Today we are thrilled to bring you the premiere of the new split EP by Mega Infinity and Bad Mary! It is called The Mega Bad Disaster Party and features two tracks by each band. Bad Mary contributed “Disaster(er) Party” (a reworked version of “Disaster Party” from their The Return of Space Girl album) and “What I Want”. Mega Infinity contributed “Eyelids 2024” which features Joystick! and “Let Me Drive My Van Into Your Heart” (a Stephen Universe cover). Cam Lopez created the cover art for the record. We caught up with bassist Mike and guitarist David of Bad Mary and lead vocalist Michi of Mega Infinity to hear about each track. The Mega Bad Disaster Party will be out everywhere on December 3 via Ska Punk International. Listen to the split and read the track-by-track breakdown below!
The Mega Bad Disaster Party Track-by-Track Breakdown
Bad Mary Track-by-Track by Mike and David ”Disaster(er) Party”
This is a song that starts off as a big party and celebration. As the events of the album are coming to a climax and Space Girl is returning to Earth, humanity assumes the world will end on the following day. So, they throw a big Disaster Party to get one more big bash in. The song talks about going to our friend's house that's loaded with people, dancing, drinking, living in excess as the world's end is coming. However, as the song moves on, the mood and atmosphere was built to be more dire. The narrator of the song begins to realize what is actually happening, that their world IS coming to an end and the sobering reality that we squandered it. We could have done more, we didn't worry enough, we let humanity destroy the world.
We have an older EP called We Could Have Saved the World and I was thinking about that line a lot when writing this song - wacky and fun - but ultimately terrifying. The events of the party lead the narrator to the roof of the house watching the sun rise knowing that imminent doom is coming. We wrote this song in 2018 and in 2024 the same feelings of existential dread hang over us, This song, originally released on The Return of Space Girl, was part of a Concept Album/Punk Rock Space Opera that was about social media addiction, misinformation, and division at the hands of the Internet. Originally, I had envisioned this song with a horn section, so when SPI reached out to us about doing a split, my first thought was to add horns to Disaster Party. It got the “(er)” because that's how we do things in Bad Mary - see Better(er) Days (our rerecorded EP from earlier in 2024). - Mike
”Want What I Want”
Do no harm but take no shit. That's the Bad Mary methodology. “Want What I Want” is a song about living your life, being kind, and not giving a crap about what other people say to you when you're doing your own thing. It's a song about agency and living your life on your terms, no matter what. A song of empowerment and one of our thrashiest songs to boot. I had suggested this song to add horns to; and with the large number of skacore bands out there we felt this would be a cool addition to The Mega Bad Disaster Party. The horns here are meant to give the song a little more blare and push getting those bright and brash horn tones out there. Accenting the song when it hits its aggressive highs. - David
Mega Infinity Track-by-Track by Michi ”Eyelids 2024”
“Eyelids” was a song written by an earlier version of the band with my friend Andrew Stieglitz (guitar and vocals) and myself. The song is about feeling fatigued from social media and people lacking courtesy or a filter on things they wouldn’t say in real life to your face. It was written during the 2016 election, which feels so inconsequential compared to the years that follow. The song had a lot of influence from Green Day and Catch 22 meets Bad Cop / Bad Cop and Veruca Salt.
I always felt the track would have more life if it had horns and brought it up to Mike (our guitarist) and we rearranged it for ska punk. He really did an amazing job rearranging the song to what I would have liked to hear in 2016. Working with Joystick is an absolute pleasure - we are huge fans but are also lucky enough to call them our friends. They’ve released some music on Ska Punk International in addition to releases with Stomp Records and Bad Time Records and it just felt so positive for us to work together.
”Let Me Drive My Van Into Your Heart”
“Let Me Drive My Van Into Your Heart” is a cover from the Cartoon Network show Steven Universe. It’s no surprise we are huge fans of Steven Universe - this isn’t even our first released cover from the show. We definitely incorporated the two different versions of the songs - both Greg Universe’s version that he sings to Rose Quartz and Sadie and the Killers’ version they play later in the show when Greg is managing them. Both bands on the show have a very theatrical side to them and Greg Universe writes a rock opera at one point. It’s just a fun high energy love song and we felt it would be a pretty cinematic pair for “Disaster(er) Party” which was on Bad Mary’s rock opera Return of Space Girl. The song mentions Rose Quartz being from outer space also, so more songs for Space Girls were an absolute need.