Black Bananas Find a Stranger Groove on Bad Bunch
Bianca Ourso
Writer
September 9, 2026
Black Bananas’ Bad Bunch has been a long time coming. The group’s third studio album arrives nearly 12 years after 2014’s Electric Brick Wall, with Jennifer Herrema once again at the center alongside guitarist Brian McKinley and bassist Kurt Midness. Across the record, the trio bends garage rock, funk, electronics and psychedelic noise into something that feels deliberately out of time, with distorted riffs, processed vocals and synth-heavy production colliding at every turn.
Bad Bunch is a clear progression from Black Bananas’ first two records, Rad Times Xpress IV and Electric Brick Wall. Where the band once leaned harder into glam, hair metal and club music, the new record feels looser and more exploratory. Electro-boogie, space rock and funk sit alongside sounds drawn from the African diaspora, while Herrema's instinct for strange, blown-out production keeps everything from settling into one genre for too long. Released through Fire Records rather than Drag City, the album arrives with a different home and an equally different sense of direction.
The record opens with “Nutrageous & Jam,” an expansive introduction that immediately establishes the album’s loose, funk-heavy pulse. It rolls directly into “All the Way,” where tight guitar hooks and a driving electro-boogie rhythm give the record its first real jolt of momentum.
Then comes “Dust of Ages,” the album’s most immersive stretch. Running nearly seven minutes, the track drifts between space rock and psych-blues, allowing the groove to stretch and mutate rather than rushing toward a conventional payoff. It is the kind of song that makes Bad Bunch feel less like a collection of tracks and more like a band following an idea wherever it leads.
“Sherman Dealer” settles into a slower blues-rock groove before “Tiny Chewbacca” throws the record sideways again with its eccentric hip-hop influence. “Good Pass” closes things out with a warm, freewheeling boogie that gradually opens into a loose, jazz-fusion-inspired jam.
The appeal of Bad Bunch is that Black Bananas sound less interested in recreating what worked before than in seeing how far they can push it. Live improvisation, funk grooves, dub production and Herrema’s warped sense of melody give the record a restless quality. After nearly 12 years away, Black Bananas haven't returned sounding nostalgic. They've returned sounding like they never stopped looking for somewhere stranger to go.
Edited by: Jade Read
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