Earlier this month, a former soldier and Fox News host turned Secretary of Defense gathered all the top brass in the U.S. capitol to berate them for not being manly enough. Triggered by the supposed menace of a ‘woke’ crowd of hippies, ne’er-do-wells, and cross-dressers, Pete Hegseth railed against male grooming habits and weight gain in an effort to convince the American military that it simply wasn’t macho enough. In other words, he tried to tap into the mystery of the male mind and decided he was the one who had it figured out. Of course, it was a spectacle of profound farce—something so ridiculous it’s hard to take seriously (though perhaps we should). Hegseth, like billions of men before him, seems profoundly uncomfortable in his own head.
Bands like Chat Pile, Agriculture, and Shiner have recently released albums that explore why men have driven the world to the brink with their selfishness and testosterone-fueled desire to outdo one another. Jacksonville band The Caution Children fight against that narrative, as well, existing in a space that forces us to examine the toxic masculinity that has proven so destructive—not just in recent years, but throughout history. What these bands do so well is give voice to the internal struggles men face—battles that often play out privately but erupt publicly in violent, hateful ways.
Take the brilliant cover of The Caution Children’s August release, Appropriate Music. Caught in a beam of light that splits in two and drifts across the naked torso of a young, hairless, bespectacled man, the image is striking in its simplicity and power. It’s exactly the kind of thing Hegseth and his ilk rail against—a seemingly emasculated portrayal of the male body. Yet when paired with the band’s fiercely aggressive post-hardcore sound, it creates a potent juxtaposition between truth and fabrication. The Caution Children are about seeking truth in what they call living a ‘relentless life.’
‘Jeffrey Gross and Jake Speakman did some really beautiful work,’ the band says of the artists who conceptualized the cover. ‘We especially love how the picture’s subject seems to convey a flippant and cavalier attitude toward the viewer, despite being in a position commonly associated with vulnerability. It pairs perfectly with what we were trying to do with the album.’
What they’re trying to do with Appropriate Music—one of the finest albums of 2025—is to express the very real effort ‘to minimize as much excess burden as possible, to both self and others, during a relentless life.’ And isn’t that the source of collective male anxiety? When one relentlessly pursues an undefined ideal of masculinity, the result is bound to be self-doubt and unease. In the immortal words of En Vogue: ‘Free your mind and the rest will follow.’ Sage advice from a group of women.
But art, at its core, doesn’t exist without hard work, and Appropriate Music reflects that process. Its songs carry immense intellectual and emotional weight. Tracks like “Complex Set Theory Clock” and “Why Won’t You Realize How Smart We Are?” feel like endurance exercises—long days spent in the emotional gym.
‘The writing is done in Ian’s room and then at a practice space. Our process has changed very little over the years, whether making long songs or short. Ian (guitarist) cloisters himself away while making the initial demos. During this time, Ian and Nick (vocalist) discuss potential overarching themes, which then guide the lyrics. Once Ian is satisfied with the structure, Tony (drummer) comes in to make the programmed drums more viable and alive, and to negotiate any overall changes he feels are needed. After that, the whole band takes a crack at them. We tighten things from there until recording.‘
The result is a wildly celebratory, cathartic form of post-screamo bliss. Tony Oriza’s drums sound especially alive, embodying that ‘relentless life.’ They sprawl and explode across the swaggering melodies of Ian Alcorn’s and Logan Rivera’s guitars, while Nick Aflleje’s distinctive, strained screams plead and rage through a universe of noise. Appropriate Music is a journey into the male soul—a shedding of pretense and mask.
Take the opening track, “Full World”, a majestic, celebratory blast of post-hardcore. Aflleje’s voice trembles with urgency: ‘Sorry I’m late—I was left in the full world. There’s so much stuff to wade through, like wise quotes, fake pics, fandoms, rabbit holes. They shed easy but there’s always a new one. Aren’t you tired since it never stops going and going?‘ It’s about being crushed under the visceral weight of impossible expectations, all colliding with the daily grind of modern American life.
And that daily grind doesn’t get much more real than Jacksonville, Florida—the coastal city where the band has honed its hardcore chops over the past two decades. The band sees Jacksonville as ‘a secret cultural pivot for the entire country.’ Like many mid-sized Atlantic coast cities, it acts as a litmus test for the general malaise of the masses.
‘There are a lot of jarring contrasts to Jacksonville,’ Aflleje says. ‘I think that makes it hard for people to pin down what the city’s about. Our fascination with contrasts runs deep through all of our group’s facets. When we first started playing around Jacksonville, audiences often ranged from indifferent to outright hostile. We found it fun to try and combat that. It’s probably why our live performances are the way they are today.’
Their incendiary live shows—with Aflleje an almost reluctant messiah, often literally and figuratively hiding behind masks—are exercises in both celebration and catharsis. Founding members Aflleje and Alcorn have spent years poaching the best players from Jacksonville’s scene, something familiar to anyone who’s spent time in the close-knit world of small clubs and garages. There’s something unmistakably north Floridian in the band’s sound—it feels born of the swamp and the suffocating humidity of summer nights.
‘Most people who’ve lived in Florida for a while share a certain understanding of what that means,’ Aflleje adds. ‘But even within the state, different areas give off different feelings. There’s a particular attitude that pervades a lot of bands from here, regardless of genre. Once you notice it, you can’t unhear it.‘
Geography aside, the band was fortunate enough to record with the legendary Kurt Ballou of Converge at his GodCity Studio in Massachusetts. The Caution Children captured their vision with the help of Ballou and engineer Zach Weeks. ‘We haven’t had a bad experience yet,’ the band says of their studio work. ‘Kurt Ballou and Zack Weeks took care of us at GodCity Studio. They created a relaxed and open atmosphere that somehow resulted in such a technically adept recording. We couldn’t be happier with it.’
“Why Won’t You Realize How Smart We Are?” serves as a microcosm of what Appropriate Music achieves. A relative opus at ten minutes, the song shifts between tremolo-picked guitars, soaring melodies, and tribal-like drums. Post-rock tendencies ease their way to the forefront as the off-kilter verses crash and burn like a runaway truck barreling toward an escape ramp. Clean guitars add vulnerability to the chaos while Aflleje desperately pleads, ‘if ignorance is bliss, what does smart mean?‘
In a world where the men like Hegseth and his ilk encourage us to embrace our ‘primal instincts,’ ignorance is increasingly worn as a badge of honor. So what does it mean to walk down Laura Street in Jacksonville if you aren’t, in fact, ignorant? How does this willful embrace of unawareness play out on the sweaty stages of small clubs across America? The Caution Children are holding up a mirror to the collective male gaze—and what stares back may not be what we want to see.
Buy The Caution Children‘s stuff from their Bandcamp and follow them on Instagram. Appropriate Music was released on The Ghost Is Clear Records on August 22, 2025. Live photo credit to Mariah Crabb.
The Caution Children are:
Ian Alcorn – guitarist and primary songwriter
Nick Aflleje – vocals and lyrics
Tony Oriza – drummer and songwriter
Robert Caruso – bassist and songwriter
Logan Rivera -guitarist and additional concepts
Scott Carr – guitarist and additional concepts
