The House Flies are a four-piece band from Moline, Illinois, in the Quad Cities, whose sound leans into dark, post-punk-flavored rock. The project began as a solo effort by vocalist and guitarist Alex Riggen with the four-track Glimmer EP in January 2023, and it has since grown into a full band with Burnie Eckhardt on guitar, Ozzie Woods on bass, and Nick Pompou on drums. Riggen and Pompou have played together since 2006, which gives the group a chemistry that lets builds and quiet passages happen almost without discussion. After 2024’s Mannequin Deposit, the band is preparing its second album, Lions and Ore, for release on November 6th through Wilhelm & Sons Entertainment Company, and its new single, “Lost Literature,” arrives October 2nd as the second preview after “Derelict Crawl.”
Lost Literature
Where “Derelict Crawl” leans on weight, “Lost Literature” leans on melody and momentum. The song began with a bassline, and everything else grew up around it. The band didn’t set out to make the catchier track on the record, they just followed the groove until it became something more immediate, with a bass and drum pulse that lodges in your head quickly. The chorus repeats in a way that feels circular without losing any drive, a habit the band grew more comfortable with across these sessions, staying with a part that feels right instead of moving on just because songs are supposed to keep changing.
Lyrically, the song sits in memory and identity, in the gap between who someone is and who they used to be, and it deliberately leaves the meaning open for the listener. The imagery is specific and cinematic, rental cars, porch lights, clover, and low radio static, and together they build the feel of a highway at night. Riggen has described picturing two people who know each other extremely well sitting somewhere familiar in a small Illinois town, with no need to talk and a growing urge to get away. When the chorus arrives, they’re in a car with no real destination, stepping outside normal life for a few hours or a day.
The accompanying video is just as unconventional. It stars handmade marionettes in 4:3 framing with a deliberately worn, homemade look. Riggen found the puppets at a junk store in Wisconsin and altered them himself, and with no puppeteering experience, the awkward, unpolished movement ended up suiting the song.
Final Thoughts
“Lost Literature” shows a livelier, more melodic side of The House Flies without losing the odd, lived-in character of the band, and it’s a strong preview of what Lions and Ore has to offer. It arrives October 2nd, and the album follows November 6th with a release show at Raccoon Motel in Davenport, Iowa. For more, visit wilhelmsons.com, or follow the band on Instagram, Facebook, Bandcamp, and Spotify.
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