You can expect July 15 at The Brass Rail to be a majestic night.

For those of you 21 years old and older, $7 will gain you entry to see four bands, with the night serving as Filth & Majesty’s album release show and a farewell show for The Snarks.

“The first punk show I ever went to, I had just turned 21 and saw Blitzkid there,” Filth & Majesty frontman Jeff Iseton said. “It just blew my mind: the atmosphere, the people, just the way it made me feel. I have a really, really good connection with The Brass Rail.”

The rest of the bill consists of local group Lackluster and Covert Flops out of Indianapolis. Showtime is set for 9:45 p.m.

Releasing new music

All the bands in that night’s lineup have connections with Filth & Majesty. From guest vocals on their upcoming album, Eviction Party, by Covert Flops’ Chad Shick to recording the album at The Snarks’ Dan Kinnaley’s studio, Chipped Tooth Audio.

When it came to recording their third full-length album, they wanted something different after recording 2021’s Who Killed Friday Night amid the pandemic.

“We had all the 2020 craziness where one guy would pop in, then another would pop in another day,” Iseton said of the band that includes his brother Stephen Iseton on bass, Mark Wagley on lead guitar, and Brandon Clark on drums. “We did the best we could with that, but it was kind of different. 

“This time, I was referred to Dan by some buds. I got ahold of Dan and was just like, ‘Hey man, can I just bring my band over and,’ it’s cliché, but ‘let’s just the four of us get in a room and jam.’”

What they recorded is something Iseton feels will appeal to their fans.

“There’s a lot of stuff that sounds like Filth & Majesty, which we love to do,” he said. “But I’ve been listening to a lot of Electric Frankenstein in the process of writing this record, so that contributed to the sort of raw, dirty rock n’ roll record. But there’s still the fun party element that we always do. Half of us are big horror dorks, so there’s horror-dorky stuff in there like our past stuff.

“We don’t get too deep,” he added. “That’s not the kind of band we are. We are kind of like, have a beer and kick back with your buds.”

Although the feel of the album will be familiar, Iseton did say he put himself out there a bit more this time around.

“There is some stuff that’s a little bit different on this record for me, personally, vocally,” he said. “I went into this one not wanting to use any Auto-Tuning or doubling, because on the last one, I did a little bit of that.”

The songs that he will be singing will also be a bit different. The lone songwriter for the majority of the band’s run got some help with Eviction Party.

“I do most of the songwriting, but this time, Stephen contributed two songs and Mark also did,” he said. “Usually I’m the one with the ideas, but the other guys came through with some cool stuff, too.”

Where to find album

Eviction Party actually went live online Wednesday, July 12. While they have plans to release physical copies, they don’t have any right now. But they have a good reason.

“Right now, we’re streaming it because we’re broke and ran out of money,” Iseton said. “The plan is to do some physical CDs. We have a cool relationship with Karma Records in Warsaw. They’re a really cool crew there and help us out by distributing locally.”

The long goodbye

While Filth & Majesty will be celebrating a new release, The Snarks will finally say the goodbye they’ve waited years to say.

Speaking with lead singer Kendra Johnson, she said the group actually decided to call it quits after seven years and six releases amid the COVID shutdowns. 

They’ve attempted to have farewell shows in the past, but something would keep getting in the way. So they went ahead and released Fin back in August.

“We had recorded it pre-COVID, but then the whole world shut down,” Johnson said of Fin. “We had tried two different times to have a show, like an EP release show, but then we just kind of put it out anyway. Then we were going to have a farewell show, but people got COVID. It’s just never worked out.”

Unless something happens between now and July 15, that farewell show will indeed be taking place.

“Dan Kinnaley has Chipped Tooth Audio, and he was recording the album for Filth & Majesty,” Johnson said. “We had been planning on doing it for a while, and they said, ‘Hey, can we make that our album release show?’ It just all worked out.”

Johnson said the band comprised of herself, Kinnaley on bass, Zach Kershner on guitar, Dan Arnos on drums, and Elizabeth Helms did not break up out of negativity or hurt feelings.

They had just run out of steam.

“We’re all really good friends,” she said. “It was just a deal where we were just kind of over it. There’s no bad blood.”

She says the band has been practicing in anticipation of the show, but she’s not too worried about rust … or forgetting lyrics.

“We’ve been getting together a few times to rehearse and get all the words right,” she said.

And does she feel any nervousness about getting back on stage after such a long absence?

“I feel like it’s like riding a bike,” she said.