Only On Weekends get double-booked, Liam gets soaked and Living Hours get dreamy in today’s Roundup. It’s quiet out there … too quiet.
1 We’ve all been there: You’ve agreed to run the merch table for your friends’ punk band at their latest gig — which just happens to be the same night that you’re taking your sweetie out for a dinner date. What’s a nice guy to do? Well, you could try the classic-sitcom strategy employed by the desperately double-booked dude who stars in the cutesy video for Only On Weekends‘ song Always Greener. It’s the latest single off the New Jersey pop-punk outfit’s most recent album Another Wasted Night — and a clips that’s sure to become the favourite video of merch guys everywhere. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “Always Greener is a song about not prioritizing love in your life, losing that special someone, and not being able to get them back once you’ve realized your mistake. We wanted the video to portray some of this without being too much of a bummer. We worked with our good friend Tim Mathews to borrow a plot that you’ve probably seen on TV more than once (The Flintstones and Boy Meets World, to name a couple) and put our own spin on it.” But was it filmed in front of a live studio audience?
2 There are plenty of artists whose music washes over you. Let’s just hope you don’t have to go through what single-named singer-songwriter Liam — eagle-eyed viewers might know him as Liam Duncan from Manitoba trio The Middle Coast — had to go through to shoot the video for his searingly powerful heartland folk-rocker Times Like These, the first single from his upcoming album. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “This song is about the times in our lives when we feel our worst; our most anxious, most depressed, most broken. When we are low, we feel vulnerable and human. I had a rough year, but at 22, I could feel the growth that laid beneath everything else. Times Like These is about embracing our lows. Learning from our lows. Allowing our lows to make the highs rich and full.” And fully drenched:
https://youtu.be/t-4YRfrBcH0
3It’s always the quiet ones. Winnipeg shoegazers Living Hour keep you on your toes once again with their new single Hallboy, the opening track from their next album Softer Rooms. It’s hard to believe they come any softer than Hallboy, a lush dreamscape where singer Sam Sarty’s vocals float above a slow, stylishly shape-shifting tide of arpeggiated guitars, chirpy horns, and gently syncopated drums that ebb and flow intriguingly. SAYS THE PRESS RELEASE: “What started with dreamy love songs inspired by the cinematic sky of their hometown has transformed into even more sprawling and expansive expressions on their latest effort.” Come on in; the water’s fine:
