Deface the Currency is the second collaboration between The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis. Recorded immediately upon return from a joyous European tour, engineer Don Godwin captured the sound of what the forge of 150 shows in a year can do to a band.  It is quite simply a huge change. In energy, in writing, in sound. The band has become a unit designed to destroy on stage, and this record is expansive, ambitious, and spontaneous. Full of complex unison lines of angular melody and mean waves of improvisation. Like a new music born out of necessity to push further. That energy permeates these tracks, the love of playing together and being together, both on the road and in the studio.     

Anthony Pirog, on guitar, is widely considered to be one of the most versatile and brilliant players on the planet.  James Brandon Lewis, on saxophone, was voted Downbeat Magazine Artist of the year and Tenor saxophonist for 2025 and is a colossal presence in the world of jazz.  Brendan Canty and Joe Lally are best known as the rhythm section from the seminal band Fugazi. They have now been playing together for almost 40 years.  Together The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis is a cross generational meeting of the hearts. And in Deface the Currency, crushing genres is this unit’s primary objective.