Torture and The Desert Spiders – Money – Musician Spotlight

torture (tȯr-chər) – (n.) the infliction of intense pain (as from burning, crushing, or wounding) to punish, coerce, or afford sadistic pleasure. Cue Torture and the Desert Spiders.

Such is how Merriam-Webster defines “torture,” but taking a listen to Torture and the Desert Spiders’ September 2020 single “Money” produces feelings completely contradictory to this definition.

This upbeat and fast-paced garage rock song will leave you bopping your head along to its funky bassline and smiling as the lyrics describe the type of house shows you’ve likely attended if you’ve ever been involved in your local DIY scene.

Torture, the stage name of DIY musician Anna Kunz, a singer/songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who takes her experiences living in locations as various as Liverpool, Nashville, New York City, and New Jersey (our beloved “armpit of the USA”) and infuses them into her garage/punk rock sound. Joined by The Desert Spiders, a band with an ever-evolving membership, Torture is a tour-de-force whose music presents a unique sound and perspective for those of us looking for something a little off the beaten path.

“Money” was released in September 2020 as the lead single off Torture and the Desert Spiders’ upcoming debut EP, Field Recordings of a Social Athlete. The track is a 3-minute patter song, with Torture sing-speaking about her experiences attending basement shows in the DIY scene in Nashville while The Desert Spiders play a funky bassline and syncopated guitar melodies underneath.

You can’t help but want to get up and groove to this song, as it beings smooth with torture delivering blaze lyrics Courtney Barnett style and builds in energy and intensity ending in a crescendo. It truly makes you feel as if you are back in the heart a pit at some dingy basement show seeing your favorite local band, it smells like light beer and you’re surrounded by lovable sweaty folks who love the DIY scene just as must as you do.

The video for “Money” complements the fast pace of the song, with cuts from one scene to the next interspersed throughout. The majority of the video sees lead singer Torture sitting outside on top of a plastic bucket turned upside down, wearing an outfit that is as sharp as it is kitschy and which makes me rethink the basic items I have hanging up in my own closet.

She’s sitting on what appears to be the deck of an apartment – not unlike the types of apartments you might see one of the house shows she is crooning about in. Shots of the city are superimposed over many of the scenes in the video, with nondescript buildings being shown to provide the suggestion that Torture could be singing about the underground scene in just about any city (although one shot does include what appears to be the Chrysler Building, which would lead me to believe these images are taken from aerial shots of New York City). Close-ups of singing mouths are cut on top of the video towards the end of its three-minute run time because you can always use a little extra weirdness when celebrating the state of DIY music.

Torture and the Desert Spiders are a fun group whose sound is certainly a little out of left-field in the best way possible. Their debut EP, Field Recordings of a Social Athlete, is due to be out soon, and I will certainly be keeping my ear out for any more tunes that they release in the coming months.

Austin’s arbitrary rating for “Money” is: £1,000. As a stack of five-pound notes. 💸🤑💸

Torture and the Desert Spiders are a Liverpool, UK-based DIY garage rock group, fronted by singer/songwriter Anna Kunz. They can be found on Spotify, Facebook, Instagram, and pretty much anywhere that you can stream music.

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