It’s video roundup time! Once again, Howl And Echoes are coming in hot with the freshest, most eyeball-stimulating music videos to be dropped by the artists you love and some of the artists you don’t know you love yet this week. We do all the dirty work and herd them all into one convenient web-based location for you to enjoy every Friday so that you don’t have to. Have yourself a good old gander at the latest offerings from:
Tigertown – Lonely Cities
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSg1hJZVoL4
Lonely Cities by Sydney’s Tigertown is a song you’ve no doubt heard being flogged all over the airwaves in recent times. It’s a heavenly slice of stomping electro pop, the chorus transporting you back around 2009 when bands like MGMT and Passion Pit were at their pinnacle.
The accompanying video for Lonely Cities is out today. Shot as a triptych of constantly changing situations, though dancing seems to be the order of the day. There are splashes of vibrant colour everywhere and it makes the video just as fun as the song itself.
You can find Lonely Cities on the EP of the same name, out now via Inertia.
Summer Flake – Tumbling Down
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmyrIR7tab8
Summer Flake are a trio out of Adelaide with a brand new single. Tumbling Down and its video landed this week, the latest from their album Hello Friends which was released earlier in the year. The song is some brooding and atmospheric folk, frontlady Steph Crase’s sweet but strong vocals and a gently strummed acoustic guitar the anchor.
The video was shot on the altar of a church in South Australia and comes complete with its own choir, which is just one of the many perks of shooting in a church I guess (sweet acoustics too!).
Hello Friends is out now via Rice Is Nice. You can catch Summer Flake live on their Hello Friends tour of Australia kicking off tonight in Hobart!
Tacocat – Talk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMHvSNtWjnw&feature=youtu.be
Winning the band name award for ‘Things The Internet Loves Mashed Together’ are Tacocat out of Seattle this week and their brand new single Talk. Coming from their latest record Lost Time, the song is a straightfoward chugging rocker with almost shades of The Misfits once it builds to that huge chorus.
Ultraviolet is the running theme in the accompanying video, hues of it splattered over nails, lips, guitars and clothes, gaudy neon lights blinking across the whole video. Glittery and glam visuals over a no-frills rock and roll song? I’ll take it any day of the week.
Lost Time is out now on Hardly Art via Inertia.
Lupa J – Numb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub03QBgTEkM
It’s strange to think Sydneysider Lupa J only just finished high school and has already made a name for herself this big. With an EP My Right Name on its way, Numb is a track from it that was written by Lupa J at the age of 15 (the age when most of us were content being general shitheads). It’s a shimmering and pulsating electro pop song, the kind that is just perfect for listening to in the warmth of your own home while there’s a winter drizzle outside.
Speaking of cold, the accompanying video will make you feel just a tad chilly, the video’s protagonist walking through some dreary city rain juxtaposed with shots of Lupa J dancing by the water and tangling herself up in fairy lights to very cool effect.
Having just wrapped up a tour supporting Sarah Blasko, the sky looks the limit for Lupa J and we’re looking forward to that EP immensely.
RJD2 – The Sheboygan Left
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH3-sGvkfhk&feature=youtu.be
The only thing I know about Sheboygan was that John Candy’s polka band in Home Alone were (allegedly) a pretty big deal there. The Sheboygan Left, the new single and video from Philadelphia producer RJD2 and his latest album Dame Fortune, isn’t really doing much to update my knowledge of that Wisconsin city but it’s a cracker track nonetheless.
Positively smoking lounge jazzy actually, funk rhythms and a lone jangly guitar building to a big crescendo to play it out. It’s a melting pot of different genres and noises and it’s just so cheery. The video takes place on the New York underground, a pair of contemporary dancers getting around down there and being followed by a shimmering ball of light. Super cool stuff.
Dame Fortune is out now via RJ’s Electrical Connections.
Gypsy And The Cat – I Just Wanna Be Somebody Else
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dayPYqPJgBc
Melbourne duo Gypsy And The Cat are back, and so is that giant-headed cat nightmare from their last music video for Inside Your Mind. I Just Wanna Be Somebody Else is the title of their latest banger, full of clicky percussion and scuttling synths behind some ethereal vocal harmonies. The chorus kicks in in a mammoth way.
The video is fantastic. The cat-headed creature dude continues to traipse around while the rest of Tokyo pretends his existence isn’t a horrifying affront to humanity. He enjoys activities such as the driving range (needs to work on that swing a whole lot) and a karaoke bar with Gypsy And The Cat themselves (have they given up their dogged pursuit of him from only a video ago already?).
