Between Saintseneca’s “Happy Alone” and Perfume Genius’ “Queen“, Christopher Good’s already responsible for two of the most arresting music videos of the year. A few days ago the Director/Editor/Producer unveiled his most recent effort, a constantly-evolving visual puzzle for Shy Boys’ characteristically surf-tinged “Life Is Peachy”. Playing with the linearity of time, the video hinges on a repeated chase involving a thief and a dental patient. It’s an intriguing concept and Good gives it his typically artful execution. As the single chase scene repeats, tiny details are added and subtracted. One mirror evolves into three, red evolves into blue, and a “Wanted” poster is brought full circle by a series of Polaroids. It’s the perfect balance of accessible simplicity and subtle high-concept, essentially becoming a mirror of the song. Everything’s always in motion, everything builds momentum, and it all comes together with a satisfying close. Music videos are rarely more clever than they are here, which is something that’s deserving of celebration.
Watch “Life Is Peachy” below and order it from High Dive here.
Cayetana have been making a major push recently after developing a reputation for themselves based on the strength of their live show and incessant touring. Recently, the band went on tour with The Menzingers who also brought along site favorite Lemuria and PUP, raising their profile- and expectations for their new material- to staggering heights. If that pressure was weighing on the band, it doesn’t show- the first glimpse they’ve offered at new material, “Scott Get the Van, I’m Moving” is an exhilarating leap forward for a band that seems ready for national attention.
Boasting one of the catchiest vocal melodies of the year, the song’s a super-charged blast of basement pop that sounds both completely unhinged and gleefully effortless. Cayetana appear to be in full control of their craft, which bodes well for Nervous Like Me (due out September 9 on Tiny Engines), which “Scott Get the Van, I’m Moving” is taken from. Veering back and forth between an insanely fun sugar-rush during the verse and a decidedly more contemplative (and somber) passage offers up a contrast that keeps the listener on their toes and keeps the song fascinating. It’s an extremely tantalizing first look at Nervous Like Me and will be whipping audiences into a frenzy for as long as it’s played.
Listen to “Scott Get the Van, I’m Moving” below and keep both eyes peeled for Nervous Like Me.
Vacation seem to have earned themselves a reputation as being an increasingly popular pick for “your favorite band’s favorite band” and it’s not difficult to figure out why. Each of their releases has been embraced by their respective community as nothing less than celebratory affairs. Add the fact that a few of the members of Vacation also spend time in Tweens, helping their wide-scale exposure out, and all of the pieces are already in place for new levels of success.
After Candy Wavestopped a slew of genre specialists “Best of 2012” lists, the trio had already carved out a name for themselves. Tweens’ unlikely (but entirely welcome) 2013 breakout raised questions of what the implications would be for Vacation. As of a few days ago, the band’s provided a definitive answer in rousing fashion with a demo for “Every Direction” and promises of a subsequent full-length and tour. Most surprisingly, however, is the shift from a trio to a quartet, and a switch at drums. Make no mistake, though, this is still very much Vacation, now just a little more fleshed-out. Hell, “Every Direction” just might even be their finest outing yet. All cutthroat riffs and irresistible melody, it’s an immensely effective tease for whatever they’ve got in store. Whatever it is, it’ll almost certainly be more than worth the now-stratospheric levels of anticipation.
Listen to “Every Direction” below and keep a keen eye (or two) on the band’s facebook page for any further updates.
Kiss Me Tender is the impending EP full of scorchers from the quickly-ascending Mannequin Pussy. While it’s already available digitally, the UK-based Crumb Cabin Records will be releasing a bundle package that pairs it with an EP from Dog Legs and comes with an accompanying zine (this package is limited to 50 copies and costs around $17 to ship to the US). So, now the big question: why should anyone care? “Kiss”, the opening track from Mannequin Pussy’s side, answers that question with no shortage of immediacy.
“Kiss” is a blistering shot of hardcore-leaning noise-punk. It’s delivered with a startling amount of conviction and self-awareness, cementing Mannequin Pussy as an act to watch. While the song’s over in 70 seconds, not a moment of it is wasted. One of the most visceral songs to emerge out of 2014, “Kiss” has no qualms about coming out swinging. Backing up the musical intensity is the directness of the incredibly arresting lyrics (that last stanza, especially, is a killer). Most importantly, it does everything an opening song’s supposed to do- and Kiss Me Tender doesn’t allow its pace to let it up once “Kiss” has set the tone for what’s to come. Stunningly unhinged, it also works as the perfect mid-release switch-over blast following Dog Legs’ excellent side (as a fun bonus, both bands cover a song from each other’s catalogs that aren’t included on the split) of the bundle package.
