Looking at the album cover and the photos of these kind-looking gentlemen, you’d never guess what kind of music they play. Chances are you still won’t guess—because as of now, they’ve got zero followers on Spotify. But we’re here today to change that. Believe it or not, we’ve worked with plenty of artists who had only a handful of listeners when we started promoting them—and later they blew up. Maybe this is one of those stories.
Out July 11 on Reptilian Records, Executive Power Supreme is the second “audio seminar” from Tempe-based trio Bright Sunshine. The album arrives after a three-year stretch of what they call “business empowerment,” with the band continuing their blend of corporate jargon and weaponized sludge punk. This is their first release in partnership with Reptilian Records, and it follows 2022’s Southwest Executive Leadership Team, a record that framed workplace burnout, health insurance nightmares, and performance reviews as material for grinding noise riffage.
Founded in 2019 by guitarist J Brown (ex-Resinator, Reverend Doom, Schlitzkrieg) and drummer Eric Guthrie (ex-Skink, Pinky Tuscadero’s White Knuckle Ass Fuck, Fluidrive), the band recruited bassist and vocalist Chris Burns (Mosara, ex-Hex Volt) to complete a lineup aimed at what they call “low-cost, high-reliability heavy-duty noise punk riff technology.”
Their mission has always been explicitly ironic: treat noise rock like a shareholder-facing deliverable, and the corporate dystopia becomes part of the aesthetic, not just the subject matter.
Thematically, Executive Power Supreme is blunt about its intentions. “This is the message our listeners need to hear to understand that Bright Sunshine is the place for their careers to thrive,” the band says of Retention Efforts, a track they position as a sequel to “Performance Review” from the previous record. The same sense of continuity shows up in Unlimited Power / Unlimited Breadsticks, a follow-up to “High Performance Culture.”
It was triggered by what Chris calls a nightmare involving “Olive Garden gift cards, our health insurance system, insulin supply issues, Roman Catholic liturgy, corporate org charts, Monty Python’s The Holy Grail, and grim frostbitten Black Metal Emperor Palpatine.”
The album was recorded, mixed, and mastered at Jalipaz’s Audio Confusion studio in October 2024. Its release is scheduled for July 11 in LP and digital formats. The band will perform a free release show at Rips in Phoenix on June 28 alongside Sorrower and Via Vengeance.
As with their debut, Bright Sunshine deliver noise rock that treats corporate language as both target and texture. If Southwest Executive Leadership Team was about burnout, then Executive Power Supreme is the sound of weaponizing that burnout into something destructive and loud enough to start an HR investigation.
Lete’s dive intot the details behing each track, issued by the band below.
Growth Opportunities
Chris pounded on the product development team to generate more innovative ideas. The result was the genius breakthrough of flogging the A string instead of the E string. The gang shout vocals in the verses were Eric’s initiative. Starting a record with the whole team on the same page is a great way to capitalize on growth opportunities.
Failure To Execute
J had what he called a “Nirvana riff” and we made it SUCCEED at failure. Jam this song on a premium sound system in a premium German-engineered import car. Not that nasty-ass Subaru Outback crusted with your kid’s boogers and Thomas the Train stickers. That’s not executive level.
Business Lunch
A song about one of our favorite kinds of activities. J jammed this riff in 3/4 instead of 4/4 because who has time for that extra beat when you’re thirsty and have strategic goals to discuss?
Year End Goals
Chris had the fast verse part and the mid-tempo chorus part and the team broke it down and then you broke it down again and that’s how we nailed these Year End Goals.
Unlimited Power / Unlimited Breadsticks
This song is actually the sequel to a song “High Performance Culture” on our first record. Chris had a nightmare about Olive Garden gift cards, our health insurance system, insulin supply issues, Roman Catholic liturgy, corporate org charts, Monty Python’s The Holy Grail, and grim frostbitten Black Metal Emperor Palpatine and had to write this song to make sense of it.
Retention Efforts
A relentless J riff anchors this sequel to “Performance Review” from our last record. This is the message our listeners need to hear to understand that Bright Sunshine is the place for their careers to thrive.
Executive Wellness Retreat
After all the hard work of making this record, we knew ending up on a boat with exotic masseuses and mountains of cocaine was gonna be SWEET!
