photos by Andrew Jasper
Decibel Magazine is serving up an exclusive stream of the disorderly Strawberry 10” MLP from Richmond, Virginia noise rock/punk outfit PRAYER GROUP, ahead of its release this Friday on Reptilian Records.
PRAYER GROUP’s Strawberry was captured utilizing the same team as on their prior album, Michael Dose, with the drums and some bass tracked with Ricky Olson at The Ward (Enforced, Prisoner, Bleach Everything), all other instrumentation recorded by guitarist Nate Dominy at Room 2B, the mixing handled by Chris Compton (Hold Tight!, Sea Of Storms, Basmati), mastering completed by Brad Boatwright at Audiosiege (Deadguy, Full Of Hell, Nø Man), and cover art handled by Luke LaMarca. Fans of Pissed Jeans, The Jesus Lizard, Big Black, Drive Like Jehu, Breather Resist, Blacklisters, Buildings, USA Nails, Fucked Up, join the PRAYER GROUP.
The band offers, “Strawberry is a weird kid of a record – a bit simple, stuck in an in-between size, and with some mood swings. It’s not sure why it’s here, and it’s pissed about it.”
Decibel writes, “Strawberry is suitably adorned with an equally bizarre cover—a tot topped with a berry for a head, that’s definitely not a strawberry—that is a good representation of the quartet’s tension-filled, skronky rock.”
PRAYER GROUP’s Strawberry is ready to blow your hearing away at Decibel Magazine RIGHT HERE.
Strawberry will be released on 10” vinyl and digital platforms this Friday, August 29th. Find preorders at the Reptilian Records arsenal HERE and Bandcamp HERE, and if you missed it, scope the video for “PR Nightmare” HERE.
In conjunction with Strawberry’s release, PRAYER GROUP will play release shows in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and their hometown of Richmond this week, with additional dates now being plotted.
PRAYER GROUP Strawberry release shows:
8/28/2025 Thunderbird Hall – Philadelphia, PA
8/29/2025 Holy Frijoles – Baltimore, MD
8/30/2025 Banditos – Richmond, VA
PRAYER GROUP is a noise rock band that can’t decide if it should be a punk band, or a noise rock band, and they generally don’t care. Formed nearby 2014 or so by way of folks who’d cut their teeth in Richmond area bands Equestrians, Kingshead, Gifts From Enola, and others, their sound in this act veers towards something a bit more squarely in line with the most classic era of United States noise rock/post-hardcore. Having released three EPs and an LP over the past decade, along the way the band has left scattered venues across the East Coast in shambles, killed several vans and even more speakers, and most definitely plenty of brain cells. Having played alongside such contemporaries as USA Nails, Ken Mode, Multicult, and Child Bite, PRAYER GROUP injects a hardcore punk brevity into their noise rock reinterpretations of the style, giving it a wild twist.
Currently embodied by vocalist Matt Voegel, guitarist Nate Dominy, drummer Anthony Stout, and Au Revoir bassist Carl Kranz making his PRAYER GROUP debut, Strawberry is a record from a tumultuous time, following lineup shifts, members and day jobs having relocated/changed, and families have come to look different than they used to. The record got a rushed start because of some uncertainties, then dragged to the finish line due to other, painful certainties. Some songs were written quickly, some had been simmering for years, and some were being written as they were being recorded. In the end, Strawberry begins straightforward in its delivery, wanders into some new realms, then comes ripping back to full force by the end, delivering some varying textures while remaining accurate to the band’s live sound. While it rides barely shorter in length than their Michael Dose album, the few minutes’ difference resulted in the pressing of a bastard 10” format release, while still dropping all the might of a proper LP.
https://linktr.ee/prayer_group_rva
https://prayergroupsaves.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/prayergrouprva
https://www.facebook.com/PrayerGroupSaves
http://www.reptilianrecords.com
https://reptilianrecords.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/ReptilianRecords
https://www.instagram.com/reptilianrecords
https://www.youtube.com/@reptilianrecords1248