On October 2, Sinking Ship Records releases a five-song split between Philly/New Jersey band Brackish and Asbury, New Jersey’s Prop House.

Starting in a North Philadelphia basement over a decade ago, Brackish delivers the first three tracks from the split. Prior to its inception, Connor Byrne was regularly opening local shows acoustical in Philly and New Jersey when former bandmate Nick Rosica approached him about playing those songs with a band. After a lineup change early on, Brackish found direction creating songs inspired by what they loved growing up in the ’90s and early ’00s.

One such track is ‘Your Sister’s Apartment,’ which clearly spotlights the band’s allegiance to the Fat Wreck Chords apartment, before leaning into the emo sound Philly is known for on the chorus. Some clever studio trickery elevates the song to “arena punk” status, and the acoustic strumming-to-half-time-bridge is particularly stellar.

Byrne says, “I wrote this song almost two decades ago about a girl I was really into, although she just wasn’t that into me. We literally stayed at her sister’s apartment to avoid a long commute to and from a concert in New York. I used to play this song a lot opening shows acoustically, but it fell out of rotation. Zach brought up that it would be a fun one to play as a full band and that proved to be true.”

Since then, Brackish has played alongside some of the best punk, hardcore, and indie bands America has to offer, self-released a full-length, self-titled record, and are still hard at work creating new variations of its nostalgic and moving sound. still work hard at creating sounds that move people.

While Brackish celebrates ten-plus years of hard work with the release, it also commemorates the long-term friendship and the newfound passion within Prop House, a relatively new band, comprised of members whom Brackish played with countless times as players in other projects.

“We are very grateful for the opportunity to create the Split with such talented musicians we love and share our camaraderie with the world. New Jersey on top forever.”