Lafayette, Louisiana’s The Links are roaring louder, darker, and more raw with their latest single, “elvira”. This four-piece alt-rock beasts—Jack Morrison (vocals/guitar), Wesley Guillory (guitar), Grant Gauthreaux (bass), and Andrew Lawrence (drums)—has fully embraced their metamorphosis from funky pop dreamers into full-on shoegaze brutes, and holy hell, does it rip.
Recorded at their hometown haunt Warganized Records Backroom Studio, a local spot that’s been pumping out Louisiana’s underground talent, “elvira” is a seismic shift. Morrison’s vocals are drenched in reverb but cut through like a knife, giving shade to shoegaze’s usual buried vocals. It’s gutsy, but these guys aren’t joking. Morrison wrote the lyrics during a rough patch – dealing with grief and getting sober in 2024. You can feel the emotion in every word, even if you can’t make them all out.
You should’ve seen The Links in the studio for this one. The recording process was a live-wire experiment: ditching their usual scripted approach (see 2023’s “sela”), the band jammed, tweaked, and clawed their way to the track’s final form. The outcome? This track’s got a pulse of its own – it’s unpredictable, it’s got teeth, and it bleeds that persistent, do-it-yourself Lafayette spirit.
With “elvira”, The Links are shedding their old skin from funk-pop curiosities to dark, post-punk prophets. Their Lundi Gras was, and Festival International gigs are about to become sweat-soaked sermons for the converted. If this is the sound of a band reborn, consider us baptized. Play it, mosh to it, and let the noise swallow you whole. These guys aren’t plainly making music—they’re starting a riot.