Flaunting her unabashed lyricism and playful bravado in a bold choreographed music video, ‘Karma’ sees Kah-Lo imbued with the dominating spirit she’s carried into her new era. Surrounded by strapping men and draped in red, Kah-Lo is a commanding presence throughout, controlling her various romantic contenders with the flip of her wrist. The visual accompaniment to her introspective single reflecting on her own “toxic feminine energy”, ‘Karma’ embodies Kah-Lo’s charismatic persona and empowering messaging. ‘Karma’ is a captivating follow-up to ‘fund$’, which saw Kah-Lo portray a murderous femme fatale and marks the next chapter in Kah-Lo’s summer of villainy and revenge. “I’ve always been into dance as an interpretive form of art, and I wanted to really channel the lyrics through that and color,” explains Kah-Lo. “Red is associated heavily with heartbreak, so there’s a lot of red tones with ‘Karma’. I hope people enjoy watching it!”
Philadelphia rock quartet Speedy Ortiz recently announced its long-awaited new album entitled Rabbit Rabbit. The band previewed its first record in 5+ years by sharing ‘Scabs’ and ‘You S02,’ and now Speedy Ortiz shares its next single. ‘Plus One’ features jagged-cliff-dwelling riffs and thundering drums, and is accompanied by a campy horror homage from Dylan Mars Greenberg. But while the video is lighthearted, the song finds Dupuis exploring a traumatic childhood experience in her songwriting for the first time. Dupuis on ‘Plus One’: I love touring, but the workaholism it encourages has been a convenient way to repress my feelings. In the pandemic, I found myself ruminating on my estrangement from an abusive family member. I’ve used my songwriting to process other experiences of violence, but had not broached these memories until Rabbit Rabbit. Being able to work on old trauma in therapy and in my writing has helped my boundaries elsewhere, and taught me to move on from exploitative relationships. That’s what ‘Plus One’ is about, and it came out pretty quickly as a sad acoustic waltz. I was sitting on the floor of an empty living room, mid-move, and the bare surroundings added a liminal starkness, though some of the imagery is inspired by scenes from West Philly that summer. When I went back to do pre-production, Texan post-hardcore was in my head, so I tried to channel At the Drive-In and Trail of Dead, bands that inspired me as a teen. We made the video with director Dylan Mars Greenberg, whose campiness and B-movie expertise was a perfect fit for the band’s also very campy videography. We’ve done a ton of horror homages but had never paid tribute to an old school monster movie. Dylan’s pet bunny Voodoo was a perfect Godzilla-sized star—a cuddly rabbit who’s mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.”
On Friday, Sweeping Promises released their astonishing new album, Good Living Is Coming For You, on Feel It Records in North America and Sub Pop for the rest of the world. Following the previous single releases of ‘Eraser’ and ‘You Shatter’ comes the arresting new video for the album’s title track, ‘Good Living Is Coming for You.’ Sweeping Promises’ Lira Mondal and Caufield Schnug on the new video: “For this video, we collaborated with one of our closest friends, experimental filmmaker Jessica Bardsley (Life Without Dreams, Goodbye Thelma). Drawing from the glamorous and bloodthirsty aesthetic of ‘70s and ‘80s horror films (Daughters of Darkness, The Hunger, The Lair of the White Worm, Dream Demon), the visual companion to ‘Good Living Is Coming for You’ channels the song’s unshakable feeling of discontent and encroaching domestic doom through the confines of a DIY horror flick as seen by some nameless sleepless soul on late-night cable, the line between movie and infomercial blurred to infernal effect.”
