Stephonne, Lizard Brain Trust, Blackstarkids, and more of the best recent local music videos
As we move toward fall and enter Rocktober, the music videos seems to be coming fast and furious from local acts. It’s as though everyone took advantage of some free time this summer and broke out the cameras to present you with some fine visuals to match with equally-excellent sounds. Be it grinding hardcore, silky indie R&B, power pop, or otherwise, we’ve got you covered in this installment of Cine Local.
Missouri Executive Order 44, “Let’s Jump a Cowboy Together!”
Taken from the “sassy, grindy hardcore” band’s debut full-length, Salt Sermon, this track is just over half a minute of attack, but in the Morgan Reed Greenwood-directed video, we get a lengthy, creepy intro and equally disturbing outro. It’s very literal, but no less effective for it.
You can snag Salt Sermon on Bandcamp from The Ghost is Clear Records.
Sam Billen, “Puddle Paradise”
Sam Billen’s brother Daniel surreptiously shot footage of him while they were on a trip to Silver Dollar City and used it to make this video for a instrumental track from the musician’s unreleased song, “Puddle Paradise.” It’s warm, familial vibes from start to finish, and now we’re definitely booking that trip down to Branson we’d been planning all summer.
The Creature Comforts, “Save Our Ship”
Fun story: Sometime in the late ’90s, I saw a summer show at The Bottleneck with Ultimate Fakebook and the Creature Comforts. After the show, a couple of cases of beers were snagged and we went to an afterparty somewhere in East Lawrence. As cans of PBR were handed around, Chris Tolle from the Creature Comforts pulled out a VHS tape and announced that we were all going to get to see the band’s first-ever music video, shot a few months before in Chicago. The video for “Save Our Ship” unspooled, everyone cheered and hooted as it played, and that was that.
We grilled the band members about the experience, and then I never saw it again. Lo and behold, the Creature Comforts are playing a couple reunion shows for the vinyl release of their 2001 sophomore album, Teaching Little Fingers How to Play, and they’ve been pulling footage from the vaults. 25 years later, I’m sitting on my couch and finally seeing this video again. Damn. What a good song, right?
The Creature Comforts play The Bottleneck on Saturday, October 12, opening for Hembree, along with Flash Floods. Details on that show here.
Megan Luttrell‘s Big Tub Concert
NPR has the Tiny Desk Concert. Americana Music Academy is located in an old house on Mass Street in Lawrence, and they have a big ole tub in there, which they have utilized for the Big Tub Concert. As the Americana folks put it, “Singing in the shower or strumming from the tub, there’s no beating the acoustics of a bathroom.” Check Lawrence singer-songwriter Megan Luttrell doing her own “Man from North Carolina” and “Take Me Back,” along with a cover of Jason Isbell’s “Cover Me Up.”
Lizard Brain Trust, “Dumb Ghost”
The lead single from Lawrence psych indie rock band Lizard Brain Trust’s upcoming sophomore album, Civilwarland, is a dreamy gem, and the video fits the mood with a mix of live footage, lo-fi animation, and claymation. We can’t wait to hear the whole record.
Nate Allen, “All Things to All”
Taken from the Good Saint Nathanael album, I Write The Songs I Need, “All Things to All” was originally called “Take Out The Trash,” named after the album, then “Hands Held Together,” and “so on and so forth,” writes Allen in a Facebook post. “It twisted into many forms, trying to find its way to a restful completion.” Allen traded a breakfast snack for a wrestling mask, and then shot this video.
I Write the Songs I Need is available on Bandcamp.
Stephonne, “1”
Shot, directed, and edited by local filmmaker Austin Snell, the video for Stephonne’s new single, “1,” is the most down-to-earth thing we’ve seen from the R&B musician. Rather than being an all-out artistic statement with massive production values, we get to see Stephonne being joyously sunlit, and while it’s a big swing for the singer, it absolutely works.
Stephonne Presents—REAL Love: A Tribute To The Music of Mary J. Blige at Encore at Uptown Theater on Saturday, Oct. 26. Details on that show here.
Blackstarkids, “Saturn Dayz”
The title track from the sixth and possibly final album from indie R&B geniuses Blackstarkids is the most realized version of the band’s mix of pop, hip-hop, indie rock, and ’90s R&B yet. Director Ryan Njenga—who also tackled the band’s video for “Soulmatez!”—knows just how to vibe with Blackstarkids. With its one-room setting and confessional music, the end result is something that feels like it’s a perfect modern update of The Get Up Kids’ “Action & Action.”
Saturn Dayz is now streaming everywhere.
Are you a local musician with a new video to share? Email nicholas.spacek@gmail.com with information.
