Heartbreaking Bravery

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Tag: New Tradition

March 22, 2017

Music Videos of the First Quarter: The Honorable Mentions

A little over a week remains in 2017’s first quarter so it felt appropriate — especially considering the recent hiatus — to reflect on some of the best material to have been released over the course of these past three months. What started yesterday with the list of notable full streams will bleed into the following days. Today’s post shifts the focus to some of the most memorable music videos to have surfaced since the start of the year. All of the below videos piqued attention for one reason or the other, either on the film or music side, and deserve as many views as they can possibly receive. So dive in, click around, and explore. Good things await.

Future Islands, Eric Slick, J.E. Sunde (x2), The Spirit of the Beehive (x2, 3), I Am The Polish Army, Caitlin Pasko, Gurr, Retail Space (x2), White Reaper, Demure For Sure, Meursault, Rosie Carney, Pronto Mama, Touché Amoré, The Saxophones, Slow Bear, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, Cass McCombs, NE-HI (x2), Chastity Belt, Francobollo, Ruby Bones, Blaire Alise & The Bombshells, PINS, Honeyblood, Idle Bloom, Hiccup, Xiu Xiu (x2, 3), The Youngest, Durand Jones & The Indications, Blonde Summer, Tobin Sprout

Hurray for the Riff Raff (x2), Beach Slang, Peter Silberman, Clipping., Molly Burch, Tijuana Panthers, Chick Quest, Chaz Bundick Meets the Mattson 2, Los Campesinos!, Wax Idols, The Shivers, Lee Fields & The Expressions, Bleached, Oceanator, Conor Oberst, Real Estate, D.A. Stern, minihorse, Drakulas, FACIAL, Tall Tall Trees (x2), gobbinjr, Parquet Courts, Band of Horses, Sam Vicari, Slothrust, Many Voices Speak, Happyness, Paul White, Strand of Oaks, Cosmonauts, NxWorries, Batwings Catwings, Mary Lynn

The Velveteins, Marching Church, Imaginary Tricks, Frederick the Younger, Moon Duo (x2), Christine Leakey, Walrus, No Ice, Froth, Nana Grizol, Bellows, Tyler Daniel Bean, The Walters, Flat Mary Road, Teen Vice, Woozles, Danny Denial, Night Shapes, Tough Tits, Swoon Lake, Harem, The Modern Savage, The Little Kicks, Crocodiles, We Leave At Midnight, Delicate Steve, The Smith Street Band, The Magnetic Fields (x2, 3, 4), Bin Chivalry, Summer Moon, JFDR, Six Organs of Admittance, Alex Lahey, Joan of Arc

Trentemøller, Leopold and His Fiction, Hippo Campus, Cherry Glazerr, Curse of Lono, Los Angeles Police Department, IAN SWEET, Surf Curse, Delicate Steve, The Black Angels, Timber Timbre (x2), Skaters (x2), Oxbow, Static Eyes, Young Romance, Space Camp, Bonnie Whitmore & Her Band, Quin Galavis, Tim Kasher, Slam Dunk, Daniel Romano, Big Lonely, Reptaliens, Sammus, Rainbrother, Callow, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Bill MacKay, Moody Beach, My Education, HOTT MT, Century Palm (x2), Arthur Moon

The New Pornographers, Campbell L Sangster, Son & Thief, Yohuna, Girl Scout, Tim Kasher, The Head, Perfume Genius, TW Walsh, Blood Ponies, Laura Marling, Dead Man Winter, Sean Rowe, Kate Crash, Warm Body, Free Pizza, Kidsmoke, John Wesley Coleman III, Hand Habits, Aye Nako, Dirty Projectors, Chris Bathgate, Holy Motors, The Two Tens, FOTR, Amy Klein, London O’Connor, Dan San, Lisa/Liza, Knox Hamilton, Swet Shop Boys, Homebody, No Joy, Sunday Morning, Callow, Local Natives, Fastball

