Premiere: The Uncouth’s recent music video for “Adam’s Got a Boxcutter” is lean and mean

From L-R: Oz Overshiner, Markel Randle, Steve Gardels, CJ Wilson, Cody Blanchard, Todd Rainey (seated). // photo by Jessica Morman

Back in April of last year, The Pitch premiered the first video from Kansas City street punk foursome the Uncouth’s self-titled, full-length LP. That album released in Sept. of last year, but the band now has a new video for the record’s opening track, “Adam’s Got A Boxcutter.”

It’s a relentless rock ‘n’ roll kick in the teeth, and the video reflects that. Shot and directed by Markel Randle, who was DP on “Know Your Roots,” along with Director of Photography Oz Overshiner, it’s gritty and amazing, and we’re excited to share it with you below, along with some stories from the band’s bassist Steve Gardels and guitarist/vocalist CJ Wilson about how their music has grown over the last year.

Steve Gardels (Bass): The band and I would be nowhere without our community. The friends we have in Kansas City are like nothing else. We’ve been lucky enough to surround ourselves with talented folks and that’s why this band has been going for so long. We are better because of them and we love bringing our community with us as much as we possibly can. If the band and our music is about one thing, it’s about the power of community. Whether that’s workers rebelling against the company that’s taken over their entire town (“Company Town Blues”), the friends we’ve made at all the bars and gigs over the years (“Same Old Story”) or that one random at the club who kind of sketches you out but is always the first person to stand up for the little guy (like the subject of this song here).

Behind the scenes on “Adam’s Got a Boxcutter.” // Photo by Jessica Morman

For us to talk about it so much and not be about it would be disingenuous at best, and we try to make sure that whatever tide we’re on brings all the boats up too. From the album art—shout outs to Geoff McCann—our shirts—Jordan and the Oddities Prints fam are the best—to all the homies we’ve asked to design stuff or borrowed button makers from over the years. For this video, we called around and made sure we had a group of friends who were not only perfect fits for the job, but believed in a similar mission—We are stronger when we organize and work together.

It is my belief that every creative endeavor should be fun or at least engaging and challenging in a positive way. Making room for play and possibilities can produce something that is not only engaging, but organic and genuine. Something that lets every aspect shine and each individuals’ strength join with the others to make something truly unique.

I feel like some of that has gotten lost in an era that champions the quantity of content over quality. More about getting to the destination rather than enjoying the journey. Music videos take a lot of time and money to make. If that room for play, ability, and trust in your crew isn’t there, then it’s just going to waste time, money, and the talents of those you took with you. I don’t want to spend all this time and effort on a terrible party.

There’s always work to do, why not enjoy it?

We all wore a bunch of different hats working on this, but if we break it down, formally, I land pretty squarely in the producer role. I wanted to take the tropes and signifiers of Oi and street punk, and find a way to make them look and feel different. I knew that if I had the right crew and curated a space for them to create, play and reinterpret those tropes using their skillsets, we’d all have something to be proud of at the end.

I added the challenge of shooting on “vintage” cameras to ensure that this video looked different before we hit the post production stage—Why fake it when you can do it for real? Markel (Kel) Randle returned from our last video. He’s fantastic behind a camera, so I asked him to shoot and direct.

We brought on Oz Overshiner—another KCAI Filmmaking grad—as director of photography. I had a good feeling that Kel’s technical prowess and Oz’s innate ability to capture energy with his camera were the perfect combination. We needed a location that could become what we needed with little effort, I had the perfect folks to call.

I knew my band was behind me 100 percent. I couldn’t let them down and I knew they wouldn’t let me. All we had to do was execute. We showed up to shoot the thing in November of last year and, minus a few delays and technical issues, it fucking worked. All of the work, planning, the team, everything led to the footage looking exactly the way I had pictured—It was perfect. Some of the footage was a little glitchy, but it would be easy to cut around because we had so much good stuff to work with. This would be a breeze because all of it was so good.

But we’re still a band. We had record release shows to play, phone calls with the labels, shows to book, t-shirts to order, plenty of rehearsals in between, and probably some other things I forgot about. That’s all before the part where we have individual lives. Time caught up with me hard and, while I’d squeeze in an hour of work here and there, the video just kind of sat there for a while.

Then, the universe sent me Luke McKinney—an old college friend who knew me, the band and how these cameras really worked. He’s one of the voices at the end of our version of “KC Belongs To Me,” which I think is neat. He offered his help to the band and I and we instantly said yes.

It turns out, the thing I needed was more help from my community. He trusted the process, rather than working for an idealized outcome. He found a way to work with the glitches caused by the hardware, giving it more edge rather than fake sincerity. A little finessing and group critiques later, we had it.

Nearly nine months after the shoot, we have a finished product that we’re stoked about. I think that the work, energy, creativity, and vibe in this video bring something different to our subgenre’s corner of punk rock. A different flavor of the things we’re used to seeing, something familiar but fresh. Something that’s uniquely “us” and very much our own, but something worth sharing with everyone who wants to engage with it. Just like the record, just like the community we built, just like this city.

I learned and reinforced a lot of things during this whole adventure. You’re always stronger as a group, never be too proud or afraid to ask for help, fire up the old magic every now and again, and never forget to make room for fun. If for no other reason, then because Terry said “Enjoy Yourself.” That’s it. Kansas City against the world forever.

Behind the scenes on “Adam’s Got a Boxcutter.” // photo by Jessica Morman

What the difference between shooting a video after you’ve released an album versus what it’s like pre-release? Seems as though you might know just what folks have responded to by this point.

Steve Gardels (Bass): Personally, I don’t see a difference between the two. At the end of the day, we’re making these because we want to. We’re also very lucky to have the resources and freedom to make them when and how we want to. We really wanted to do a video for Know Your Roots right after we recorded it, pre-pandemic.

We had to wait a while of course, but the fact that we wound up with a full length record and some labels to back us in the meantime worked out very well. We decided “AGAB” was going to be the single after release, so we got to work as soon as we knew the records were going to press. I don’t know how exactly we wound up with “AGAB.” It’s one of the older songs on the record, so we got to try it live a few times. It always got a good response out of town, that’s my best guess. Always trust your friends!

CJ Wilson (Guitar/Vox): There hasn’t been much difference in releasing a video pre-record release and post I don’t think. We landed on this song super early as the next single because of the energy of the track and the feedback we got while we were pushing it. These videos are important for us because sometimes we have years like this one where your plans fall through and this can help bridge that gap.

Hopefully, we can do a couple more before we start working on another album, and next year we plan to hit the tours as hard as we can. The Houston Winter Weekender is huge and we’re super stoked to be included. Mike McColgan—first frontman for Dropkick Murphys—and The Bomb Squad are doing DKM’s Do Or Die in its entirety, which is so cool. Soft Kill, Liberty and Justice, Sikm, Violent Way, The Prowlers, Bullshit Detector, and Flase Front are all on the bill, too, which is insane. Great way to end the year and gear up for the year to come.

The Uncouth play Howdy KC with Haywire, No Friend of Mine, and Stakes is High on Friday, September 27. Details on that show here.