Wilsen | Heartbreaking Bravery

November 1, 2019

The Best Music Videos of October (2019)

While 2019 hasn’t been as strong for the music video format as some previous years, there are still gems to be found. A quartet of them popped up during the course of October, each one accentuating the strength of their central song while holding their own as a work of art. Varied in approach and execution, each of these clips had something unique to offer. Each one deserves a certain level of investigation and the investment that process entails. Give all four a watch below.

1. Amy O – Crushed

Color damage, lo-fi effects, solid editing, and a great basement pop song. Sometimes that’s all of the ingredients you need to create a smart, engaging music video and Amy O‘s “Crushed” is certainly one of those times. Simple, effective, and just about perfect.

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2. Wilsen – Ruiner

Mitzi Akaha and Tamsin Wilson deliver strong turns in Michael Simon’s clip for “Ruiner”, a single from Wilson’s Wilsen project. A quietly unnerving clip that oddly echoes two Elisabeth Moss films, Queen of Earth and The One I Love. Shot in the style of a Gothic psychological horror, Simon makes great use of atmosphere and a superlative lead performance. Jake Saner’s cinematography gives a perfect read on the song’s tone and pushes the “Ruiner” clip over the top, leaving it as one of 2019’s best clips.

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3. Ada Lea – 180 Days

“180 Days”, the latest music video from Ada Lea walks a fine line between traditional music video and lyric video. Never really establishing a clear narrative, the clip mostly thrives on Lea singing to the camera in a variety of poses and costumes as the lyrics scroll by on the bottom. Despite the simple conceit, those foundations prove to be more than enough, as “180 Days” keeps the viewers attention steadfast.

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4. Common Holly – Crazy OK

When I Say to You Black Lightning, the most recent full-length from Common Holly, is an astounding work. One of the record’s strongest highlights comes in the form of “Crazy OK”, the record’s explosive finale. Max Taeuschel & Aaliyeh Afshar stepped behind the camera for the song’s music video and spearheaded an incredibly memorable visual accompaniment. Leaning heavily on the song’s lyrical narrative, Taeuschel and Afshar let the images of bandleader Brigitte Naggar’s posture and movement provide an effective maximization. Gripping through and through, “Crazy OK” is easy to admire and hard to shake.

April 30, 2017

american poetry club – glad to be here, etcetera (EP Review)

In the past week Wendell Borton, Side Eye, Detenzione, Sarah Shook and the Disarmers, Puppy Problems, Soft Fangs/Bellows, Kindling, moshimoss/stabilo, Wilsen, and GRLMIC all unveiled full streams of various types of records. The landmark Our First 100 Days compilation also came to its natural conclusion. On the quieter, less-publicized side of things, american poetry club’s glad to be here, etcetera — packaged with I Love to Surf’s Mantras as a split EP release — was also made available to the public.

A deeply felt bedroom pop recording from Jordan Weinstock (who runs the excellent It Takes Time Records), glad to be here, etcetera is the sound of creative restlessness. Collaborators trickle in, a sample gets used, and one lonely narrative after another crops up. There’s a lot of resentment present in glad to be here, etcetera, typically manifesting in self-deprecation or self-loathing (and never as strongly as it does on the EP’s closing track) but there are softer moments scattered throughout, specifically “how i felt about most things”, which boasts a simplistic but oddly affecting video that’s premiering right here:

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More than any other song on glad to be here, etcetera, this one feels complete. Fully formed, deeply felt, and brimming with genuine emotion, “how i felt about most things” grapples with a much larger scale than most of the other songs on the record. Instead of just introspection, it’s a meditation on love, familial love, mortality, aging (and being forced to age), and a handful of other weighty topics. It’s easily the strongest composition on the record (the piano figure at the end is the EP’s loveliest moment) and it suggests Weinstock will be saying a lot more things with american pooetry club in the future. A gorgeous moment on a very strong EP, “how i felt about most things” affirms one basic truth: glad to be here, etcetera is worthy of any serious collection.

Listen to glad to be here, etcetera below and pick it up here.

April 9, 2015

White Reaper – Make Me Wanna Die (Stream)

2015 already seems like its building towards a tidal wave of great releases that will consume everything in its path and today’s another one offering some formidable contributions. Since there weren’t too many full streams worth noting, it seems like that’d be an ideal starting point. While the medium may not have had the most impressive numerical outing, Big Moth more than filled the void with the self-titled EP. Hints of basement pop, basement punk, and the golden age of emo/post-hardcore resonate throughout the release (in a manner not too dissimilar from Attendant’s Freaking Out), securing it a spot as one of 2015’s finest debuts to date. For music videos, there was an inspired trio of clips: the infectiously joyous “East Coast Cities” (a giddy highlight off of Crabapple’s excellent Is It You), clipping.’s brilliant, striking “Intro“, and TV On the Radio’s soulful, delicate “Trouble“.

Unsurprisingly, single streams- once again- came out swinging. Which is as good a place as any to point out that the decisions for which item to headline have been nightmarish mental bloodbaths (in the best way possible). Roughly half of what’s linked to in this post that isn’t directly embedded below put up a fight to earn this piece’s central focus. From Pupppy‘s droll mid-tempo masterpiece “Or Maybe We’re Not” to The Midwestern Charm‘s re-release of fiery Growing Pains highlight “General Drag” (a live video of which exists in our archives), there were almost too many great songs to consider. Joining their ranks were Birds of Night’s compellingly moody “Asleep in the Pine”, The Dead Ships’ dark, frenetic “Floorboards“, and the retro-psych of Fauna Shade’s ridiculously enjoyable “Marzipan“. Completing the batch were Mac DeMarco’s touring band’s band (Walter TV) and their “Surf Metal“, Day Wave’s typically introspective “Drag“, and the unnervingly hypnotic ambient folk of Wilsen’s “Garden“.

As difficult as it was, a decision had to be made and White Reaper wound up outsprinting everyone else with the frantic, frenzied assault of their debut full-length’s lead-off single “Make Me Wanna Die”. After last year’s outstanding self-titled EP and a handful of mentions on this site, expectations for their first LP were raised. Add in the fact that the band signed to Polyvinyl (joining a slew of site favorites in the process), and the anticipation heightens. “Make Me Wanna Die” both justifies those high levels of anticipation and delivers a devastating gut-punch to any doubts surrounding the record’s early expectations. Fuzzed-out, punchy, and more manic than ever, the band also somehow found a way to refine their pop sensibilities, creating something that easily ranks among the year’s best. From the jaunty synth hook to the blistering pace, White Reaper appear to not only be in complete control of their craft but at the current height of their powers. Catchy as hell and packed with meaning, “Make Me Wanna Die” is a monstrous first look at what could be one of the surprise albums of 2015. After the drums kick in cloaked in a wall of noise and the count-off hits, it’s nothing but a whirlwind of surging lo-fi heat that strikes the perfect balance between scuzz-punk and powerpop. If the rest of the amusingly-titled White Reaper Does It Again lives up to what the band achieves here, it’ll be one hell of a thrill ride.

Listen to “Make Me Wanna Die” below and pre-order White Reaper Does It Again from Polyvinyl ahead of its July 17 release date here.

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