Mightmare Releases New Single 'Killer Killer'

Indie-rock group Mightmare releases their new single“Killer Killer,” the band’s second release since their 2022 Kill Rock Stars debut Cruel Liars. Written and produced by bandleader River Shook, “Killer Killer” sets fire to the darkest parts of ourselves with a moody, driving beat and grungy electric guitars. 

"There's this thing that exists in all of us to varying degrees. It wants to police other people, what they say, how they dress, who their friends are, where they go,” explains Shook. “It's the same thing that wants to see someone pulled over when they cut us off in traffic, or be punished in some way when they do something we don't like or we disagree with. It's your inner cop and you can't just kill it once, you have to kill it every day.”

“Killer Killer” follows Mightmare’s summer single “Can’t Get What I Want,” a guitar-fueled, snarling rock banger that garnered praise from BrooklynVegan and Rolling Stone. 

Mightmare began as the solo project of River Shook, the songwriter, performer and guitarist most known for fronting country-punk band Sarah Shook & the Disarmers. Cruel Liars was written, engineered, produced and performed almost entirely by Shook, but after releasing the record and before hitting the road last fall, they expanded the project with a monster of a band that now includes Blake Tallent (guitar, synth), Ash Lopez (bass) and Ethan Standard (drums). 

Cruel Liars drew acclaim from press including Rolling Stone, New Noise Magazine, No Depression, American Songwriter and more. The New York Times said “Shook dials back the twang and down-home shuffle of Disarmers records while retaining their rough hew and stark, straightforward lyricism,” and BrooklynVegan declared River “embraces brooding rock, synthy bedroom pop, and other indie-centric subgenres, and they pull it off just as masterfully as they do alt-country.”

Photographer Credit: Danny Council