TOMORROW KINGS – SELL COKE TO WHITE FOLKS

Some of the dudes in Tomorrow Kings played the first ever GlitterGuts party so we’re really excited to host the exclusive first look at their new video.

Tomorrow Kings is a hard group to classify. They’re not a capital-P Political Rap Group in a straightforward way like Dead Prez or Public Enemy or BBU or whoever the new political kids* are but they’re not-not political either. They’re not an avant-garde act, or emo rap, or backpacker shit or hipster shit, but they’re not-not any of those things either. On “Sell Coke To White Folks” the first single off their new album Nigger Rigged Time Machine, they sound a lot like the [horrorcore supergroup] Gravediggaz on a political bent, splicing Reagan-era news footage with images of rampaging cocaine zombies to tell the story of the government unleashing crack on the black community just to have it wind up back in their own backyards. The song was produced by Chicago expat Vyle, who added to the apocalyptic vibe by filling it with ominous sounds like a synth riff that’s evocative of an air raid siren slowed down by about a million percent over a crackerjack beat.**

You’ll be able to grab the track, along with a lot more a lot more Tomorrow Kings music off their bandcamp page.

*Are there new political rap kids? Or is everyone just making trap and drill music or trying to rip off Lil B and Tyler the Creator? Get off my lawn you crazy kids!

**I think I just made that term up. It’s like firecrackers… but softer or something. This is why we don’t get to host a lot of video exclusives/have nice things.

SHOW YOU SUCK – BIG GULP

Following that same train of not-not, nothing is entirely serious in a ShowYouSuck song but nothing is entirely ironic or disingenuous either. At first glance, this video seems like it might be a commercial for Slurp Cult, a company that uses punk rock imagery to make streetwear clothes espousing the joys of Slurpee’s, slushies, and assorted other gas station daiquiris. Everything about that sentence and the idea behind it is patently ridiculous, but this is a world where an offshoot of Ecko Unlimited is a well-regarded journal on hiphop and fashion, and one where RZA wrote a song about Wu-Tang’s old clothing label called “Wu Wear The Garment Renaissance” and got it put out on an actual movie soundtrack. (We’re through the looking glass people).

The content of the song is like a ShowYouSuck primer: he eschews molly and weed for nachos and junk food, there’s Mom jeans, there’s a bad broad who’s a smart girl, and there’s Keith Sweat, as in… fuck Keith Sweat.

JC BROOKS & THE UPTOWN SOUND – ROUSE YOURSELF

JC Brooks has always owned the stage like he was James Brown at his sweat-drippingest, but over the last couple years, JC has developed a look that puts him in the real of sexy alien robots David Bowie and Janelle Monae, although specifically he looks like the lovechild of Little Richard and Morissey, just a lot of flash and a lot of hair. If I looked like that, this whole video would just be the band playing on the Wicker Park rooftop it starts out on, but I guess if you have the option of getting a couple Hollywood comedy heartthrobs in their underwear, that’s probably a better idea. The heartthrobs in question are Aubrey Plaza (from Parks and Recreation) and Jake Johnson (from New Girl).

The track is a chill Sunday soul song, but I’m not very good at talking about the actual sounds of things so I’ll just recap the entire storyline! After a night of bliss, Jake tries to call Aubrey but she doesn’t hear the phone cuz she’s listening to JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound’s record in the bathtub(!), Jake jumps to the reasonable conclusion that she’s cheating on him with JC Brooks and immediately starts a fight training montage(!). Wackiness ensues.

PYYRAMIDS – INVISIBLE SCREAM

I think the word grunge is as overused now almost as much as it was back in 94. It’s used to describe so much music and so much fashion that’s just way too complex and way too polished. Pyyramids‘ “Invisable Scream” is a quietLOUDquiet throwback that brings to mind PJ Harvey, the Pixies, the Breeders, Sonic Youth, Hole and the Seattle Sound. The minimal black-and-white video, which consists solely of singer Drea Smith singing and crowdsurfing in a Suicidal Tendencies shirt reminds me so much of Nirvana (and the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video) that I’d bet Gavin Rossdale is rolling around in his grave that someone can do Kurdt so much effectively and so much more effortlessly than he can, without turning it into some sort of lame Nirvana drag show.

(Just kidding. Gavin Rossdale isn’t dead. He’s probably rolling around on a pile of money on a big comfy bed with his rich beautiful wife Gwen Stefani. Le sigh)