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Peak Eradicator, the new record from Chicago squash-punk outfit (and yes, I said squash-punk) The Eradicator, is part fan fiction, part truth. It follows the titular character—The Eradicator, a combative, ski-mask-wearing squash player—as he tries to find his place in the world and the local squash club standings, backed by fist-pumping, Fucked Up-meets-Andrew W.K. anthemics. Live in concert, The Eradicator is in character, masked and driven solely by squash. But behind it all is vocalist and guitarist Andy Slania, a regular dude working in IT trying to find his place in the world, too.

Throughout the album, The Eradicator faces down competitors and sports-related injuries, loses friends and reflects on falling in love (with his racket). It’s first single, “I’mma Be Me,” out today, is a barrelling anthem of self-love and weirdo empowerment; a perfect introduction to the character’s no-nonsense embrace of the things that make him wholly unique. It crescendos with jubilant, harmonized lead guitars over thundering half-time drums before Slania bursts back in, roaring: “I’MMA BE ME!”

Slania grew up on Canadian sketch program Kids In The Hall, which originated The Eradicator character: a weird, mischievous sportsfreak breaking into boardroom meetings to challenge “pusshead” businessmen to squash matches, swatting the air with his racket. It stuck with Slania, who understood The Eradicator as an outsider. “He was such an oddball character that always stuck in the back of my mind,” he says. “That character was just a misfit and an outcast from the start, and I think that always resonated.”

Like the original sketch, The Eradicator and Peak Eradicator are absurdist, but Slania roots the character in his own experience. “You have to draw on looking at the character as if he was a real-life human being: what things happened in his life to get him to the point where he’s a masked squash person? I’m trying to bring a humanist element to that artificial character.”
Ultimately, Slania wants The Eradicator to be a place where he and listeners can both feel at home. “By going into a room and getting out of my element and into a different one, it’s my own form of escapism,” he says. “If that translates where other people also escape from whatever reality they have, and get into this insane absurd world, that’s awesome.”

Track listing:

1. Call +THE (ERA) DIC-ATOR
2. Warpath
3. I'mma Be Me
4. Peak Eradicator
5. You Know Too Much About Me Already
6. Prepare For Battle
7. Judge, Jury & The Eradicator
8. Homesick
9. You've Gotta Go
10. Future Olympian
11. The Ultimate Irony
12. Baby, You're So Worth The Investment
13. Until We Meet Again