One of 2014’s most outstanding DIY releases, either with the bundle or without, this is a necessary item for any serious record collection.
Listen to “Kiss” below and make sure to keep both eyes peeled on Mannequin Pussy, it’s a name that should be appearing in a lot more places in a very short amount of time.
We’ve hit the approximate 2/3’s mark of the year 2014 and this very post is the 250th to run on this site. Over the course of its duration Heartbreaking Bravery has included a fairly strong emphasis on the music video and this year’s offerings made that commitment a complete non-issue by virtue of their excellence. Songs in Screens: A Look Back is a visual-based “mixtape” and serves as a reminder of a lot of the videos that earned acclaimed here- and a few that, whether due to time or an overabundance of other predetermined material, were egregiously overlooked. For all of the videos that have been featured, there will be a hyperlink leading to their respective write-ups. Those that didn’t receive a write-up will get a very brief one below the mix itself. All of these videos came out in 2014 and made an impression- and they all deserve to be remembered. Let’s give them the recognition that they deserve.
While Thee Oh Sees’ “The Lens” did land itself a nice write-up, “Drop” was unfairly pushed to the side during its release. Arguably the better of the two videos (and songs), it gets the most out of its constantly evolving, simplistically animated black-and-white presentation and felt like a more appropriate inclusion for this list.
It’s almost cruel that both this song and this video were overlooked due to festival coverage. Both are either perfect or near-perfect and embody just about everything this site loves most. “I Just Wanna Be A Star” is a joyous celebration on record and the video gets one hell of a performance out of its unlikely lead. Make sure to not skip this one.
This spot was always intended to feature an anomaly- an act or style that doesn’t regularly earn a feature spot on this site. clipping. came a hair’s breadth away from claiming it with their mercilessly arresting video for “Work Work” but Anna Calvi & David Byrne made something so staggeringly beautiful and emotive with their video for their “Strange Weather” cover that it would’ve been criminal to ignore it. No video this year had cinematography this stunning- or a mood this anxious. A genuine work of art.
No video from 2014 had this amount of unrelenting tension. From its bare-bones premise to the engaging execution, it’s something with the potential to be permanently embedded into the brain of anyone lucky enough to come across it.
24. Cloud Nothings – Psychic Trauma At this point, it’s fairly evident that Here and Nowhere Else will stand as one of 2014’s best records. The video for “Psychic Trauma” comes as a welcome reminder of that fact and features some basic (albeit eye-catching) visual effects. That combination’s enough to land it a spot in this list.
25. White Lung – In Your Home
Of all the 2014 music videos to be released so far, very few approach the levels of insanity attained by White Lung’s fiery “In Your Home”. Mixing a lot of the items featured prominently throughout this list (unexpected psychedelic imagery, contained animation, and the black-and-white aesthetic, especially) with something that’s uniquely their own, “In Your Home” stands tall as a testament to the fact that being weird is way more fun than being standard. And it offers up a perfect wrap for this mix. Roll credits.
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.
Cymbals Eat Guitars are gearing up towards the release of something special. This has been evident since the band unveiled “Jackson“, an absolutely stunning manifestation of personal loss and anguish so sincere that it’s still difficult to listen to. Since that first look at the band’s upcoming record, LOSE, the band’s released another miniature triumph by way of the decidedly more laid-back 80’s-indebted “Chambers” and, most recently, the absolutely incendiary “Warning”. Foregoing their usual restraint for something much more visceral, Joseph D’Agostino leads his band through a spiky post-punk blitz that eschews a lot of their past psychedelic influence in favor of a previously unheard immediacy. It’s a new look for the band and it suits them extraordinarily well. “Warning” is, far and away, the most direct song the band’s released and stands alongside “Jackson” as one of their very best. A million and a half things would need to go wrong to change what seems to be inevitable; LOSE being not only the band’s personal best- but one of the very best of 2014.
Listen to “Warning” below and pre-order LOSE from Barsuk Records here.
