Tag: PUP

Best New Music Videos, vol. iv – Wet Leg, PUP, Sadurn, Magdalena Bay, Denzel Curry

Posted on by IRC Staff

The post-pandemic creative bubble continues to burst and expand outwards (think big bang theory) as a sleuth of excellent new video singles flows non-stop into its own tributary, along with the best 2022 indie albums; audio singles, and special compilations.

In This Installment:

Wet Leg – Isle of Wright, England – “Angelica”
PUP – Toronto, Ontario – “Matilda”
Sadurn – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – “Golden Arm”
Magdalena Bay – Miami, Florida – “Dreamcatching”
Denzel Curry Ft. Slowthai – Miami, Florida – “Zatoichi”

Wet Leg – “Angelica” 5

It’s hard not to like Wet Leg. There is something about their dedication to indie rock and to not taking themselves too seriously which has caught on in the ‘wider-realm’ (if you will). This recent video for “Angelica” has racked up more than a half million views on this official YouTube version alone in just two weeks. And that’s because it’s dope. The band’s self-titled album is set to drop April 8th on Domino Records.

Last month Philadelphia indie rock band Sadurn announced their debut album, Radiator, set to drop in May via Run For Cover.

The new band, led by Genevieve DeGroot, shared a lead single, “Snake,” followed up with this chill wavy track, “Golden Arm.”

DeGroot says about the song and the accompanying video:

“I wrote this song at the same time as ‘snake’ while doing a work exchange on a homestead in North Carolina. It kind of all came out at once, which feels like this lucky occasion when you’re writing songs. I didn’t think much of it in its initial form, it felt like more of a poem than a story.”

“But playing it with the band for the first time, and then later adding the synth and the slide guitar and coming up with the harmonies when we made the recordings, all those layers really brought it into a different special realm. The video came about very serendipitously when Amelia and I were on a road trip back in the Fall with another friend. We found this amazing camping spot and decided to shoot a video on Amelia’s camcorder – the landscape there really felt like it fit with the song.

Radiator drops May 6th via Run For Cover.

Cover/feature photo above by Kevin PG Perry

PUP – “Matilda” 4

Indie veterans PUP have unveiled a new music flick for the track “Matilda” off of The Unravelling of PupTheBand.

Jeff Cubbison puts it best; calling the video “crafted in a more old school vein, tracing the touching journey of a cool-ass guitar through multiple owners. It’s a heart-on-your-sleeve story from a kick-ass, heart-on-your-sleeve kinda band. The director credit goes to Jefferson Dutton.

Magdalena Bay – “Dreamcatching”

The DIY video gods aren’t so DIY anymore which will allow Magdalena Bay to increase their artistic approach like on the latest video clip, “Dreamcatching,” “a spectacular, eye-popping animated odyssey that needs to be seen to be believed. If there’s any justice, then this should have the VMA for Video of the Year in the bag,” writes Impose.

Denzel Curry Ft. Slowthai – “Zatoichi”

Denzel Curry has dropped yet another music video single from the upcoming album Melt My Eyes See Your Future . The previously-dropped “Walkin” was a grandiose experiment in the sub-sub-genre space western style, while “Zatoichi” stands as “an ode to old-school samurai flicks.”

“The kaleidoscopic, psychedelic unraveling during Slowthai’s amen break-filled verse is the stuff of cinematic magic,” writes Jeff Cubbison for Impose magazine.

 

Top 2022 Indie Music Videos, v.ii – Beach House, PUP, MJ Lenderman, Baby Strange, Hater

Posted on by Rick Sosa

New indie rock music videos are dropping left and right in past weeks, so we’re doing our best to keep up with reviewing and posting the best indie music videos of 2022 – one volume of 5 each at a time. Please share, like or follow to tell us you dig this series so we are inspired.

Just for clarification: ‘best indie music videos’ refers more to our feeling about the song itself and not the video by itself. The use of ‘video’, and the YouTube embed, helps separate posts with just audio, and those with audio AND video.

In this case, brothers and sisters, the video can be animation, lyric, or a real ‘real’ music video (if that makes sense?).

We do not post YouTube video singles that include mash-ups of stock footage and public domain media.

