“Pencil Chewer”, by Strange Pink, turns one of Shakespeare’s darkest characters into a jagged indie-rock indictment. Inspired by Aaron from Titus Andronicus, the track reframes unchecked ambition and sadism through the lens of slacker guitars and vocals that fray at the edges, clearly nodding to Built to Spill, but with a venom all its own. There’s something unsettling about this kind of character study: Aaron’s pleasure in domination, his disregard for blood ties, and the echo of that cruelty in contemporary figures.