LVL UP’s Hoodwink’d is suddenly all just about anyone can talk about. There’s a very simple reason for this, too- and it’s name is “Soft Power”. Following a few outstanding lo-fi releases for the increasingly influential Double Double Whammy label, the song takes all of the band’s best qualities and pushes them to their absolute limit. From the lilting vocal melody to the shards of gritty lo-fi punk riffs that slice the song wide open, all of their hallmarks are present. What differentiates this from their past work is the way it’s presented. Jangling guitar work’s married with a more confident, drawn-out structure. Explosive sections are no longer brief, they’re played for maximum impact and build momentum instead of abruptly cutting it off at the head (a trick they used expertly on songs like “*_*“). All told, the New York band’s truly emerged with what’s likely to stand as one of the year’s best songs by the time it draws to a close- and, at this point, it’d be a shock if Hoodwink’d didn’t live up to that promise as well.
Listen to “Soft Power” over at the band’s bandcamp and pre-order Hoodwink’d from Double Double Whammy here.
While NXNE provided a lot of the most memorable moments I’ve had so far this year, I’d be completely and totally remiss not to pay special attention to one of the non-festival shows: an absolutely stacked lineup flying under the Summer Melt banner and taking place in the middle of a halfpipe. Originally, the show (heavy on local Toronto acts) was going to be headlined by the Cleveland-based Pleasure Leftists– an incredibly casual last-minute offer allowed Perfect Pussy to step in literally hours beforehand as a secret headliner. To their credit, their secret remained a secret (unlike the Spoon debacle just a night before) and caught several attendees by surprise as they entered the venue (which had set times drawn up on a long sheet of paper and in plain sight). A late arrival meant missing a slew of talented bands including Wrong Hole, Das Rad, Toronto Homicide Squad, Petra Glynt, and Teenanger.
Even five bands in, the night was far from over. It didn’t take long for Cellphone (pictured above) to set up and it took even less time for them to impress. On record, the quartet emphasizes their roughness, eclecticism, and electronic leanings. Live? They explode with a fury worthy of the hardest-hitting bands of STT’s golden age. Hüsker Dü, Black Flag, and (especially) Dinosaur Jr. all came to mind as apparent touchstones during different parts of their set, which stayed rooted in something totally intangible and unique to them. Hardcore influences and progressions cut apart riff-heavy melodicism and the band frequently sounds like they’re on the verge of spiraling out of control. It’s a controlled mania that had more than a few people shoving and dancing as hard as they possibly could by their set’s end. It was one of a very large handful of shows the band played throughout the NXNE dates and the practice showed- the end result was the best set of the trip from a band I’d previously never heard of.
Toronto’s Ice Cream may not have had the blinding energy of Cellphone but they certainly weren’t lacking in intrigue. The band’s a very minimalist post-punk act made up of nothing more than vocals, bass, a very occasional guitar, and synth. While they were stealthily making their way through their set (and the bottom of a bottle of liquor), they ran a bubble machine to its dregs. A little more than halfway through their set, a very-probably-inebriated audience member kept trying (and partially succeeding) at getting the bubbles back up and running, as the band played on, relatively amused and unconcerned. Most of their set hinged on bright melodies and pop-leaning basslines but when they deviated away from this, especially towards the end of their set, they found new life and hit new peaks. When their set finally wound down, they’d succeeded in creating an impression while simultaneously leaving the space wide-open for Pleasure Leftists to do just about anything they wanted.
Pleasure Leftists took full advantage of what was essentially a new slate after Ice Cream wound things down. After a string of strong releases on Deranged Records, the Cleveland band was in rare form, which was likely in part to the excessive amount of touring they’ve been doing lately. They’ve sharpened their brand of brooding post-punk and the fangs that they’ve grown along with it. While the whole band is incredibly formidable in their respective roles and fully capable of creating towering soundscapes of tension-filled dread, vocalist Haley Morris still stands out. Onstage, Morris is a force to be reckoned with; a constant- and constantly expressive- larger-than-life presence. Pouring an endless supply of nervous energy and pure feeling into her delivery, Morris commands attention so completely that it occasionally runs the risk of losing track of what’s happening around her- don’t make that mistake. Pleasure Leftists’ instrumentalists are so well-versed in post-punk that on first listen someone could easily mistake them for a long-lost 70’s UK band that split small club bills with Warsaw. Their set was everything anyone could hope for and was rousing enough to leave the audience absolutely stunned. Everything that Pleasure Leftists are currently doing is clicking so neatly into place that it’s impossible to expect their trajectory to stabilize in anything other than ascension.
