Heartbreaking Bravery

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Tag: Breanna Barbara

April 11, 2017

Watch This: Vol. 157

The last time a regularly-scheduled, one-week-encapsulating Watch This ran, October was drawing to a close. A lot of things have happened in the interim and all of the videos that surfaced in that time were given their due through the massive recap project that ran just a short while ago. Finally, the series is back in earnest. Each of the highlighted videos (save for one notable exception) was released between the past Monday-Sunday full week run.

During that time, a whole host of videos worth exploring were released from artists like Craig Finn, Mo Troper & The Assumptions, Chouette, Meatbodies, Molly Burch, Thelma, Lever, SUMEAU, Jock Gang, Dude York, The New Pornographers, Chicano Batman, Peter Silberman, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Future Islands, Same, Square Peg Round Hole, Alien Boy, Big Business, Lo Moon, Emerald City, Future Islands, Momma’s Boy, Gemma Ray, Ha Ha Tonka, Lucius, Nimrod, Dangerous Animals, Lindsay Lou and the Flatbellys, Breanna Barbara, SUSTO, and Half Waif. Which, as is typically the case, constitutes a very strong field that speaks volumes about the strengths of the five featured clips. So, as always, lean back, take a deep breath, clear your mind, straighten up, lean in, adjust the settings, and Watch This.

1. Lady Lamb (Hear Here)

A fascinating emerging concert series, Hear Here, recently hosted site favorite — and Watch This staple — Lady Lamb for an intimate solo performance. When Lady Lamb is in full band mode, there’s no denying the project’s sheer power, which isn’t something that can always be matched with the solo presentation. When they can, though, as is the case here, the divide between good songwriters and great songwriters begins to emerge. Lady Lamb is a great songwriter.

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2. Lookapony (3voor12)

Every once in a while, 3voor12 will run a live session with enough power running through its veins to jolt a body upright and get their eyes glued to the screen.  Lookapony recently joined that category with this scintillating run through a handful of basement pop gems, delivered with an energy and conviction that the genre can occasionally lack. Riding the perfect divide between technique and feeling, Lookapony deliver the type of performance that’s strong enough to permanently brand their name into a viewer/listener’s memory.

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3. Charly Bliss – Westermarck (Paste)

Anyone that’s been paying an iota of attention to this site knows that there are few currently-active bands Heartbreaking Bravery values more than Charly Bliss. As mentioned in the introduction, this one is a slight cheat as it’s a holdover from the massive recap that ran last week. The reason? “Westermarck”, a new song from the band’s forthcoming Guppy, deserves to be highlighted, as does this acoustic rendition. The band, as always, gives it their all and delivers a sterling take on what will likely hold up as one of 2017’s finest tracks. Deceptively sweet, surprisingly barbed, and verging on flawless, this is something worth celebrating.

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4. Rosie Carney – Awake Me

Utilizing a live video as a song’s official video’s always a risky prospect, especially for emerging talents (for artists like Nick Cave, it’s a different story entirely), which makes this gorgeous clip for Rosie Carney‘s “Awake Me” all the more surprising. With “Awake Me” already standing as an early 2017 highlight, as well as one of the year’s most elegant, haunting tracks, Carney still manages to find a way to suffuse the song with even more life. There’s a soft lyricism to the camera movements as well, perfectly rounding out an unforgettable video.

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5. clipping. (KEXP)

eDaveed Diggs, one of the primary driving forces behind clipping. could have taken it easy and rested on his laurels following his Tony-winning run in cultural phenomenon Hamilton. Instead, Diggs found a way to release an EP with clipping., Wriggle, immediately after leaving the show and then followed that up with a full-length only a few short months later. Diggs’ characteristic restlessness permeates through every last second of this session the band did for KEXP, showcasing an energetic, singular talent that, frankly, even with all of the deserved accolades, still seems deserving of more credit. Challenging, forward-thinking, and undeniably intelligent, this is a once-in-a-generation kind of talent. All we can do is sit back, watch, try to keep up, try to learn, and be wildly entertained.

