Colorado’s Doom Scroll Turns Political Frustration, Economic Anxiety and Personal Exhaustion Into a Loud, Uncomfortable Folk-Punk Statement
DreadMusicReview — Music News
There is a certain kind of punk record that doesn’t arrive asking permission.
It doesn’t care whether the production is polished enough for commercial radio. It doesn’t care whether the subject matter makes everybody comfortable. And it certainly doesn’t seem interested in pretending that everything is going to be okay.
That’s the territory Doom Scroll are walking into with Exhausted Dialogue, the Colorado band’s new 11-track album, released through Flail Records.
And if the title wasn’t already a pretty good warning, the band’s description of the record makes the intention clear: this is an album about being tired of fighting the same fights, confronting the same problems and discovering that the dialogue surrounding those problems has somehow become completely exhausted.
That is a pretty damn good description of the world right now.
Folk-Punk, But Make It Angry
Calling Doom Scroll a folk-punk band isn’t wrong.
It just isn’t enough.
The band’s sound pulls from folk-punk, pop-punk and ska while incorporating a theatrical, almost cinematic approach to songwriting. The result is less interested in staying inside one genre’s boundaries than it is in using whatever musical weapon fits the moment.
That’s an important distinction.
There are plenty of bands capable of playing folk-punk.
Doom Scroll appears more interested in asking what folk-punk can actually do.
The answer, at least on paper, is pretty expansive.
Exhausted Dialogue tackles political frustration, personal struggle, economic pressure and the psychological grind of repeatedly confronting problems that don’t seem to have solutions.
This isn’t political music for the sake of dropping a few angry words into a chorus.
The band’s themes are rooted in the mundane realities of modern life.
Work.
Money.
War.
Capitalism.
Repetition.
Exhaustion.
The feeling that you’re pushing forward while somehow remaining exactly where you started.
Enter Sisyphus
The previously released “Sisyphus” may be the clearest example of what Doom Scroll is attempting.
The song takes the ancient Greek story of a man condemned to repeatedly push a boulder uphill, only to watch it roll back down again, and connects it to the modern experience of working simply to survive.
The band describes the song as a “Groundhog Day scenario” in which the repetition of trying to earn a living wage slowly erodes the feeling of actually being alive.
That’s not exactly a Hallmark card.
And thank God for that.
Punk has always had a relationship with frustration. The difference is whether a band can take that frustration and turn it into something that connects beyond the obvious political talking points.
Doom Scroll seems to understand that the most effective protest songs aren’t always about politicians.
Sometimes they’re about the person getting up at six in the morning to go to a job they hate because rent is due.
Sometimes they’re about watching the same problems repeat themselves while being told that everything is getting better.
Sometimes they’re about being completely fucking exhausted.
The Album Title Says More Than It First Appears
The name Exhausted Dialogue comes from video-game terminology.
Players can repeatedly interact with an NPC until they’ve exhausted every available piece of dialogue.
Eventually, there is nothing left to say.
For Lozier, that became a metaphor for the experience of confronting the same struggles over and over again.
It’s a surprisingly effective concept for an album title.
Because exhaustion isn’t necessarily the same thing as apathy.
Sometimes you aren’t silent because you don’t care.
You’re silent because you’ve already said it 100 times.
That distinction appears to sit at the center of Exhausted Dialogue.
DIY Roots, Serious Firepower
The record was recorded largely in the band’s own bedrooms, with Lozier and guitarist Jon Pizarro handling the recording process.
That’s about as DIY as it gets.
But the finished album was handed over to Grammy Award-winning engineer Jason Livermore for mixing and mastering.
Livermore’s résumé includes records from Propagandhi, NOFX and The Suicide Machines, making him a particularly appropriate choice for a band operating somewhere between folk-punk’s DIY roots and a much larger, more ambitious sonic landscape.
Doom Scroll also brought in Ian Cook of Larry and His Flask for the track “Horsemen.”
The combination tells you something about the band’s approach.
Do it yourself.
Build your own sound.
Then bring in people who understand how to make that sound hit as hard as possible.
Flail Records Looks Like a Natural Home
Exhausted Dialogue is Doom Scroll’s first release through Flail Records, joining a roster that includes Bridge City Sinners, Days N Daze and Escape From The Zoo.
