Heartbreaking Bravery

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Tag: simple

June 15, 2014

La Sera – Fall In Place (Music Video)

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La Sera’s Hour of the Dawn asounds like summer. It’s also the best album Katy Goodman (ex-Vivan Girls, All Saints Day) has ever crafted. A big part of this is thanks to the explosive fretwork that comes courtesy of new guitarist Todd Wisenbaker, which helps lend the record quite a bit of an explosiveness. Every track on the record is a vibrant little triumph that stays just understated enough to avoid tipping over into grandiosity. One of the best examples of this is “Fall In Place”, a song that boasts an incredibly sweet chorus and keeps itself grounded with some astoundingly warm verses. Actually, come to think of it, warmth may be the record’s defining characteristic; the tones, the atmosphere, the arrangements, and the delivery- all of it feels welcoming and familiar. In that respect, “Fall In Place” may be Hour of the Dawn‘s defining song and the video matches it perfectly. The Michael Erik Nikolla-directed clip consists of nothing more than Goodman and Wisenbaker walking down a closed-off street with their dog and a crew that consistently switches out Wisenbaker’s guitar(s), it’s decidedly more slice-of-life than Big Moment- and it’s all the better for it.

Watch “Fall In Place” below and take a long walk in the sun at the next available opportunity.

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June 6, 2014

Parquet Courts – Black and White (Music Video)

parquetcourts

Yes, Sunbathing Animal is as good as everyone says it is. No, the band’s not reinventing any wheels but they’re one of the best at fully committing to the mechanics behind what makes them spin. Their minimalism has always been one of their strongest appeals and the way they use restraint is aggressive to the point of being abrasive- but it works. Everything somehow clicks in to this chaos that feeds off its own energy, like something that’s constantly trying to hold on to whatever life remains in a death rattle that never really comes.

One of Sunbathing Animal’s best examples of this is the infectiously ragged “Black and White”. True to its name, the video the band’s released for it is presented in grainy black and white footage. There are several pieces of what are designed to appear (and one that may actually be) found footage of pedestrians walking away from the camera that trails them on the New York street where vocalist Andrew Savage resides. By having their videos central figures firmly rooted in anonymity it nicely contrasts the fact that this was an in-house production; band members Austin Brown and Johann Rashid directed the clip. When the video finally reaches a conclusion, in an appropriate bit of subtle continuity, it winds up right where the video for “Sunbathing Animal” took place. Nice touch.

Watch “Black and White” below and take a long walk sometime soon (preferably while blaring Sunbathing Animal).

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