The Endless Mountain Derelicts’ new EP Life Moves Fast doesn’t arrive quietly. It tears out of the gate with blood on its boots and whiskey on its breath, spitting out six tracks that don’t ask permission and sure as hell doesn’t apologize.
This is outlaw country stripped to the bone, laced with punk venom and Americana grit. The sound of a band that’s fought in backrooms, played through long nights, and still walks tall. For nearly a decade, these Finger Lakes renegades have carved their name on sweat-drenched stages, opening for national acts and shaking apart local rooms. Now, they’ve bottled that into six tracks that hit fast and cut deep.
The opener, “The Devil in Me,” wastes no time, it drags you straight in. The song plays like the opening scene of a story you know won’t end clean.
“Now slick talking Preacher try to give you a scare, Holding out his hand while he leads you in prayer, Now God and money what a holy pair, Blinded by the light or the gold cross glare.”
It’s a punchy takedown of society, religion and politics tangled in the same hustle—where money is salvation and faith is another con. The band doesn’t preach. They torch the pulpit.
When “Murder in the Mountains” cuts in, the air turns darker. The song plays with contradiction and contrasts like: murder and dancing, prayers and screams, contracts and coffins. Upstairs, the rich toast champagne; downstairs, corruption festers. Priests hide behind false piety, soldiers bleed for someone else’s signature. Every “oh no” lands like a gut punch, It’s a howl through the smoke reminding you that none of this is an accident. It’s brutal, unsparing, and impossible to look away from.
“Run You Bastards” closes the record in full confrontation. Ragged, loud, and unashamed, it’s a final act where the band throws frustration back in the crowd’s face. The verses echo every insult that working bands know too well: the constant catcalls for “Freebird” and “Wagon Wheel,” the complaints about volume, even the insult of “exposure” instead of pay.
The chorus turns that bitterness into a battle cry: “Run, you bastards, run.” Equal parts satire and fury, it’s rebellion set to a backbeat, a snarl that refuses to bend to barroom hecklers. The track isn’t just played, it’s hurled at you. The EP closes like a fight spilling into the street with guitars blazing, fists clenched and no apologies.
What makes Life Moves Fast grip so hard is its refusal to sand down the edges. The production leaves the grit intact. The vocals are raw and urgent, guitars jagged, rhythm section pounding like steel-toed boots to the ribs. Nothing here feels polished, nothing feels false. These songs aren’t written in comfort; they’re carved out of struggle, sweat, and survival.
The Endless Mountain Derelicts may stand in the lineage of bands like Whiskey Myers, Lucero and even early Jason Isbell, but they’re not walking anyone else’s road. Where others lean into Southern rock or soul-punk, the Derelicts grind their own path of punk-country grit fueled by barroom truth and blue-collar bite. They don’t want your approval. They demand your attention.
Life Moves Fast is a story written in dirt and gasoline. No heroes, only hustlers, fighters and bastards who won’t quit. Every track is a new scene.
Let it crawl under your skin and leave a scar. Life Moves Fast isn’t here to entertain you, it’s here to remind you what it feels like to be alive when the existing truths are both beautiful and ugly and the only way forward is through the fire.
Key Tracks: The Devil In Me, High & Low, Run You Bastards
Listen to the album here.
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