Baby Grendel – Queen City Sounds and Art

Baby Grendel Casts the Reality of Abuse and Codependency in Stark Terms on Orchestral Pop Single “Broken Skin Reprise (Beaten Bloody II)”

Baby Grendel, photo courtesy the artists

“Broken Skin Reprise (Beaten Bloody II)” is sonically a different kind of song for the often more post-punk flavor of Baby Grendel’s songwriting. In fact the song “Broken Skin” is a moodier, even more vulnerable flavor. But the “Reprise” is more rooted in acoustic sounds and brings in some orchestral arrangements with piano and all to serve a song that seems to address the uncomfortable subject of abuse and codependency and the narratives that keep people in a cycle that anyone observing from the outside seems horrific. But in writing the song with the honesty displayed here it forces the narrator and anyone that perhaps has experienced a similar relationship dynamic to see severe dysfunction and its rationalizations for what they are. That the song is melancholic and orchestral heightens the impact without savagery and cruelty. Listen to “Broken Skin Reprise (Beaten Bloody II)” on YouTube and follow Baby Grendel at the links provided.

babygrendel.com

Baby Grendel on Instagram

Baby Grendel Hurls Through Despair and Existential Anxiety on Indie-Art-Pop Single “Beaten Bloody”

“Beaten Bloody” sounds initially like a quirky indie rock song but as the song progresses and as you take the lyrics in it’s obvious the song by Baby Grendel is weirder and darker than it is in the beginning. Near the minute twenty mark the upbeat pace feels mired in a wonderfully murky melancholia and the self-deprecation of the lyrics in the first half of the song wax into tragedy and a sense of isolation with the music brooding and noisy. But in the outro the pace picks up as though a last hurrah of pulling out of despair and clutching to a desperate hope. It is a refreshingly unpredictable song that has an element of humor but not one that downplays the whirlpool of emotions that seem to have inspired the words. It’s more or less an indiepop song in the classic vein in style but the sounds and structure more than hint at artier influences. Listen to “Beaten Bloody” on Spotify and follow Portland, Oregon’s Baby Grendel at the links below. The group’s new EP Everybody Hates Me in the House released October 10, 2025.

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Baby Grendel on Instagram

Baby Grendel on Bandcamp

Baby Grendel Embrace the Madness of Living the Creative Life on Art Punk Single “Hatching”

Baby Grendel’s “Hatching” sounds like one of those better late 90s punk bands from the Pacific Northwest that discovered that punk was an attitude and not a genre. And then took that sense of creative liberation and applied it to the kind of sound that combines wry self-awareness akin to Superchunk with the dark and incisive humor of the likes of Alice Donut. The fractured guitar solo in the middle of the song is a refreshing bit of chops in a realm of music that often eschews such things but fits what seems to be the cracked perspective of the song with lyrics like “I’m psycho, knew it all along though, so shallow, deeper than a year ago.” And then talk of hatching a plan of losing one’s brain and asking “Am I going down like this?” These musings aside the song seems like an oblique exploration of personal integrity and the precarious balance of trying to do something creative in a world that almost requires mental illness to be involved. More than one person that has become involved in music has made similar observations but Baby Grendel gives it an unabashed expression in embracing the madness. Listen to “Hatching” on Spotify and follow the band at the links below. It’s new EP Hatch(l)ing dropped February 10, 2025 on streaming and digital download.