LIP TALK - Ad Junkie

By Abigail Clyne

For LIP TALK’s video for her new song “Ad Junkie,” director Ellen Donnelly creatively delves into the surreal and odd ways social media affects our minds. Frontwoman Sarah K. Pedinotti lies in a dreamily-lit bedroom, phone glowing in the palm of her hand. A man with a camera for a face sits next to her watching and, presumably, documenting her behavior. Sarah sings “you are in my head so I take you home / You are in my bed so that I’m not alone.” We’ve rapidly normalized having social media, and by extent the larger world, in our bedrooms. The camera-faced man, the corporate and capitalist structure that take advantage of our psychological weaknesses for profit, joins us in this intimate space. The beautifully rhythmic chorus “And I swallow them up, swallow women and men in a minute” has a hypnotic affect, and we have all been overtaken by this force. With “Ad Junkie,” LIP TALK has crafted a song that’s almost as catchy and addictive as the social media she’s singing about.

Check out LIP TALK’s new album D A Y S, available now via Northern Spy Records here!

Being Dead - Apostles' Prom

By Gerard Marcus

Being Dead, multi-instrumentalists Juli Keller’s and Cody Dosier’s band, makes lo-fi experimental rock that creeps between brash and melodic realms. The new video for their single “Apostles’ Prom,” skillfully directed by Shannon Wiedemeyer and Carlo Nasisse, depicts the surreal collision of good and evil. Two groups, lead by the Guru and the Devil, come to a head in an open field, looking to settle once and for all the power struggle between light and dark. But right before before things turn to bloodshed, they realize they have a specific shared passion, a revelation that allows all sides to embrace their differences and unite in mutual appreciation. In both the track and video, Being Dead is able to toe the line between dark commentary and playful imagery, showing that if we take the time to look past our differences–even in the most drastic cases–there might be something there to bring us together.

PRODUCTION CREDITS:

Hunky Directors - Shannon Wiedemeyer and Carlo Nasisse

Hunky Director of Photography - Carlo Nasisse

Devil Worshipping Producer - Jordan Willis 

Editor and Colorist - Alex Winker

Hunky Key Grip - Garson Ormiston

Neutral 1st AC - Ali Goodwin

Hunky Gaffer - Trevor Hoover

Neutral (But probably a Devil Worshipping) Makeup Artist - Ubaldo Rodriguez

Hunky Wardrobe/ Costume Designer - Adrienne Greenblatt

Devil Worshipping PA’s - Joshua Baker, Taylor Browne

STARRING:

The Devil - Juli Keller

The Guru - Cody Dosier

Cherub - Tim O’Brien

Devil Worshippers / Not Hunks - Itamar Benitez, Mireille Blond, Ethan Boley, Joe Boley, Erin O’Brien, Taylor Browne, Niamh Fleming, Hailey Jamieson, Belicia Luevano, Maya Van Os, Cheyenne Petrich, Thea Robinson, Jordan Willis 

Guru Worshippers / Hunks - Nacho The Dog, Adrienne Greenblatt, Trevor Hoover, Ronnie Lokos, Julian McCamman-McGinnis, Carlo Nassise, Cristina Ocampo, Angel Reyes, Katie Okhuysen, Garson Ormiston

Special Thanks - The Boleys, Horse People of America

The YeahTones - Just Another Minute

Jordan Feinstein

The YeahTones are known over at ThrdCoast for making solid rock bangers, confident in their simplicity and catchy as heck. Their new single “Just Another Minute” is deceivingly un-simple, a departure from form which manages to elevate it at the same time.

The band’s fascination with previous decades' well-worn sounds is in full force on this track, but instead of aping one, they’ve tackled three. The verses are straight 90s garage grunge, and would sound so at home in a Weezer set list you’d be forgiven for not noticing they didn’t write it (you know, just like their latest hit, Africa). But then, with some weïrd alchemical snap of the musical fingers, the song catapults into 70s anthem rock, like someone tossed a fuzz-bomb into a forgotten ELO classic. Or so says my friend with whom I consulted on this for his painfully… unabridged knowledge of rock history. Finally, with another quick flick of the wrist, the chorus resolves in a Beatles-esque denouement. And back to the 90s it goes. Rinse and repeat. And repeat. And repeat. Somehow it all works. It’s a catchy one, folks.

Check out The YeahTones in concert at on February 6th at The Knitting Factory with Caverns, Talay and Citris!

Gold Leather - Churl

Gerard Marcus

Some music has a rawness that’s almost primal, a visceral sound that sparks with angst and ecstasy. It’s not genre specific–anything from Ornette Coleman to Guerilla Toss to JPEGMAFIA generates this feeling in me. It’s an energy, the type that compels you to relax all the muscles in your body and throw yourself around like a rag doll. Gold Leather produces this kind of music.

Gold Leather is a four piece rock band from Austin, Texas that makes music that is in your face without being too full of itself. Their new single, “Churl,” is a searing tirade directed at an unnecessarily mean-spirited figure who plays dumb at the absurdity and consequences of their own actions. Gold Leather tells this tale well, with a raw vocal delivery that clashes its members’ voices against one another before they fall into eerie harmonies and tasteful screams. But the true primordial power of the song comes from the driving auditory forces, intricately layered drum, bass, and guitars. They intertwine and trip over each other as if trying to escape a monster that haunts their dreams. With “Churl,” Gold Leather has written a song that hits hard and fast, a freshly-triggered avalanche hurdling towards some undetermined end, and a great first offering from them for 2019.

Small Forward - Kind of Funny

Jordan Feinstein

“Kind of Funny,” the new bedroom pop single by L.A.-based Small Forward, is accurately named. It’s kind of a funny track. The audio landscape is cozy, a warm stream of guitars and smooth vocals, picking up only a little speed and turbulence as it builds towards the end. But this placid journey seems to bother the lead singers, who perform together as a single narrator.

“Always in the right place from the very start, there’s not a lot of things that I did to play my part” the song opens. This is a song about agency, and it feels weird to them how little they perceive having over their own life’s (albeit “right”) direction. While there’s an ambiguously troubled relationship with an even more ambiguous “you” throughout the song, this lyrical thread might remove more focus than it adds useful context. This is a song about their entire life’s experience, and the weird malaise that comes with not making enough active decisions in it. The song’s structure is nicely connected to its lyrics, taking a pretty break after “finally, finally, I’ll fall right back into place.” From there it builds into a slightly more dramatic ending, taking trips slightly outside of their comfort zone. But they don’t seem too concerned, and the song doesn’t sound it either. They’ll end up right where they’re supposed to be yet again. They even seem to rely on it.