(YouTube/Google has a pretty strong hold on the music videos marketplace. The only viable competition – Vemo – is now owned by guess who? Google. Does this space allow fair competition? Doesn’t look like it – does it? Every time Google stock-owners go to the bank they say “GOO_GOO_GA_GA” when they see how much money – on paper – they are making. Remember – money either enhances or corrupts.)

In This Installment:

Beach House – “Sunset” from Once Twice Melody (Feb. 18th)
PUP – “Robot Writes a Love Song” from The Unraveling of Pup, The Band (April 1st)
MJ Lenderman – “The Hangover Game” from Boat Songs (April 29th)
Baby Strange – “Under The Surface” from Land of Nothing (April 20th)
Hater – “Something New” from Sincere (May 5th)

It’s no secret to our readers/followers that we have been big Beach House supporters from the get-go (more than 15 years by now – wow) after listening to the duo’s 2006 self-title debut album, featuring still-amazing tracks like the mega-loved “Master of None” to “Saltwater”, and others like the spooky “Tokyo Witch”, over and over again.

Now we are fortunate to have a track and video from the duo’s upcoming new release Once Twice Melody set to drop February 18th via Sub Pop Records.

Victoria Legrand‘s soothy, mysterious vocals and Alex Scally‘s dreamy, moody instrumentations on “Sunset” and many other tracks have never run dry or become ho-hum over the years.

Being overly analytical in cases like this can be a big fault: so, at the end of the day, all we can say about Beach House is they’re on our forever favorite indie duos of all time list.

Toronto punk quartet PUP are set to drop their foruth album, The Unraveling of Pup, The Band on April 1st via Little Dipper/Rise Records.

The video/audio track “Robot Writes A Love Song” shifts from melodic guitar-rock into an anthemic synth and drum machine-driven groove.

The band’s statement hints at something different coming up: “[It is] not just the next PUP record, but the most PUP record.”

PUP members recorded and mixed the tracks last summer at Grammy-winning producer Peter Katis’ (Interpol, Kurt Vile, The National) Connecticut mansion.

New instruments like piano, synths and horns are used for the first time on a PUP album and includes contributions remotely from the following artists: Sarah Tudzin (Illuminati Hotties), Kathryn McCauhey (NOBRO), Mel St-Pierre (Casper Skulls) and Erik Paulson (Remo Drive).

Asheville, North Carolina ndie rocker and former Wednesday band member Jake Lenderman, who records as MJ Lenderman, returns with a new track about Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals. The song, “Hangover Game,” is off of his forthcoming album Boat Songs.

With combating guitars and a remarkable cresecendo, the track unravels a story that Michael Jordan’s infamous 1997 illness was not food poisoning, but instead a ‘bad hangover.’

Lenderman turns the song into a silly two minutes of poetic alt-country bliss. Boat Songs drops official April 29th via Dear Life Records.

Scottish rockers Baby Strange released their new video single “Under The Surface”.

The video is wonderfully creative and memorable – an accomplishment these days, especially on what we assume was a limited budget. Overall it’s a clever artistic concept that doesn’t need to be flashy or elaborate to be effective. Of course it helps that the song itself is a kick-ass rocker.

Another single, “Midnight,” released on New Years Eve – was the first teaser from the band’s upcoming second album, Land of Nothing, due April 20th via Icons Creating Evil Art.

It’s a powerful song for me, writing it was a total release”

Vocalist and guitarist Johnny Madden explains: “’Under The Surface’ is a song about feeling trapped and wanting to find a way out of whatever is holding you back. It’s about paranoia, dark thoughts and the need to get over them. It’s a powerful song for me, writing it was a total release and when we finished it in the studio I felt a weight was lifted from my shoulders.”

Frontview Magazine : “There is an underlying rawness to the energy sewn deep into the fabric of Glasgow that Baby Strange have harnessed with an unrelenting force.”

Swedish band Hater has dropped the first single, “Something” from their new album Sincere.

It’s the indie quartet’s follow-up to 2018’s Siesta, “Something” is a hypnotizing mix of shoegaze guitars, Caroline Landahl‘s wonderfully diverse vocals and soft, offset drum beats.

This newest peek-view at the upcoming release of Sincere on May 6th via Fire Records.