Nonagon Infinity is known for its lo-fi heavy garage rock sound, its infinitely looping concept and its imagery of hungry vultures, devils and robots. Yet there’s one song that sits as an enigma on the album. It’s not heavy, it debatably doesn’t fit the concept with an actual ending rather than a transition, and its lyrics aren’t necessarily happy but certainly more cheeky. “Mr. Beat” sits at the middle of the album yet it feels the most unusual. In a live setting it’s anything but as it fulfills a very specific function. For whatever reason, the song has been in an unusual spot throughout its lifetime but it’s far from skippable. It’s a clever “pick me up” song created to lift spirits after the ominous “People-Vultures.” It’s the light at the end of the tunnel.
Potentially the most distinct thing about “Mr. Beat” is that it plays around with its time signature thematically. To understand this, let’s quickly learn how to count time signatures. The average Western song is in 4/4 (counted “one, two, three, four”) and is the backbone of most popular music from rock to hip hop. For example, put on a Gizzard tune like “Good to Me” and count to four on beat with the guitars. The four beats you’re counting are the first 4 in 4/4, telling you what you’re counting. The bottom four indicates what type of notes we’re counting, in this case quarter notes. Let’s look at “Mr. Beat” with the same counting in mind. You’ll notice that you’ll “miss a beat” as the song puts it. That’s the concept. “Mr. Beat” is not in 4/4 but instead in 7/8 time (counted “one and two and three and four and five and six and seven and…). Where we should hit our eighth note we wrap back around to the start, thereby missing a beat. This is the backbone of the song’s lyrics and the band plays around with the idea of missing something that is there. The bridge specifically plays on musical terminology with lines about “missing a bar” and ringing ears. The rest of the song deals with a world gone wrong and plays around with homophones (“Mr. Beat, only missed a beat”).

The song was recorded by Wayne Gordon at Daptone Records in Brooklyn and first dropped as a single for Nonagon Infinity, released April 28th, 2016. During the album’s development it was thought that “Mr. Beat” might come too late in the tracklist as the first four songs might come off as too chaotic, though the album’s various recording intricacies seemed to keep this worry at bay. “A few of the songs were done at Secret Location, so the interlude bits had a slightly different sound, which I liked, because it gives your ears a break. The first mellow song on the record is ‘Mr. Beat,’ and that’s track five. I was worried with the first four tracks being so chaotic that track five would be a bit late for an ear break. But the slightly different sounding interludes and changes in sonics from song to song felt like a little break for your ears.” The song references “Evil Death Roll” during its outro to set up the track. Unlike the other songs on Nonagon Infinity “Mr. Beat” has a definitive end that doesn’t transition into the next track. Outside of the composition, “Mr. Beat” is the first track on the second side of the vinyl release with a unique fade in that is not on the digital version.

A music video for “Mr. Beat” was planned as part of their Nonagon Infinity film. In a write up about the “People-Vultures” music video, director Danny Cohen said “the next video in the series is an animation by Jase which I hear should be out pretty soon.” Despite it being nearly ready, the “Mr. Beat” video failed to materialize.