SEE & HEAR: The Pauses

The Pauses - "Go North"

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The Pauses - "Hands Up"


Human relationships are endlessly influential, let alone infinitely informative. It can be said that we learn more from human interaction than we do sitting behind a desk, staring forward at a board or screen. We learn best from experience, and what better way to learn about the world than through the people who populate it. It's important to remember, however, that we must pause to reflect on each lesson acquired from these interactions, otherwise it will all be just a faded memory.

The Pauses are a band that capture the essence of this concept; they are a sonic reflection -- both lyrically and musically -- of life's mosaic of emotions. They could be simply defined as an indie rock 'n' roll band, but there's a lot more going on here than such an umbrella term would suggest. On songs like "Go North," they paint the topsy-turvy nature of a romantic relationship with stop-start rhythms, staccato'd riffs, and winding instrumentation that recalls the post-punk guitar harmonies of Pretty Girls Make Graves. "Hands Up" illustrates the band's knack for intimate, honest beauty, combining riveting piano and orchestral strings with an assortment of glitchy, distorted hisses, blips, and tones.

The Pauses just released their debut album entitled A Cautionary Tale, which was produced by indie mega producer J. Robbins (Jawbox, Government Issue). Both "Go North" and "Hands Up" are from the album. View music videos for the songs below.

This video for "Go North" is one of the most well-executed videos I've seen recently. Never before has breaking things with an arrow been so awe-inspiring and absolutely beautiful. To exercise a bit of a cliche, this video perfectly captures the song's explosive character.

Starring - Lilia Stepanova
Director - John Deeb
Producer - Katie McCain
Editor - Mike Quinn Jr.
Cinematography - John Deeb
Color & FX - Marco Cordero
Props - Jennifer Dorsman/Jonpaul Douglass/Jason Kupfer

The video for "Hands Up" takes the song's affecting nature and magnifies it, creating a piece of art that is incredibly poignant. Now this video is one of the best I've seen in a while, hands down.

Starring - Katie Smith
Director - John Deeb
Producer - Katie McCain
Editor - David Estrada
Cinematography - John Deeb/Jonpaul Douglass/Marco Cordero/Jason Kupfer

The band kept a blog to document the recording of their debut. You can read/see/hear it all right here.

BUY: A Cautionary Tale is out now on New Granada Records. Along with production by J. Robbins, the album features children's book illustrations by Travis Lampe. Pick it up here.

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