JW Francis - When The Train Goes By

By Gerard Marcus

Every year, sometimes more than once, I get the sudden urge to leave New York City. Maybe I step in one too many piles of what I hope is dog crap, or one to many trains are down making it impossible for me to get anywhere, or I’ve gotten tired of listening to my drunken neighbor scream at the TV for the fourth night in a row over a sports match that is happening in a completely different country. The point is I have to go. I’ll run up into the mountains, or down to DC to visit family, or maybe out west. But no matter where I go, I inevitably get to a point where I miss the city. I’ll miss the usual things, the parks, the culture, the manic energy. But usually what I miss the most are the simpler things, the small reminders of what it means to live here.

JW Francis new video for “When The Train Goes By” is a simple love letter to a very complicated place. Made from footage of various NYC trains, this video scratches the perfect nostalgic itch for anyone who’s lived in the city. The simplicity of subject allows JW Francis to showcase a crucial element of NYC life in a tasteful way. Neither the song nor video scream “I’M IN NEW YORK LOOK HOW COOL IT IS,” but instead present it more as a “this is my life, and this is what I see around me.” New York can be crazy and hectic, but if you can find a moment to come out of that and focus on something simple, there’s endless possibilities for beauty. 

For more JW Francis beauty, you can pre-save his upcoming EP on Spotify here!

Best Fern - When I Die

Gerard Marcus

I first encountered Best Fern last September when ThrdCoast went up to the 2017 POP Montreal festival and filmed a live session with them (if you dig their vibes, check out the video here). The dream-pop duo, consisting of Alexia Avina and Nick Schofield, immediately intrigued me with their ethereal sound and use of ambiance. Their music had a real since of place, albeit a place comfortably nestled between the realms of reality and fantasy. 

The new video for their latest single, ‘When I Die,’ is a fitting visual counterpart to Best Fern’s sound. Filmed and edited by Luke Orlando, the collection of super8 footage flickers like the last images of someone fading away into a peaceful eternity. It's a contemplative setting perfect for pondering the track's themes of longing and existence. The video also enhances a certain element of timelessness that’s present in the song. At two minutes and 32 seconds it's certainly not the longest song in the world, but watching the video I feel almost suspended in time, like I suddenly found myself walking from a gaseous environment into a liquid. This might be my favorite part about both the track and the video–they offer a brief respite from the world around me.

Jenny Pulse - My Love Turns To Liquid

Phillipe Roberts

For her reimagining of Dream 2 Science’s “My Love Turns to Liquid,” Jenny Pulse doesn’t so much rebuild the song’s aquatic groove as put it on ice. Gone are the watery drip samples and the soothing waves of vibraphone. She drains the warmth out of the bassline until it stings and lets the lead synth glide and creep. With her voice caught in this untamed whirl, Jenny Pulse sounds adrift but playful, blissfully lost in a glacial landscape far from the original’s soulful electronic paradise.

The video, premiering today here on ThrdCoast and edited by CMI in Minneapolis, takes that vibe of joyful isolation and runs with it. Filmed on a (to quote the artist) “very fucking cold” day in January, it chronicles a Lower East Side, New York romp through the rapidly decomposing lens of a VHS camera. Jenny frolics freely while her surroundings are cloaked in glitchy anonymity; other than a peculiarly menacing snowman, hers is the only face visible, prancing about in frosty joy as the world distorts and collapses around her.

Pre-order Jenny Pulse upcoming tape "Jenny Pulse Cassette" HERE. Out August 31st via Drop Medium. 

JOBS - Pink

Gerard Marcus

Perfection is weird; it's by its very definition never obtainable. According to Merriam-Webster, perfection is “freedom from fault or defect.” But who decides what’s a fault or defect? JOBS' new video for their single “Pink” considers that question at its core, turning what some people might see as faults into a video that is pretty close to that elusive perfection.

“Pink” the track is a wild combination of pulsing rhythms, distorted guitars, and surreal vocals that more directly evoke imagery than meaning. It’s a song of sensation that ask you to listen deep without any expectation of reward. Directed by Britt Ciampa, the video portrays two characters dragging objects through what seems like a parade of ghosts. JOBS' singer-guitarist David Scanlon’s distorted image is overlayed throughout, creating a beautiful collage of hyper-stimulating imagery. Britt Ciampa's work as a visual effects artist really shines in the video. Using visual ideas he discovered through failures at creating photorealistic fixes in his usual work as a vfx artist, he creates a visual language for this video that pairs excellently with the driving pulse and distorted sounds of JOBS track. He created perfection out of imperfection, and what’s more perfect than that?

Why Bonnie - Stereo

By Max Freedman

Those who believe in ghosts will get a kick out of Why Bonnie’s “Stereo” video. No ghosts appear in the video, but Alex Winker (director, editor) and Kyle Wall (production, visuals) don’t need spirits to achieve a clip that’s as ghoulish as the song itself. Frontwoman Blair Howerton appears submerged in water, projected in negative, and trapped in a TV; all the while, she maintains a demure, possessed look as she sings, almost as though she’s listlessly drifting about Dracula’s Castle.

The eerie, loner pop of “Stereo” exemplifies the spark that shoots across Why Bonnie’s most recent EP, “Nightgown,” released in June on Sports Day Records. The record melts twee, surf, and dream pop into a witchy brew that provides a stellar soundtrack to arid nights spent wandering the band’s hometown of Austin, TX. Why Bonnie called on Dan Duszinsky, one half of Austin-area duo Cross Record and an esteemed wizard of all things haunting, to master Nightgown. “Stereo” is the track on which his signature creeping lethargy most strikingly manifests. Sure, Why Bonnie makes pop music, but their songs are plenty apt for those moments when harnessing a dark energy is needed, and the video for “Stereo” pretty much provides a how-to on bringing those spirits to life.

Check out Why Bonnie live! They open for Hinds 9/27 @ The North Door in Austin, TX