Philadelphia's Maneka counts his lucky stars on new single "yung yeller"

In addition to past work in bands Speedy Ortiz and Grass is Green, Devin McKnight has long written his own music as Maneka, releasing his solo debut Is You Is in 2017. On 2022's Dark Matters, McKnight set out to explore the full range of his experiences as a studio and touring musician, delivering a striking, unclassifiable mesh of genre influence through which McKnight deftly explored the anxieties of working as a Black man in majority white indie rock spaces.

p: Juliette Boulay

On his 2025 follow-up, bathes and listens, McKnight focuses his vision on Maneka's musical identity, resulting in a more grounded album that still tests the extremes of McKnight's songwriting talent. Elements of shoegaze and slowcore are prominent, but engineer Alex Farrar's exceptional production (Wednesday, Snail Mail, MJ Lenderman) makes bathes and listens cohesive, yet still distinct from any one style.

"McKnight's songwriting sounds more purposeful than ever."
-Pitchfork, on Dark Matters

Maneka opens bathes and listens with a Pinback reminiscent verse on lead single "shallowing", alternating with heavy choruses before exploding with alarm-call guitar in the song's crashing coda. "shallowing's" huge ending sets up "dimelo", McKnight's crunched, faceripping ode to Carmelo Anthony (specifically Hoodie Melo). "dimelo" is urgent and instantly enthralling, completely swarmed by distortion, with only faint squeals passing through its shroud.

On his latest single "yung yeller", Maneka goes fully introspective, leaning into his signature sound of slowcore thrash and a sneaky melodic deep-bass vocal to reflect on the wide-eyed optimism and naive invincibility of teenage youth.

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watch the "Shallowing" and "Dimelo" double music video →
or listen to the songs on Amazon Music | Apple Music | Bandcamp | SoundCloud | Spotify | Tidal | Youtube

Recommended if you like: Duster, Pile, Enumclaw, Wednesday, Ovlov, Bartees Strange, Horse Jumper of Love, Dean Blunt, sneaky melodic, deep-bass slowcore

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Of the song, McKnight writes:

"I can't say I remember all of the details of the book Old Yeller, but I do remember that he lived a good dog's life which was cut short due to rabies. He gets rabies by defending his best bud. He was a truly valiant pup. For whatever reason, I found myself reflecting on times when I was being a brash little piece of shit in my teens or in my twenties when I was being reckless and could have died or changed my life in a major way for the worse. Yung Yeller was certainly no hero, but he sure was lucky."