Finally, at a time roughly between 3:00 and 3:30 A.M., Perfect Pussy had set up and was off with their usual intensity. It’s no secret how I feel about this band and this won’t be the last time I write about them- or come even remotely close. I have made my feelings about them very public on multiple occasions and will continue to do so- because they are firmly rooted in all of the ethos that I believe in. Morality, integrity, independence, acceptance, and a commitment to DIY are all present in both their music and their interview. Vocalist Meredith Graves, in particular, has been very vocal about things that people need to start being more vocal about (and almost all of them are extensions of basic human kindness, compassion, and empathy). I would probably know next to none of this if I hadn’t been absolutely blown away by their 2013 demo I have lost all desire for feelingand made it a point to get as close to the band, who were making music I loved so fiercely and championing ideals I so firmly believed in, as I possibly could. It’s been a downright honor to watch the public interest in them skyrocket since the release of that demo and when Say Yes to Lovecame out, it made them feel revelatory all over again.
As with any band experiencing success, this meant seeing the venues housing them gradually grow- and the tickets fly much faster than they used to. So, when Graves pulled me aside after their Great Hall appearance for a beer at a Toronto bar to catch up and explain the events of the previous night, I was already on a barely-contained adrenaline rush. When we were interrupted by a guy offering to add Perfect Pussy onto an already-stacked bill that was being topped by Pleasure Leftists in a halfpipe in the middle of the night, all I could do was look at a noticeably excited Graves and hope she’d say yes. After all the details got figured out, it became evident fairly quickly that this was probably going to be the show that I remembered most from the Toronto stay. A band I’d loved and been chomping at the bit to see for the longest time (Pleasure Leftists) playing in a small, DIY space with who is arguably my favorite band of the moment playing after them as a secret headliner? With local support to top everything off, it seemed fail-proof. It was. Even though the late slot meant playing to an exhausted/subdued crowd, when Perfect Pussy tore into their set, it finally felt like they were at home. It was the exact kind of space that the band has fostered mutually symbiotic relationships with- even as their stature would suggest they’ve outgrown them.
It felt like a subtle, extraordinary moment and it was a privilege to be there to witness something like that happen. Even though the band’s set was abbreviated (even for them), it still hit with the force of an all-out military strike and the band laid just about everything they had on the line. Drummer Garrett Koloski was simultaneously battling to keep his kit upright and continuing to beat the living shit out of it- bassist Greg Ambler was tapping into an inward violence- guitarist Ray McAndrew was thrashing about more spiritedly than ever- synth/noise artist Shaun Sutkus was tucked away in the back, occasionally letting the music move him into making frantic body motions- and vocalist Meredith Graves (easily one of the finest bad leaders that this generation’s produced) commanding as much attention as humanly possible without being consumed by the din around her. All of the songs they played that evening were initially written down on a sheet of paper, cut into ribbons, and placed in a hat where the setlist was drawn out of- with the exception of one, which McAndrew took it upon himself to launch into, without warning, adding an element of surprise for both the audience and his bandmates. That moment was the only sly sidestep in an otherwise pulverizing, straightforward set that re-confirmed Perfect Pussy as one of the most entertaining live bands currently playing shows. By the time “Advance Upon the Real” wound down into Sutkus’ noise epilogue, they’d provided the evening with enough punch and verve to ensure that it wouldn’t be an evening that anyone who was present for it forget about it anytime soon. It didn’t feel like they’d officially arrived; it felt like they’d arrived home.
The photo gallery of this show can be accessed by clicking the link below. Beneath that link is a video of Perfect Pussy ending their set with “Advance Upon the Real”.
A note: All night tonight Heartbreaking Bravery will be running photo galleries from the recent Toronto trip. All of these galleries will have full reviews to accompany them in the near future. The preceding galleries all came with additional notes out of necessity but this will be the short reminder that runs with the remainder. Enjoy the photographs below and keep an eye out for the upcoming reviews. Neither of the final two galleries (Soybomb HQ and Smiling Buddha) were part of NXNE- but both were definite highlights.
Heartbreaking Bravery 