Sunday, November 23, 2025 - 8:00pm

There’s a cascade of moments at the end of “Strangers” – the single that leads off Work Wife’s new 2024 EP Waste Management – that marks a change for the Brooklyn folk-rock project. When chief songwriter Meredith Lampe’s rumination on loneliness trails off into near-silence, her voice returns suddenly harmonized by a raucous chorus singing with her in kind, recasting her story as a solitary experience shared in infinite parallel. The band responds by wringing out their final bars for all they’re worth, and the post-take laughter and “that was perfect” chatter is left in, the joy in the room palpable. Lampe may be disillusioned, but she’s no longer alone.
Conceived as a companion piece to Quitting Season – the 2022 EP that won the band a label home on Born Losers Records – Waste Management is a confident set of strides into a new era for Work Wife, marking the first release where singer-guitarist Lampe is now formally joined by comrades Kenny Monroe (bass/vocals), Cody Edgerly (drums), and Isaac Stalling (lead guitar). Brought again into lush, full-color adaptation by the producer duo of Jordan Dunn-Pilz and Dan Alvarez (TOLEDO) and mixing by Melina Duterte (Jay Som), Waste Management is a warm reply to its older sibling, adding a world of nuance to Lampe’s grounded, wryly humorous perspectives and delivering a sound newly shot through with communal energy – refined after racking up tour dates in support of Husbands, Anthony Green, and NYC peers Fenne Lily and Christian Lee Hutson in addition to appearances at SXSW and Audiotree Festival.