London-via-Asheville, NC’s lifepath99 shares new single ‘Misfortune’.
The new project led by Bex Vines, the North Carolina-raised artist has become a stalwart of the South London DIY scene in recent years, moonlighting, among many other things. with cult favourites The Last Whole Earth Catalogue. Bubbling away in the capital’s grassroots circuit across 2026 as a 5-piece live outfit, lifepath99 raise the curtains with sparkling debut single, ‘Misfortune’, landing via Brooklyn’s Mtn Laurel Recording Co.
Aligning with the hard-edged grunginess of TTSSFU and Opal Mag, but with a lightened, indie bittersweetness that recalls those classic Alvvays albums, a brain-warping shoegaze intro (not unlike what might grace a TAGABOW tune – she opened for them in London fyi) gives way to a glittering, aerated fuzz-march that’s as direct and punchy as it is tantalising just out of reach.
Attesting to the “dream-like escapism” she actively seeks in her songwriting, but haunted at the fringes by a sense of incoming dread, Bex says: “‘Misfortune’ was born of a narrow path I had to walk down every day, and the fear that someone would be lurking there. The broader reality is that many people carry this awareness with them every day, especially in the political climate today. Writing this song became a way to process this fear and take some of that power back…”
Photo by Jonathan Matta
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