Violet Grohl is done being adjacent. With “Cool Buzz,” she moves decisively into her own lane, sharpening her voice both sonically and politically as she builds toward her debut album Be Sweet To Me, out May 29.
The track hits fast and doesn’t soften. Built on jagged guitars and a restless, confrontational energy, “Cool Buzz” takes aim at a familiar contradiction inside punk spaces. Grohl zeroes in on men who champion progressive ideals publicly but shut women out when it comes time to share actual space.
“Poking fun at moral inconsistencies in punk guys who preach progressive politics, but then in their own musical spaces won’t let women have a chance,” she explains. The delivery lands somewhere between taunt and indictment, cutting clean through the noise.
It’s the most direct statement yet from a rollout that has already shown range. Earlier singles like “THUM,” “Applefish,” and “595” sketched out different corners of her sound, from raw distortion to something more cinematic and restrained. “Cool Buzz” pulls those threads tighter, landing on something more aggressive and fully formed.
The album itself leans heavily on late ‘80s and early ‘90s alternative DNA, a reference point Grohl doesn’t hide. You can hear echoes of Pixies, PJ Harvey, L7, and The Breeders in both structure and attitude, but it doesn’t feel like imitation. The production, handled at Justin Raisen’s Los Angeles studio, keeps things loose and volatile, closer to a live wire than a polished product.
There’s also a visual sensibility shaping the project. Grohl pulls from film, especially the unease and surrealism of David Lynch, which has already surfaced in earlier releases tied to the record. That influence adds a layer of atmosphere that keeps the project from sitting neatly inside any one genre.
Alongside the release, Grohl is announcing her first headline run, with East Coast dates in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, before jumping to major festival stages later in the year, including Reading, Leeds, and Shaky Knees.
“Cool Buzz” feels like a line in the sand. Not a debut introduction, but a correction. This is Violet Grohl, on her own terms, and not asking for space.
Featured image credit: Samuel Burgess-Johnson
