There are a lot of videos coming out of Austin these days, so we’ve decided to make life easier for you by compiling some of the most notable into a recurring feature called Out of Focus.
Basketball Shorts- “Hot and Ready”
Mischievous pop punkers Basketball Shorts are no strangers to working pizza into music. This is the band that turned a bad East Side Pies experience into pop punk gold with “East Side Lies,” after all. But the new video for their appropriately named Ramones-esque single “Hot and Ready” takes that further, with directors Jane Urban and Ryan Dight (aka Rinjin) documenting a pizza party gone kinky, complete with pizza-on-man-on-woman make outs and some inappropriate pizza interaction in a dark trailer. The video also functions as a who’s who of the Austin scene, with members of Moving Panoramas, Super Thief, Mean Jolene, MeanGirls, New China and more popping up.
A. Sinclair “They Breed and Say Hello”
I can’t say I ever thought of power posters A. Sinclair as the Austin act most likely to premiere a video on gorehound site Bloody Disgusting, but here we are, with the band’s gruesome “They Breed and Say Hello” clip making the rounds. Structured by Last Resort Productions as a “party gone wrong” story, with the protagonist waking up not just with a hangover but some bloody reminders of some terrible party crashing. He tries to piece together what happened and what his role in it was and just when you think you’ve got it figured out yourself, the band drops a twist ending on you. It’s a simple gotcha but it’s still effective, and in true horror franchise fashion, it leaves ample room for a sequel.
A Giant Dog- “Sleep When Dead”
As much as I love A Giant Dog, I have to say that what I’m enjoying most about their new album Pile is the avenue it continues to provide for John Valley’s small screen auteurism. That’s not a dig on Pile, it’s an excellent bit of gritty glam, but Valley’s videos have come to define the band’s current aesthetic as much as the sound of the band itself. Take “Sleep When Dead,” which has Valley himself starring as a heartbroken modern elephant man, trying to work up the nerve to enter in a freaky dance competition to spite an ex-lover. The video is Dazed and Confused by way of John Waters, with an ensemble of weirdos and hipsters mingling with members of A Giant Dog as the Gong Show-like competition escalates. The video has a timeless quality to it that makes you wonder if it’s set in the ’70s or if its characters simply never left that era, which is right in line with A Giant Dog’s style, but even more fitting is the way it sides with the loners and outcasts.
Indelible Inc.- “Openwide (ft. Muggzy Flowz and no1mportant)”
Austin hip hop collective Indelible Inc. is an enviable brain trust of top local talent, including beatmaker Dr. Bobby Banner MPC, emcee Muggzy Flowz and all-around genius no1mportant. They recently teamed up with DVZN Media to make a video showing off the crew on their new single “Openwide.” Banner’s beat is dreamy and classic, paradoxically fitting perfectly with Muggzy Flowz’ laid back delivery and no1mportant’s unique integration of rapid fire lyrics and silky melodies. The video smartly stays back and lets the team do their thing, giving them a cinematic frame for their unity as they dance in front of a vinyl wall featuring work by legends like J Dilla, Jake One and MF Doom.
Nick Hanover got his degree from Disneyland, but he’s the last of the secret agents and he’s your man. Which is to say you can find his particular style of espionage here at Ovrld as well as Loser City, where he mostly writes about comics. You can also flip through his archives at Comics Bulletin, which he is formerly the Co-Managing Editor of, and Spectrum Culture, where he contributed literally hundreds of pieces for a few years. Or if you feel particularly adventurous, you can always witness his odd .gif battles with his friends and enemies on twitter: @Nick_Hanover
