TV Death – Village Mentality
Similar artists: The Cramps, The Damned, Viagra Boys, The Stooges, The Birthday Party
Genre: Post-Punk, Garage Rock
The news cycle, with all of its terrors, wants to get at you. But unless you were busy getting an Anti-Flag tattoo and now frantically paying to remove it, you don’t care about that when blasting a rock song through your ear canals. But you should know better than to expect to be free from the madness of the world. TV Death are here to remind you that you’re never ever truly safe.
Folks suffering from paranoid delusions are forced by a cruel twist of fate to view the world differently from everyone else. Their curse is a crying shame. Yet, perhaps, there’s something to be learned from them. Maybe adjusting our vision to the evils of the world is the safe thing to do.
TV Death’s “Village Mentality” is entertaining, theatrical post-punk about never forgetting to see the worst in your next-door neighbour or your smiling politician. It’s probably not what your mother taught you, but it’s a strategy that reduces risk while elevating stress. TV Death’s brand of demented surf-punk echoes bands like The Cramps or The Birthday Party but brings the dread to the present time, where it feels most at home.
TIGER RUN – Hey!
Similar artists: Beck, CAKE, Twenty One Pilots, Foster The People, Panic! At The Disco
Genre: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
Flawless good taste does not exist. Even if one, say myself, was to possess such a thing, keeping it in check all day would be exhausting. Why not get in touch with your guilty pleasures? Why do you feel guilty about liking things that are created to entertain anyway? TIGER RUN’s 90s pop-hop is as catchy as the Black Plague in Medieval Italy.
The fact is that as long as pop music hits exist, there will always be people trying to break down how these work. Some of the folks who like the pop-up on the hood and extract the exact information end up working in songwriter factories dedicated to pop stars. A small minority end up writing quirky pop tunes for their own sake.
TIGER RUN’s “Hey!” is daring you to hate it. But you won’t be able to, I predict. It’ll get stuck to your brain like soft bubblegum on the sole of your brand-new sneakers. The song’s construction recalls Beck’s experiments with electro beats and the fun, nerdy energy of bands like Cake or Eels. I can’t wait to hear about a major advertisement in the very near future.