Personal Space, Milemarker, Allison Crutchfield, Brother Ali, Garrett Pierce, High Contrast, Wilsen, Crazy Bones, Spookey Ruben, Mt. Doubt, Fufanu, Circles/Waves, Spinning Coin, BATYA, High Waisted, Hoan, Strange Lot, Tennis, Ex-Girlfriends, Thurston Moore, Skating Polly, Jammz, Annie Hardy, Early Riser, Jay Som, Communist Daughter, Colin Stetson, Analog Candle, CRYWANK, Cate Le Bon, Phoebe Bridgers, Geotic, Diagrams, Jenny Hval, Mastodon, CHILLEMI, Shocking White, The Cherry Wave, Oshwa

Skyway Man, Equators, The Superweaks, Luke Sital-Singh, Ivy Meissner, Redspencer, Run The Jewels, Spiral Stairs, Gothic Tropic, American Wrestlers, Moby & The Void Pacific Choir, Warhaus, Kodak Black, Annabelle’s Curse, The Obsessives, Heart Attack Man, and Harmony Tividad.

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July 2, 2016

Cymbals Eat Guitars – 4th of July, Philadelphia (SANDY) (Music Video)

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A lot can surface in two days time, like great new songs from the likes of Mozes and the Firstborn, R.L. Kelly, Snail Mail, Extra Medium Pony, Jordaan Mason, Rod, Joseph Coward, BADBADNOTGOOD (ft. Charlotte Wilson), The Saxophones, Alexa Wilding, Carl Broemel, Baby Girl, Amy Blaschke, and The Hell Yeah Babies. Even better when that crop can be rounded out by notable full streams from the camps of Flout, empath, Porcelain Raft, Omni, Phantom Posse, and The Rashita Joneses. Best of all is when that entire cumulative haul can be complemented by new music videos from Joanna Gruesome (who very nearly took this feature spot), Alice Bag, and Bent Knee.

As good as all of those above titles are, this post’s focus belongs solely to Cymbals Eat Guitars’ inspired “4th of July, Philadelphia (SANDY)”, a song that immediately and effortlessly carves out a spot as one of this year’s finest. Elevating the song’s absurd individual strength is another in a respected list of clips that find a way to exploit the middle ground between music video and lyric video (a niche approach that was popularized by Bob Dylan’s iconic clip for “Subterranean Homesick Blues“). It’s a devilishly clever reflection of the song’s narrative; the song’s transparently informed by history and the visuals follow suit.

Following Warning, one of this decade’s stronger records (and a high-ranking pick for the Best Albums of 2014), the band unveiled the funk-tinged romp “Wish“, prompting some questions over the directional aim of the band’s forthcoming Pretty Years. In case anyone was concerned that the band had lost their penchant for soaring, aggressive, punk-indebted anthems, “4rh of July, Philadelphia (SANDY)” can definitively put those worries to rest.

From its opening moments, “4th of July, Philadelphia (SANDY)” stakes a claim as the most blown-out, deep-in-the-red track of the band’s impressive career and the severely bruised aesthetic winds up propelling the song to a place of curious transcendence. The band digs their heels in deep for the track, which scans as one of their most personal — and most revealing — to date. Ostensibly about the events that guitarist/vocalist Joe D’Agostino experienced last fourth of July in some great company (including site favorite Alex G, hence the winking parenthetical in the title), the song actually gains momentum through its transparency and frankness.

Not only is “4th of July, Philadelphia (SANDY)” one of the finest narratives D’Agostino’s ever crafted, the band’s rarely sounded this overwhelmingly committed to creating something this vicious. The video embraces the song’s production aesthetic and places D’Agostino in various scenic locations, holding lyric cards and taking in his surroundings as a series of overwashed imagery — which looks like it was shot on actual film — creates a cohesive visual narrative that complements the lyrics nicely.

Literally everything the band throws at this video works on miraculous levels, congealing into an astonishing piece of art that ably demonstrates the depths of the band’s ambition. There’s a very real sense of world-building both in the lyrics and in the clip, which again plays to the seamless marriage of both sides of the spectrum in “4th of July, Philadelphia (SANDY)”. D’Agostino’s lyricism has rarely been as vivid or as sharp as it is here and that’s really the crux of the song as well as its most effective engine. Sludgy, punishing, and boasting the most grit the band’s ever conjured up, Cymbals Eat Guitars go full tilt at everything at their disposal for this one and wind up with a breathtaking career highlight that demands a serious level of consideration as an unlikely classic.

Watch “4th of July, Philadelphia (SANDY)” below and pre-order Pretty Years from Sinderlyn here.

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