band when everyone found their way to New York in 2022.

While the quartet juggled odd jobs to pay the rent, they self-recorded their 2023 debut, the rollicking Here’s the Thing, between Acord’s childhood bedroom in Connecticut and Bradley’s Brooklyn studio. As would become their custom, the band recorded live, all in one room, on tape. Their second record, The Thing Is, dropped mere months later — recorded in a poolhouse behind their tour manager’s childhood home. All the while, they hit the road — hard — playing more than 300 shows across the U.S., Europe and the U.K. When they returned stateside, though, it was time to make their official mark on the rock music scene with their self-titled masterwork. “When you go back and look at classic albums, most bands, especially in the ‘60s and ‘70s, have a self-titled album, and it's usually the coolest and the strongest,” says Bradley. “We felt really proud and wanted to lead with our strongest foot with this album.” And given that the new release is essentially 46 minutes of mind-melting sonic swagger, it’s safe to say they succeeded.

Take opener “Above Snakes,” which bursts through the stereos like a blast of ‘70s bombast. “I felt like we were just in a cycle of making money and spending it on rent,” says Acord. “This song alludes to the fire we have and how we put everything into this project — trying to break The Man’s cycle.” And then comes the frantic, finger-snapping “Dave’s TV” — named for a long-forgotten electronic store near Acord’s hometown that always seemed lost to time. “It’s about being into this girl, but she's into someone else, and, at night, she's watching Dave's TV — not yours,” he says. “Family Business” slithers and pops in next, inspired by The Royal Tenenbaums’ cursed brood. “I painted a picture of a dysfunctional family — but one you’re still attached to and need. The family biz,” says Carter.

“Can You Help Me” kicks off with a thumb in the eye to LA musicians and their hoards of songwriters — “I think of it as a little bit tongue-in-cheek, where it's like, ‘Can you give me a song? Do it for me,’” says Bradley — while the Byrds-tinged “Mr. Useless” employs David Bowie’s cut-and-paste lyrical method to tell a story about “finding meaning in life, as opposed to sitting and watching and waiting for fate to step in,” says Carter. Things slow down molasses-sweet with the classic waltz of a track, “The Waltz,” which Acord says he “wrote about a toxic relationship: even though it's bad for you, you love it.” And when “Alive (The Sword)” rocks in like a viking ship on the high seas, Bradley says it’s time to reflect on “having patience and becoming the person that you know you should be — and having faith. There's no need to jump the gun, which is something that I struggle with.”

The epic, echoing “Holy Water” slides in next in true The Thing style. “It came out really organically, all of us just playing and having the first part completely die out and then kick back in with the same chords and same song, but just with the different inflection,” says Bradley. And then everything explodes once more on “Something to Say,” a track about “having a voice.” “Insane” mirrors the hectic recording process — racing against a broken tape machine, spiraling into the night — while also harking back to “a bad end to a situationship,” Acord says. And the oddball, fever dream “Malört” — named after the Chicago liquor — is quite simply, “an ode to how you feel when you're really, really f’d up,” says Bradley.

Bookending it all — all the things that make The Thing, well, a thing — is the high-octane “Irresistible,” a rumination, Acord says, on “how everyone in New York is beautiful and this place is really insane. It’s easy to become enchanted — lost.”

“That was the perfect end to the album, because it starts off rocking and ends the same way,” Bradley adds. “We threw all of our different various influences throughout — all the decades of rock and roll and adjacent genres — and ended up with something of our own. Our contribution to the genre. Our style. Our… thing.”

LONG LIVE THE THING.

Press photo by Seana Adame

Ahead of the album’s full release, The Thing won the praise of Rolling Stone, CLASH, AltPress and more, as well as the cover of Spotify’s Fresh Finds Rock and editorial nods from All New Rock and New Noise. They also released a live session with WNXP filmed during a recent trip to Nashville.

The Thing has covered a lot of ground in 2025. Most recently, they wrapped up their momentous, sold-out three-week residency at Night Club 101 in New York City. Due to popular demand, the band added a fourth New York show that will now be their album release party.

Before they triumphantly headed back to their stomping grounds, the band closed out their European tour by opening for The Black Keys in Berlin to a sold out crowd of 10,000 people. While in Europe, they played to ravenous crowds at Freak Valley Fest, Best Kept Secret and Relache Fest. And for the first time ever, the band will be playing shows in Australia including SXSW Sydney. All tour information can be found here.

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

NORTH AMERICA

August 15 - Brooklyn, NY - Baby’s All Right (Album Release Show)

August 22 - Amagansett, NY - The Stephen Talkhouse

AUSTRALIA

October 13 - 19 - Sydney, Australia - SXSW Sydney

October 18 - Melbourne, Australia - The Curtin

All tour info here