In other words, Doom Scroll isn’t exactly walking into unfamiliar territory.
Flail’s roster already lives in the intersection of punk, folk, DIY touring culture and music that doesn’t fit neatly into corporate playlists.
The label says Doom Scroll had been on its radar for some time and praised the band’s relentless DIY touring, songwriting and independent creative identity.
That relationship makes sense.
Doom Scroll doesn’t come across as a band that suddenly discovered punk because it looked good on a Spotify playlist.
The band was formed in 2020 and its members bring experience from projects including We the Heathens, Escape From The Zoo, Days N Daze and several other underground acts.
This is a band coming from the scene rather than simply borrowing its aesthetics.
And Now They’re Taking It on the Road
The release of Exhausted Dialogue isn’t being accompanied by a polite handful of promotional dates.
Doom Scroll is hitting the road.
The band’s fall tour begins October 14 in Kansas City before moving through the Midwest and Southeast, including an early performance at FEST in Gainesville.
The band will then hit the road with Pentagram String Band, followed by a Canadian run with The You and Me’s, before closing out with headlining dates in Toledo and Chicago.
That’s a lot of miles.
It’s also probably exactly where this music belongs.
Because records like Exhausted Dialogue aren’t meant to exist exclusively as digital files sitting in someone’s streaming library.
They’re meant to be played too loud in a sweaty room.
They’re meant to be shouted back at a band.
They’re meant to turn individual frustration into collective noise.
And that’s something punk has always understood better than most genres.
The DreadMusicReview Take
We’re not going to pretend we’ve reviewed Exhausted Dialogue sonically until we’ve actually spent time with the record.
That’s not how we do things.
But based on the music Doom Scroll has already released, the band’s stated goals and the ideas behind this album, Exhausted Dialogue is absolutely worth putting on the radar for anyone who likes their punk music with some teeth.
This isn’t a band promising to make the world feel better.
They’re taking the frustration, the repetition, the economic anxiety and the political exhaustion and turning it into something they can scream about with other people.
And maybe that’s the point.
Because sometimes you don’t need another person telling you everything is going to be okay.
Sometimes you need somebody standing next to you in a packed room screaming:
“Yeah. I’m exhausted too.”
And then the guitars kick in.
Doom Scroll’s Exhausted Dialogue is out now via Flail Records.
Doom Scroll — Fall 2026 Tour
October 14 — Kansas City, MO — Farewell
October 15 — St. Louis, MO — Moshmellow
October 16 — Louisville, KY — Dive Bar on Frankfort
October 17 — Nashville, TN — The Arcane Workshop
October 19 — Athens, GA — Flicker Theatre
October 20 — Savannah, GA — Savannah’s Arcade
October 21 — Jacksonville, FL — The Walrus
October 22 — St. Augustine, FL — Shanghai Nobby’s
October 25 — Gainesville, FL — FEST — Early Show
With Pentagram String Band
October 27 — Charleston, SC — Tin Roof
October 28 — Atlanta, GA — 529
October 29 — Huntsville, AL — Mad Malts
October 30 — Chattanooga, TN — JJ’s Bohemia
October 31 — Murfreesboro, TN — CxR Crossroads
November 2 — Cincinnati, OH — The Comet
November 3 — Lansing, MI — Green Door
November 4 — Columbus, OH — Spacebar
November 5 — Buffalo, NY — Nietzsche’s
November 6 — Pittsburgh, PA — Mr. Roboto Project
November 7 — New Hope, PA — John & Peter’s
November 8 — Wallingford, CT — Cherry Street Station
November 11 — Boston, MA — Deep Cuts
November 13 — Burlington, VT — Venue TBA
With The You and Me’s
November 14 — Quebec City, QC — Le Scanner
November 15 — Montreal, QC — Foufounes Électriques
November 16 — Ottawa, ON — Dominion Tavern
November 17 — Toronto, ON — Monarch Tavern
November 18 — Guelph, ON — Sonic Hall
November 19 — Hamilton, ON — Mills Hardware
November 20 — London, ON — Holy Diver
Doom Scroll Only
November 21 — Toledo, OH — Venue TBA
November 22 — Chicago, IL — Venue TBA
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