VIDEO: Slow Club - "Two Cousins"

Sheffield duo Slow Club released an absolutely stellar debut two years ago with Yeah So, and they're back, releasing their sophomore album, Paradise, on September 13th via Moshi Moshi. Below is the music video for new single "Two Cousins" from the new album. While relatively simplistic, it's quite entertaining and incredibly heartwarming. Fittingly, the two men featured in this beautifully shot black and white piece look as though they might just be cousins. The classic swing/jazz dance moves capture the song's reassuring, celebratory sound. What's most memorable about the video, though, is the way in which it touches upon sentimentality in a playful but heartfelt way with nothing more than the poeticism that lies in movement.

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VIDEO: Hot Club de Paris - "Free the Pterodactyl 3"

This video was my introduction to Hot Club de Paris. Before the vocals came into play, the music immediately called to mind indie rock/math rock outfit American Football, especially with the crashing cymbals and the spiraling guitar riff.

The video itself sees the band's three members in a room, all pounding away on part of a drum kit. And while the camera swings around them, cutting in close on their faces, the song continues to grow to an uplifting, celebratory feel of a finale. It's about the musical union between these guys that brings you inside the video. As for applying marker on their faces, you'll just have to wait until the end.

"Free the Pterodactyl 3" is from Hot Club de Paris' new album of the same name. The release features 12 tracks taken from their two 10" EP's With Days Like This As Cheap As Chewing Gum, Why Would Anyone Want To Work? and The Rise and Inevitable Fall of the High School Suicide Cluster Band. It's out now on Moshi Moshi. Pick it up here.

LISTEN: Spectrals - "I Ran With Love But I Couldn't Keep Up"

Spectrals - "I Ran With Love But I Couldn't Keep Up"


One of the few things in life we devote the most time and effort to is love. Some go with the flow, saying they love one another despite an unspoken disappointment -- one that reveals the half-hearted love that holds the relationship together. Others find their relationships to be rather one-sided, pouring every ounce of themselves in only to find that the one they love is not as committed to the relationship. It's moments and scenarios like these that are the most difficult to face in dealing with the end. The difficulty lies with the reality that the one thing that meant the most to the person in the world is now just a fading memory. What's difficult is rebuilding after the dissolution of such a thing as life must now be defined in a completely different way; in a way, the heartbroken must learn how to live all over again.

"I Ran With Love But I Couldn't Keep Up" is slow-burning surf rock meeting the comforting character and emotionally rich detail of alt country. With slide guitar and subtle touches of vibrato lightly shaking each guitar chord, the song is rather dream-like despite its melancholic acknowledgement of love lost. Louis Jones sings with a croon over the reflective mood of the shimmering, almost vulnerable-sounding instrumentation. Each chord drips with a sustained longing for what was as he confronts the cold hard truth presented in the movement of slide guitar. Jones bravely faces heartache as he enters the fadeout, swallowing his pain as he accepts the fate of love and admits that maybe it was all for the better.