Tech N9ne, Flora From Kansas, Radkey, and more of KC’s best brand new music videos

Illustrated by Katelyn Betz

As we head into summer concert season, it seems as though everyone is dropping a new music video. With a plethora of heavy hitters in this installment of Cine Local, it’s best to let the sights and sounds speak for themselves, so let’s get to it, shall we?

Tech N9ne, “RDV” 

The third single from Tech N9ne’s upcoming 26th(!) studio album, 5816 Forest, is an unabashed tribute to where the now-international rapper came. As Tech puts it, it’s a salute to all the “Rogue Dog potnah’s still here and to the L9ved one’s no longer with us,” featuring four members of the former KC rap crew. With that intro and stripped-down production, it’s as though Tech and his squad stepped back in time to the ’90s. The black-and-red soundstage aesthetic throws back, too, letting the lyrics do the heavy lifting while Tech and company flex onscreen.

Tech N9ne’s 5816 Forest releases Friday, June 27, and is available for pre-order here.

Flora From Kansas, “Scared Away” 

Obviously, we’ve been big fans of Flora From Kansas for quite a while now, but each successive bit of creative promotion for her Homesick EP just makes us love what she’s doing more and more. The video for “Scared Away” was directed by Marc Havener, who also brought us “The Ghost Is Me,” and leans into further spooky imagery. Shot at Dana Dyer’s Half-Acre of Fear in Lawrence, it’s both eerie and homespun, much like the music Flora makes with her father, Dan. The single-shot take immerses you in the visuals with some giallo lighting, and the sadness of lyrics like “If you love me, you’ll let me be alone” are only further contrasted with the loneliness of an empty funtime play place.

Flora From Kansas’ Homesick EP is out now and you can read our feature on her here. You can catch her at Boulevardia on Saturday, June 14. Details on that show here.

Radkey, “Victory” 

The video for the title track to the new EP from the Kansas City punk trio Radkey sees the brothers in the studio at Weights and Measures Soundlab. As the band puts it in the press release for the new single, “‘Victory’ is about how it feels to win. Whether it’s winning a 1v3, nailing a solo on a recording, or even simply making it on stage to play another rock show. We wanted to capture that feeling and open our shows with it.” For anyone who desperately needs a win, the energy captured in both the song and video ought to give you the strength to make it through.

Idle Heirs, “Dead Ringer” 

Idle Heirs’ Life Is Violence is fast becoming our favorite heavy release of the year thus far, and the peek we’re offered inside the recording studio in this video from Christopher Commons is combined with live performance footage from within a solarium. The contrast of light and dark is, essentially, the project’s musical signature, and to see it echoed visually lets you really live within the music in all aspects. Shots of vocalist Sean Ingram alone on the streets of Lawrence and within the Blue Collar warehouse offer a glimpse at what inspired the closing lyrics, “You fought long, you fought hard, now do this alone,” and the whole thing just punches you in the heart.

Idle Heirs’ Life Is Violence is out now and you can read our feature interview with Sean Ingram here.

Hembree, “Don’t Look Down” 

The Hembros’ first release since last year’s Better Days LP leans heavily into the dance-pop edge of the band’s sound, with Talking Heads’ hearky-jerky rhythms combined with the dark dancefloor grooves of early Nine Inch Nails. I’m aware of how weird that might sound for longtime fans of the band, but I assure you, it makes sense when you hear the track. Hembree’s own Alex and Austin Ward made the video, which might as well have stepped out of a storyboarding session for the B-52’s Cosmic Thing. It’s low-budget, but clever as hell, and functions as a lyric video, to boot, and the whole thing has us very excited to see where Hembree heads next.

You can catch Hembree at Boulevardia on Saturday, June 14. Details on that show here.

Prince Brendan, “Suzanne’s Finery” 

The debut single from Prince Brendan’s forthcoming album, Love Songs for Sickly Girls, sees the Lawrence musician depicting love as “part heartbreak and part vintage carnival ride” in a song which sounds as though the singer-songwriter put ’70s heart-on-your-sleeve lyricism through a filter of late night listens to college radio. The accompanying video has the same rambunctious introspection, playing as “a love letter to the messiness of romance itself.” With a borrowed video projector from Prince Brendan’s next-door neighbor the and help of a friend with whom the musician moved through the light and only dropped once while dancing, it’s perfectly charming.

Sam Billen, “Starlight” 

Despite first appearances, the video for Sam Billen’s latest single isn’t to promote an upcoming sci-fi film or series, but was in fact created just for this song. Still, it hearkens back to the heyday of videos from movie soundtracks, where you’d get an abridged version of the movie as the hot single played on as a backing track. Directed by Davis Cameron Chu and produced by Meezahn Senbetta, with cinematography by Justin Herrera, “Starlight” looks and feels as though 2001: A Space Odyssey and Interstellar were filtered through the mind of David Lynch. Wait for the big energetic musical explosion towards the end, as well. The manner in which Billen goes from quiet and calm to “holy shit” will blow your mind sonically as the visuals do … well, visually.

Are you a local musician with a new video to share? Email nicholas.spacek@gmail.com