Have a Nice Life is an American

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad music genre, genre of Punk Music, punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde s ...

band founded in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

in 2000 by Dan Barrett and Tim Macuga.

History

Have a Nice Life was formed in 2000 by Dan Barrett and Tim Macuga of

. They have mentioned the likes of My Bloody Valentine,

Joy Division Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. Sumner and Hook formed the band after atte ...

, New Order,

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

, Sunn O))),

Xasthur Xasthur () is the project of American musician Scott "Malefic" Conner. Conner formed Xasthur in 1995 and released eight studio albums of black metal by 2010, when he announced the end of the project. However, he began using the name once again i ...

, Lurker of Chalice, Nine Inch Nails,

Swans Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Someti ...

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute of Catholic women founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. As of 2019, the institute had about 6200 sisters worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations. They a ...

, Kraftwerk, and the philosophy of

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...

as influences on their music. Their debut album, ''

Deathconsciousness ''Deathconsciousness'' is the debut studio album by American rock duo Have a Nice Life, released on January 24, 2008 on Enemies List Home Recordings. Recorded independently by the band members on a budget of less than $1,000, ''Deathconsciousness ...

'', has received critical acclaim since its release in 2008. It initially did not receive much recognition but gained traction through discussions on online communities and

word of mouth Word of mouth, or ''viva voce'', is the passing of information from person to person using oral communication, which could be as simple as telling someone the time of day. Storytelling is a common form of word-of-mouth communication where one pe ...

. The band have since developed a cult audience as a result of ''Deathconsciousness''' online popularity. The band followed up with the

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

'' Time of Land'', released as a free

download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote ...

in 2010. On January 27, 2014, Have a Nice Life released their second studio album ''

The Unnatural World ''The Unnatural World'' is the second studio album by American rock duo Have a Nice Life. It was released on February 4, 2014, via The Flenser and the band's own record label Enemies List Home Recordings. It is a follow-up to 2008's ''Deathconsci ...

''. According to

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the album has received generally favorable reviews. On November 8, 2019, the band released their third studio album '' Sea of Worry''. Outside of music, Barrett runs a real estate marketing agency and Macuga is a high school English/History teacher.

Discography

Studio albums

* ''

'' (2008) * ''

'' (2014) * '' Sea of Worry'' (2019)

Compilation album

* ''Voids'' (2009)

Extended play

* ''Time of Land'' (2010) * ''Time of Land Remastered'' (2021)

Demos

* ''Have a Nice Life vs. You'' (2002) * ''Powers of Ten'' (2006)

Singles

* "The Big Gloom" (2006), released promotionally as a free download on the band's Myspace account. * "Bloodhail" (2008), released promotionally as a free download on the band's Myspace account. * "I Don't Love" (2008), released promotionally as a free download on the band's Myspace account. * "Sea of Worry" (2019) * "Lords of Tresserhorn" (2019) * "Science Beat" (2019)

Live album

* ''Live at The Stone NYC'' (2010)

References

External links

"Have A Nice Life"
Enemies List Home Recordings. Retrieved February 25, 2013. {{Authority control 2000 establishments in Connecticut 21st-century American musicians Ambient music groups American post-punk music groups American post-rock groups Musical groups established in 2000 Rock music groups from Connecticut Shoegazing musical groups