June 5th, 2026
Nashville’s most bombastic double bass quartet returns with a pair of new songs, “Fit for Purpose” and “Artless Hands”.
Together, these tracks tackle the frustration of our spaces being controlled and manipulated by the urge to increase the bottom line. “Fit for Purpose” targets Nashville's sprawling, sun-baked parking lots multiplying across the city. These urban heat islands squeeze out shade, waste valuable space and simply lie in wait for the next sucker to pay.
“Artless Hands” takes aim at the streaming economy. Inspired by a 2021 Nashville Scene column by Chris Crofton, the reflection on "the executive class's bloody, artless hands, unloading all the world's music off the metaphorical back of a truck" became the song's anchor. The track weaves in lyrical threads from Converge and Christina Aguilera, originally placeholders that ended up too right to remove.
Together, the songs form a companion piece: two meditations on commodification, one about land, one about sound, both about profiteers disinterested in the common good.
Some bands write about heartbreak. Tower Defense writes about parking lots, streaming royalties, and the slow creep of commodification across everything you used to love. The bombastic, Nashville based, double bass quartet — Mike Shepherd, Sarah Shepherd, Jereme Frey, and Currey May — has been making fuzzed-out, hook-driven rock since 2013, and their new singles "Fit for Purpose" and "Artless Hands" are among their sharpest work yet. They record themselves, release on their own terms, and still sound like nobody else in town.
Band photo by Buzz Black