Petals Rang The Bell :: Strange Furniture Music Video

Petals Rang The Bell :: Strange Furniture // directed by Michael Foxtrot Johnson //

PRTB's "Strange Furniture" gets a surreal video treatment to accompany singer Shane Tripp's surreal lyrics courtesy of Michael Foxtrot Johnson.

Or rather, got: I've been meaning to post this one for the last month or so but I've been completely sleeping on the blog duties, srry bout it.

The video opens with drummer Ben Weissenborn and ladyfriend leaving the house shortly before bandmate Tripp breaks in and makes himself at home. As he gets ready to settle in for some TV he see's a distorted version of himself and gets sucked into the telly in what I like to think is a bit of a nod to Cronenberg's Videodrome.

Inside the TV, Tripp finds himself in a television studio/dreamworld where he's playing with his band on a soundstage and simulataneously milling about, taking in the crazy scene. The sequence subtly recalls silent film-era shorts with its imagery of a shiny cardboard fishhook being lowered from above, the sudden, unexplained danger of a pursuing authority figure, and the damsel in distress. I'll spare the details of the climax, but suffice it to say that when Ben gets home he is not happy with what Shane has been doing to the couch.

"Strange Furniture" appears on the band's self-titled debut, which you can find at ::
petalsrangthebell.com // Follow PTRB on Facebook for updates on shows & releases.

For more videos from director Michael Foxtrot Johnson :: youtube // vimeo

crash sunday x kevin lernowich :: NMYDRMS

Review by Ben Weissenborn

Post-Aquarium Jesus and unholy king of the Tweet Elite, @crashsunday makes his return with a heady and oppressively sparse remix of Kevin Lernowich's nowhere-to-be-found-on-the-interwebs "You Can Be Awful" (where the fuck you at, K Bar?) The aptly titled "NMYDRMS" opens with a computer-fucked vocal sample that squiggles and squirms all over itself, bearing the same time-stretch-marks that adorn the flesh of the works of Balam Acab and other artists on the Tri-Angle Records roster.

An almost unbearably sparse drum pattern sneaks in, not so much propelling the track forward in any traditionally rhythmic way, but instead acting as a sort of accoutrement to highlight the barely-there nature of the track. Crash Sunday's trademark synth-pads-from-Hell come soaring in near the 1 minute mark, ensuring that the rest of the ride won't be fun, but that doesn't mean it won't be enjoyable. That vocal sample that guided us here continues to be garbled and fucked by CPU processes only @crashsunday will understand, calling out from the weight of those gargantuan synth pads and pleading for release from the heartless nature of the string of effects its being dragged through. The effect is hypnotic, lonesome and surprisingly beautiful…not to mention druggy as fuck.

When the track comes to a close (unfortunately, that happens quite quickly), you can only scratch your head and wonder where the fuck you've been for the last 3 minutes. Fortunately, you can go ahead and click that big ole pink play button and get lost in Crash Sunday's fucked and endearing world again. And again. And again. And again.

Follow Carsh in :: facebox // twets // tumblr // soundcloud

dizzy dearest :: light pollution

"Light Pollution" starts off with a guitar riff that morosely combines the tonal breakage of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine with the back & forth mopey sway of early New Order/Joy Division, while wet reverbed-out synths & drums drench everything, reflecting & distorting the city lights to create that magic illusion where it looks like maybe you can actually dive down into the asphalt & take a dip in forever.

According to a Feb 6th post on the band's facebook, Dizzy Dearest's new album is one song away from being finished so it shouldn't be long now before we get some more new jams.
fb :: like to stay up on album info // show dates

petals rang the bell :: strange furniture / i touched my finger

Comprised of childhood friends Shane Tripp (lead vox/gtrs), Ben Weissenborn (drums; formerly of Ship Shape w/ Coloreater[!]), Andy Howse (bass), and Brandon Grubaugh (gtrs), Grand Rapids indie band Petals Rang the Bell plays a delicately loose style of rock that aesthetically recalls the surreal/modern-but-rustic qualities of indie faves like Wilco and Red Red Meat/Calexico while still doing their own whisky-soaked ambien thing.

Throughout their eponymous self-produced debut lead singer Shane Tripp's raspy-sweet vocals and lyrics compose visual narratives that recall the golden age of music videos - quick edits build surreal visuals by contrasting the nightmarish/otherworldly with the daily mundane. In "I Touched My Finger," Tripp begins describing a surreal scene in which clumsy, urine soaked, aroused pajamas walk into his house. He ponders donning them before firing off a series of non-sequiters that take the piss out of The Everyday and remind me of everything i always loved about Kurt Cobain's lyrics: "But oh, I just could not go through with It / I found a reason not to pay my Rent / Oh i felt so Innocent / Only I'm Intelligent / Everyone else is an Idiot / Puppies and Kittens are all Hideous." I could quote him fr pages and pages, just rest assured its all thoroughly tweetable stuff.

Musically the band mirrors the twists and turns of Tripp's lyrics but each musical change is fluid and natural, more evolving than relentlessly epic (dun worry baybee, eez not a prog). The guitars weave through Howse and Weissenborn's ever-shifting rhythms, flourishing in ornate patterns without becoming tangled, while said rhythms do their own dynamic weave, looping in and out to create a series of fractal cat's cradles.

In summary, the boys are doin' it, doin' it, doin it wellolol, j/k, no foreally tho, THEY GOO. Head over to http://petalsrangthebell.com/ to stream the album, and why not buy a digital copy fr the low low price of $5 USD while yr there? At the very least, like em on facebook and hit up one of their shows for a real cool time, their next is at Holiday Bar in Grand Rapids on Feb 17th.

crash sunday :: best :: advance + coloreater remix

One of the closing tracks from the forthcoming concept album Promiseland, Crash Sunday's "Best" is a bittersweet recollection of things gone & past, places that no longer exist except in the hypersaturated (inaccurate) memoryspaces where nostalgia & major traumas parallel one another before intersecting in a roundabout that becomes a cul-de-sac & refuses to let you out. The track itself is nowhere near as intense, tone-wise its more like sitting in a sunny window & watching dust motes reenact the intensity in a slow motion small-scale ballet of chaos. The small scale & the distance making the insanity seem cute & even missed.

Coloreater's remix then pulls us INTO the moment, into the disorienting vividness of those peak experiences without the benefit of the relative safety of memory or the distance of lapsed time. It's a journey of beautifully excruciating anticipation, of walking with covered eyes, not knowing where each successive step will place you, but knowing by the sound that you're getting closer & closer to impending danger of speeding traffic. Chills all the way through the remix, fucking love it.

coloreater :: if you got that

Coloreater's newest original: "If You Got That." If u do, do. This track would sit perfectly in a mix between tracks by Sepulcure and Mount Kimbie, starting off chill but upbeat with the percolating shuffled rhythms, shimmering organ chords, and clipped vox of UK Garage before being descended upon by a flurry of dismantled jazz samples swarming in a post-dubstep formation. The kid is ripping Future Garage apart and making it his own. Keep watch.

cursive age :: grow up / life like

Warm & cold with longing, Cursive Age's Creepshow is a great winter set - the sonic equivalent of looking outside & wanting to go but knowing the invisible cold would make everything shit, unsatisfying, deadening. But there's a light that lingers & sets the frost aglow: a longing that keeps you going till you snap or thaw