More questions than answers here but a great tune and a great video anyway. Gypsy And The Cat’s third LP Virtual Noise is due out in August of this year.
LISHI – Monster Kids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeuDehnHabY
Mystery shrouds this latest single, the debut effort Monster Kids from a brand new project by the name of LISHI. An atmospheric dream pop experience that almost seems to float in zero-gravity, buoyed by beautifully ghostly vocals that evoke gently falling rain.
The video is a stunner too, directed by visual artist Vasilisa Forbes, featuring its magenta-haired protagonist gliding through gloomy urban surrounds and a mysterious figure in the background, wearing what looks like the sparkliest ninja mask ever forged. It’s an incredibly auspicious debut.
Looking forward to whatever else LISHI has in the works if it’s going to be consistently this good.
Beach Baby – Lost Soul
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8syfP6R7Bio
One of my favourite rock acts going wraps up this week’s roundup in Beach Baby and their brand new single Lost Soul. While not as supercharged as the song you probably know them for in Limousine, Lost Soul is still just as good, jangly guitars and the smoky croon of frontman Ollie leading a song just silly with clever pop hooks.
The lo-fi video finds Beach Baby doing what they appear to do best and jamming out on a glittery gold community hall stage, the lighting somehow shadowy and bright at the same time. With a debut record in the making having signed to Island recently, we’re eagerly awaiting what Beach Baby have in store for 2016.
It’s video roundup time! Once again, Howl And Echoes are coming in hot with the freshest, most eyeball stimulating music videos to be dropped by the artists you love and some of the artists you don’t know you love yet, of this week. We do all the dirty work and herd them all into one convenient web-based location for you to enjoy every Friday so that you don’t have to. Have yourself a good old gander at the latest offerings from:
Dear Plastic – Zero
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1duzFJa78Fo&feature=youtu.be
Here with the debut single from their forthcoming EP Heaven Machine are Melbourne five-piece pop experimentalists Dear Plastic, whose video for Zero is a visual delight. The track is killer, a sweet little slice of electro-pop full of cosmically warped synths and ethereal vocals from Scarlette Baccini that all of a sudden turns it up to 11 for the chorus, those dreamy lullaby vocals all of a sudden transitioning to shrieks, the synths adopting a somber and almost funereal tone. It was enough to have me go bolt upright in my chair.
The video is a fantastic trip, a moving portrait directed by Leigh Young and featuring artwork from Nadia Toukshati. Pastel colours and shapes kaleidoscope their way across some frankly unsettling close-ups of the band, really complementing the sound and atmosphere created, I was hooked instantaneously.
Look for Heaven Machine to arrive later on this year.
Gypsy And The Cat – Inside Your Mind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_QUQ1Kj_Xw&feature=youtu.be
Sticking in Melbourne for this next one from duo Gypsy And The Cat, the first taste of their upcoming album due this year. Inside Your Mind is the name, the sparkling acoustic guitars blending magnificently with breezy synths and some cloud-soft percussion, this is some of the easiest listening you’ll ever do.
The video was shot in Tokyo and features the duo in cat-catcher mode, going full cartoon donning jumpsuits and carrying oversize nets around as they search for a terrifying creature with the body of a slacker and the head of a cat (the famous cat head of Housetu Sato no less). Cat lovers will go ape for this, I find that head remarkably unsettling though. Nonetheless a clever video.
Catch Gypsy And The Cat on their Inside Your Mind tour of Australia when it kicks off next week.
ANOHNI – Drone Bomb Me
ANOHNI is a name you may recognise as being behind the vocals of Antony And The Johnsons. She has a new album HOPELESSNESS on the way, a joint collaboration between herself, Oneohtrix Point Never and Hudson Mohawke, so you already know production is going to be galactically good. To mark the occasion she’s released the first single and video today for the politically-charged Drone Bomb Me.
Haunting, almost operatic vocals tell the bonechilling story of a young girl whose family have been killed in drone attacks. It’s absolutely heartbreaking and the delivery by ANOHNI is full of emotion. The video features supermodel Naomi Campbell clad in camouflage and seated in a dimly-lit room. Shots of her openly weeping are interspersed with frenetic dancing and create an entirely jarring experience that warrants multiple views and listens.
HOPELESSNESS is out May 6th via Rough Trade/Remote Control Records.
