31 | July | 2014 | Heartbreaking Bravery

July 31, 2014

Dead Stars – Summer Bummer (Music Video)

It wasn’t too long ago that a post ran on here detailing this site’s love for Old Flame Records, Dead Stars, and their outstanding Slumber. Recently the band released another music video from that record for one of its clear-cut standouts, “Summer Bummer”. Perfectly timed, and even more perfectly executed, the video follows the adventure of a down-on-his-luck muppet as he spends a day on the beach. His big day out takes plenty of twists and turns as the video progresses, leading him from a crush to crushing embarrassment to exhilarating redemption. It’s a decidedly more cleaned up visual aesthetic than the one featured in “Someone Else” but the charming, low-key aspects all remain in tact. “Summer Bummer” itself, in all it’s sun-dappled glory, lends the whole thing a surprising amount of purpose and when the final payoff comes, it feels like it’s genuinely been earned. From the downtrodden facial expressions of the protagonist in the video to the searing, scuzzy riffs that inject the song with a jolt of surging adrenaline, this stands as one of the most perfect examples of summer music done right since Mikal Cronin’s stunning MCII.

Watch “Summer Bummer” below and make sure to pick up Slumber as soon as possible.

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July 31, 2014

Terry Malts – Let You In (Stream)

Terry Malts’ 2012 record, Killing Time, was one of that year’s best. The trio’s follow-up effort Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere, while a solid outing, struggled to reach the peaks of its predecessor. It looks like the former Magic Bullets members’ new project has finally found its stride. Yesterday, the hardcore-indebted basement punk band released “Let You In”, the first look at their upcoming Insides 7″ (due out via Slumberland in September). “Let You In” is a typically short blast, clocking in at roughly 100 seconds- all made up of sneering post-punk, dressed in the band’s signature no-wave aesthetics. Bassist/vocalist Phil Benson’s drawl washes over the chaos unleashed beneath it; a supercharged rhythm section collides with what might be guitarist Corey Cunningham’s finest work for the band to date. Setting this apart from the rest of their catalog, though, is a newfound emphasis on pop stylings (there may be an omnichord subtly featured throughout the song), which wind up playing to the band’s strengths much better than expected. Like Cloud Nothings earlier this year, Terry Malts seem to have found an impossibly delicate balance where they’re occupying the rarest of areas; this is the band at their poppiest- and their most aggressive. By the time it’s all come to a close, it stands out as a hard-hitting jolt of adrenaline that feels as necessary as it feels alive.

Listen to “Let You In” below and pick up Insides as soon as it’s available.

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July 31, 2014

Iceage – The Lord’s Favorite (Music Video)

There was a seemingly never-ending flood of great music that was released while this site’s attention was solely devoted to festival coverage. While Cymbal Eat Guitar’s hard-charging “Warning” and LVL UP’s career best “Soft Power” were both given their proper due earlier today, it just wouldn’t be right to not mention Iceage’s absolutely insane “The Lord’s Favorite”. One of the more severe hard lefts for a band with an established sound in recent memory, “The Lord’s Favorite” not only saw the unrelentingly bleak Copenhagen quintet firmly plant their feet in the wide-open expanse of the country-punk genre- they released it with an absolutely insane music video that looks like a champagne-drunk Nicolas Wending Refn update of Midnight Cowboy (and if that’s not enough to sell this thing, nothing is).

This write-up has to stop here or it’ll go on for far too long because there’s too much to say (and too much to spoil), so the video’s been provided below. Watch it, be entranced by it, and then hum that monster of a chorus into 2015.

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