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October 13, 2016

Watch This: Vol. 144

To ease Watch This back into its regularly scheduled rotation, the following will focus on the two weeks that occurred after the last installment was published. In that time, Acapulco Lips (x2), Wasted On You, Chain of Flowers, Pinegrove, Peter Bjorn and John, Sunbathe, Good Personalities, Bad Cop / Bad Cop, Claire Cottrill, The Brokedowns, Kississippi, Haley Bonar, Billie Marten, Bayonne (x2), Entrance, Lush (x2), The Blank Tapes, JFDR, The Frights, Teleman, The Districts, Doe, Marissa Nadler, Joshua Bell & Jeremy Denk, No Honeymoon, Aaron & Bryce Dessner with Ben Lanz and Boys Noize, BlackGlass, The Minders, Super Furry Animals, Kristin Kontrol, Tenement, Queen of Jeans, Michael Kiwanuka, Breanna Barbara, Corbu, All People, Boss Fight, Margo Price, Titus Andronicus, Brass Bed, Somos, Oliver John-Rodgers, Foxing, The Wombats, and PWR BTTM all found themselves at the center of outstanding performance clips. Competition that strong says more about the strength of the five featured clips that could be conveyed with mere words. All five bands have been featured on the site in the past and the performances range from genuinely exhilarating to utterly devastating. So, as always, sit up, lean in, adjust the volume, block out any excess noise, focus, take a deep breath, and Watch This.

1. Never Young – Soap (Prisma Guitars)

Immediately kicking things back into the highest gear possible is this Prisma Guitars session from site favorites Never Young. Easily one of the most explosive single-song performance clips to ever be featured throughout the 140+ installments of this series, the quartet careens through an adrenaline-inducing take on “Soap” that sees them giving the session their everything. Beautifully shot and presented with an enormous amount of conviction, this is exactly the type of clip that Watch This was built to celebrate.

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2. Greys (KEXP)

Greys have made several appearances throughout this series’ run and touring on their recently-released Outer Heaven‘s allowing them even more opportunities to be featured. The band recently stopped by the KEXP studios for a full session that features songs from their past three releases, including their most recent work, Warm Shadow. As always, the band plays with a barely-contained energy, an incredible amount of tenacity, and a deep-seated passion that makes this another vital document of one of today’s most exciting acts.

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3. Heliotropes – Primates (BreakThruRadio)

For a few years now, Heliotropes have been quietly carving out an impressive name for themselves, earning the respect of both critics and their peers. Creatively restless and endlessly intriguing, the band continues to impress with this BreakThruRadio performance of “Primates”. It’s a glimpse towards the future the band’s angling towards and it’s impossibly tantalizing. One of their finest songs to date, “Primates” keys in on the band’s wiriest post-punk tendencies and sporadically cuts them to shreds. If this is indicative of the rest of the band’s forthcoming material, start bracing for something genuinely explosive.

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4. The Coathangers (KEXP)

The second KEXP session of this installment features The Coathangers, who have been touring hard behind their excellent Nosebleed Weekend. Celebrating both that record and the 20th anniversary of the label that released the record, Suicide Squeeze, finds the band in exceptionally high spirits. All of that culminated in an unshakable, infectious joy that drives this session, making it both immediately accessible and surprisingly memorable. The trio remains in fine form throughout the session, playing with ramshackle glee while maintaining an impressively tight grasp on the songs, creating what could be considered a definitive portrait.

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5. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Girl In Amber

After enduring unspeakable loss, Nick Cave allowed filmmaker Andrew Dominik into his creative process to create One More Time With Feeling, a documentary that follows both the creation of Skeleton Tree and Cave’s battle with grief in the wake of his youngest son’s tragic death. It’s excruciatingly heartrending from an outsider’s perspective and Dominik elegantly underscores how unthinkably difficult it’d be to be in that situation. In the third studio video to be released from the project, Cave continues to look completely lost and withdrawn, as if perpetually trying to wrestle his thoughts down.

“Girl In Amber” also expertly incorporates Dominik’s inspired direction and the technical wizardry that went into the 3D, black-and-white filming of One More Time With Feeling. The overall effect’s equal parts haunting and haunted, creating an unforgettable impression. This is a staggering work of bravery and artistry, each colliding with the other to produce something as singular as it is captivating. As the camera circles Cave, surveying his every movement and placing him at the center of swirling uncertainty, Cave repeats “don’t touch me” as the video cuts to black, providing one last breathtaking moment of a miniature masterpiece.

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