Extra Spooky - Living Room

By Jordan Feinstein

L.A. based (but Ohio raised) Extra Spooky’s new video for their single “Living Room” is a great example of what can be accomplished with a simple concept and a little creative miniature work. The song, an alliterative assassination of the hyper-capitalistic conditions our current culture provides us, has a sing-songy quality to it. “Having that just getting by fun,” they sing, and it certainly sounds like they are. A particularly great set of opening lines, “The future is stolen silverware / Cut through the irony / Royal hand me downs,” set the stage for the typical suburban living room in the video. Everything is in miniature, and everything looks cheap. But soon the world turns upside down. The “nice” couch starts leaking upwards, then streaming blood. Things fall into the ceiling. “If everything weighed the same would the heavy get lighter. / Or would the light get mightier.” Well everything in this video catches on fire at the end, and a knife stabs through the floor. So it’s not looking great.

Dove Lady - Can't Be Sad

By Gerard Marcus

I’ve been a friend and fan of DC-based musicians Jermey Ray and Andrew Thawley for a while now, and one of my favorite things about their joint project Dove Lady is the way their music floats between absurdity and deep psychoanalytical critique. It’s music which shows that it’s sometimes easier to process the harsh truths of life when you turn them into a joke. Not by emotionally distancing yourself from reality enough to laugh away in a state in ignorant bliss, but rather by embracing the cosmic joke of existence until laughing is the only natural outlet for expressing your feelings. In their new video for “Can’t Be Sad,” Dove Lady teamed up with New York director (and ThrdCoaster) Bucky Illingworth to explore this state, painting an abstract tale of emotional and psychological fracture that warps reality and perception. The video is a rollercoaster of shifting energy and imagery, a controlled chaos which perfectly conveys the torn sense of self explored in the track. What is happiness? What is sadness? What is love? What is hate? Dove Lady’s answer lands in an ambiguous middle ground. You’re not really sure what’s up or down, but somehow that’s ok.

Dove Lady play this Friday (2/15) in Washington DC at Dangerous Pies DC with Bottled Up, Super Natural Psycho, and Clear Channel. Link to the event here.

Slow Dakota - Canticle 69

By Abigail Clyne

Has pornography ruined sex? That’s the question Slow Dakota ruminates on in his new cheekily-titled track “Canticle 69” (a risqué joke for the dutiful church goers who know a Canticle is a biblical hymn). The song opens on ebullient marimba and bass line pulsing continually, setting the scene for a successful sexual encounter. The falling scales and washes of sound mirroring the waves of ecstasy one hopes to feel during some good old hanky panky.

With the downward slide of the word “Easy,” PJ Sauerteig enters the scene, but he doesn’t seem to be having a good time. It seems not even this breezy intro can make things enjoyable. “Easy frankly, I’d rather have a Terabyte, a copy of a clone.” Real life sex has become gross, the sterility of porn has replaced the real thing, “Wonder when I fell so out of love with hair and spit.” In the end, he’s honest with himself, “And I can’t even keep it up I guess that means goodbye.” Why bother pretending?

The buoyancy of the track gives way at the end to a meditative spoken word section reminiscent of a biblical story. References to a man and his camel berate our singer, “They stood before my porch staring up at me with beady eyes and said ‘you ruined it, you ruined it forever.’” It seems he’s given up. The simulation has indeed superseded the real thing.

Check out more about Slow Dakota on his Instagram here.

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