Cosmic Rays – Teen Bank Robbers On Heroin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp5kU0_SOP4&feature=youtu.be
This single from ScotDrakula side project Cosmic Rays hands down wins the belt for best song title this week. Teenage Bank Robbers On Heroin is the latest single from Australian by way of Canada Matthew Neumann; the mastermind behind both ScotDrakula and Cosmic Rays. This latest single is taken from the latter’s debut EP Yeah, Cool that was released last year. Dark and atmospheric with downtuned vocals and an uncompromising rhythm section (featuring a bassline that just wants to drill its way into your skull) that finds itself offset by some positively bright and gleaming synths. It’s altogether an intoxicating sound.
The music video was entirely self-produced and follows the exploits of a Melbourne suburbs Bonnie and Clyde of sorts, featuring mini-heists and many intense staring contests between the two. For the cost of $70, Neumann has created a great visual story to go with a cracker track.
There’s a new ScotDrakula record inbound but you can check out Yeah, Cool for now out on Future Popes.
Sunflower Bean – Easier Said
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xykuu_pVZak&feature=youtu.be
The first international act on this week’s list are Sunflower Bean all the way from New York City. Their latest single Easier Said comes from their just released debut album Human Ceremony. Clean and spritely guitars are the order of the day here, accompanying some gorgeously lilting vocals from frontwoman Julia Cummings.
The video is filmed in what looks like a gloomy stretch of upstate New York in late Fall, grey skies and leafless trees scattered across the landscape. Cummings is the focal point, taking a dirtbike ride in a gold jumpsuit and blue angel wings before the rest of the band join her for a casual jam by a roaring fire.
Human Ceremony is out now on Fat Possum via Inertia.
Bugs – When I Know
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5rXXebQWPg
I caught Brisbane duo Bugs when they played the Mountain Goat Valley Pub Crawl just a couple of weeks ago and was thoroughly blown away. Be it their stellar punk and roll covers of Cher’s Believe or the Hoodoo Gurus’ What’s My Scene to their own pop-punk infused tunes that had the crowd bouncing off the walls. The riffs were heavy and the lyrics honest and with that Aussie-accented twang that adds just that little extra flavour they were a highlight of the night.
When I Know is their latest single, released this week with an accompanying video. Sharp and punchy and with lo-fi guitars that jangle and fuzz, the soaring hook of the chorus will lodge itself in your head for ages and lay eggs there that demand you listen to more. The video is a rainbow-splattered, bedroom-quality collage of different shots of the duo singing and playing.
Catch Bugs launching When I Know in Byron Bay and Brisbane in the next couple of weeks. They are a fuck-ton of fun.
King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard – Gamma Knife
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=nC7ii3Ir-no
Experimental noisemakers King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard are one of the most productive bands in Australia and they are on a roll. They’re just over a month out from releasing another album, Nonagon Infinity, and this week they’ve released a new single and video: Gamma Knife.
Working in a cancer clinic that’s just installed an actual Gamma Knife machine and knowing how cool it is (seriously, read about what they can do), I was expecting laser-sharp riffs and a warped out cosmic vibe from the track going into it and that’s exactly what I was delivered. The song is just a whirlwind of speed and sound and is the type of song that will have crowds losing their ever-loving shit live (the extended drum solo is utterly fantastic and harkens back to late-70s prog so nicely)
The video is what you would call wacky, the band playing in a circle in a sun-dappled field. It’s 360 degrees of King Gizz, the camera rotating around each member, all clad in black robes and faces painted. Multicoloured warlock looking dudes soon join the circle before the entire thing ends with everyone lying motionless beside a gigantic egg. Like the drum solo, it’s a very prog-rock affair and it just rules.
Nonagon Infinity is out April 29 via ATO.
Young Thug – My People (ft. Duke)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObXGRPNzX60
Summer vibes abound in the latest single and video from Young Thug. My People comes from his recently released mixtape I’m Up. It features Duke and is a sweltering hot track full of island rhythms, Young Thug spitting fire across all of it.
The video features Thugger leading a band of black clad militants in ski masks. They stand resolutely on a bridge, fists to the sky, as Young Thug raps around them. Striking visuals that contrast with the party feel of the song but an excellent clip all the same.
Look out for Young Thug keeping productivity sky high. Having just dropped I’m Up, he’ll be releasing his debut LP Hy!£UN35 to kick off May and arguably having an even bigger year than he had in 2015.
(Image via Rip It Up)