Indie-pop sensation Holly Humberstone is back with ‘Antichrist’ and ‘Room Service’, and has finally announced her long awaited debut record, Paint My Bedroom Black, which will be arriving on October 13. ‘Antichrist’ is a shimmering slice of electro-pop that is as smooth and polished as a diamond. “Am I the antichrist? How do I sleep at night?” She opens the song, straight to the point. The production on this track is really fantastic, with pounding drumbeats and swirls of synths. It’s a melodic, sprawling track, filled with sadness, yet doesn’t really make the listener feel too sad, more empathetic. Speaking on the writing of the song, Humberstone said: “’Antichrist’ is about a breakup I went through a couple of years ago. I genuinely cared about this person and wanted so badly to make it work, but I knew something wasn’t right and my heart wasn’t in it. I knew that I was inevitably going to have to hurt the person I wanted so much to love. At the time I wrote the song, I remember feeling like I was constantly letting those around me down. I basically felt like the worst person in the world.” [via When the Horn Blows]
FIZZ have shared a new video and details of a new tour. The band – dodie, Orla Gartland, Greta Isaac and Martin Luke Brown – have released a new clip for their debut single ‘High In Brighton’, which features on their imminent first album The Secret To Life, due for release on September 15 via Decca Records. [via Dork]
RENE has released the music video for her anarchic track ‘Rule The World’, taken from her recently released EP Slipped Through My Fingers. The Singapore-based musician worked together with director Lenne Chai and director of photography Danvisuals to create the campy, queer, action-packed video. “I wrote ‘Rule The World’ in a time when I felt stuck in a monotonous and unfulfilling routine. The song is based off the idea that there’s something better out there for everyone in this position, an inkling that could very well manifest if you take agency of your own life,” shares RENE. “When I wrote the song, I pictured a car driving out of a city, making a grand escape. Lenne and I toyed with a couple of insane ideas (one involving me performing the song at the back of a moving lorry smack in the middle of Singapore) and eventually landed on the craziest one of all – getting a bunch of beautiful people across Singapore and Los Angeles to work together on our campiest video idea yet. Of course it had to involve our queer love interests on the back of a motorcycle driving off into a fake sunset.” On the inspiration behind the music video, Los Angeles-based photographer and director Lenne Chai (W Magazine, Vogue, The Hollywood Reporter) adds, “We were inspired by D.E.B.S., a queer American action-comedy film about a spy-in-training who falls in love with the villain. To give it a local flavour, we referenced the visual language of Asian femme fatale films from the 80s/90s — complete with smoke, harsh lighting and crash zooms. We also studied episodes of Mediacorp’s 90s cop show Triple Nine to see how they framed Singapore as the backdrop for over-the-top action sequences.” Depicting a queer love story with a happy ending was an essential part of the music video for RENE and Lenne, both of whom grew up in a space where many LGBTQ+ characters in the media are often presented with negative connotations. “Most queer stories I saw growing up often ended in tragedy, so I thoroughly enjoyed crafting a queer music video that‘s unabashedly joyful, campy, and action packed,” explains Lenne. RENE continues, “D.E.B.S. was an instant favourite for us because it did that exact thing – it turned the tragic narrative on its head and gave us a cheesy, fun, and unapologetically queer rom-com action flick that was so rare at the time. We hope our music video does for other people what movies like D.E.B.S. did for us.” With local sponsors Sandbox Training Ground (choreographed the action sequences), smol (fed the hungry cast and crew), Camera Rental Centre (equipment sponsor), Closet Children (accessories sponsor) and incredible location partners Studio Min Max and Club Hell contributing to this project, the video was made possible through the efforts of a community invested in uplifting local independent creatives. The team consisted of creatives based all over the world, including animation director Danica Tan, graphic designer Sunny Chuang, editor Ian Alexander Ng and colorist Weiyi Ang. “It’s always great working with passionate and such talented people. I loved the concept when Lenne pitched it to me. I’m always super keen on making stuff with fellow Singaporean artists, and creating more gr8 content for our local music scene ❤️,” shares cinematographer Danvisuals (Nathan Hartono, Forests, Benjamin Kheng and Bea Lorenzo, Soph T.).
Toronto-based indie-rock outfit Housewife shares the music video for their new single, ‘King of Wands’. Housewife’s self-directed ‘King of Wands’ video celebrates the inherent power of women’s intuition, spirituality, and solidarity – the things that keep women safe and thriving in the face of patriarchy. “Getting to direct ‘King of Wands’ was such a cool experience! I had only experienced my first proper video shoot the day before, so it was kind of crazy to go straight into directing one the next day, but it ended up being a lot of fun,” Brighid Fry (aka Housewife) says of their directorial debut. “Because this song has a political message, I knew I wanted to be very specific in the making of the video to ensure that it went along with the song in that regard. I was definitely nervous seeing as I’ve never done any directing, but the rest of the crew were super patient and supportive.”
Vancouver pop artist Haley Blais signed with Arts & Crafts this spring and released a new single — and now she’s announced her first album for the label. Her sophomore LP is called Wisecrack, and it’s due out September 15, with the single ‘Baby Teeth’ out now. ‘Baby Teeth’ comes with a CGI-heavy video directed by Shea Oracheski. The album reportedly delves into dark, introspective territory. Blais asked in a statement about Wisecrack, “Am I a good person or not? Are we all doing okay? Am I a good daughter? Sister? Partner? Friend?”
Olivia Rodrigo has released her epic new single ‘Vampire’, much to the delight of fans. The 20-year-old singer also recently announced the release date of her highly-anticipated second album GUTS. Taking to Twitter, Olivia said: “vampire song and video out now. I made it with my very talented wonderful friend @TheDanielNigro last winter and created the video with the incredible Petra Collins. writing this song helped me sort through lots of feelings of regret, anger, and heartache. it’s one of my favourite songs on the album and it felt very cathartic to finish. im so happy it’s in your hands now and I hope it helps you deal with any bloodsuckers in your life. all my thanks 4ever.” (sic) The official music video for ‘Vampire’ has also been released, which was shot in downtown LA at night. [via Planet Radio]
