One wouldn’t expect the front man of self-defined "panic rock" band Flagland (a punky trio whose latest record was released in 2017) to drop a mostly instrumental record that’s as delicate and well orchestrated as Dan Francia’s Come Back to Life (streaming below). Released by Explolding in Sound early in 2019, the album blends an overall understated vibe with a playful, collaborative approach, consisting in several guest appearences by noteworthy local artists like The Feelies, Speedy Ortiz, Sharkmuffin, Ovlov, Field Mouse, gobbinjr and Titus Andronicus – all accurately reported in the album’s Bandcamp page. Each track sounds like a humble experiment in sound exploration not necessarily aiming at forging a unified style, but succeeding at it nonetheless, creating a sound in part reminiscent of a less sample-heavy Beta Band. Those rare times when Dan’s voice comes into the picture ("Come Back to Life," "No Matter What"), his gentle bedroom melodies add an extra relatable element to the record, and in the titletrack‘s chorus ("Come back to life, you can do anything") seem to offer the clue through which this record should be interpreted: a statement of the freedom granted by life.

Ok, so either someone in Tired all the Time SOMEHOW convinced (lord knows how) their coworkers to dance along to their new emo/post-punk song about their life and work being meaningless, or they rented out an office and got their properly dressed friends in and told them to dance as awkwardly as possible. Either way, I simply love the music video for "Bone Dry".

There’s no p***y popping or carefully choreographed mosh pits here, just real people dancing their cringey dances. And seriously, genuine human expression goes perfectly in an emo/post-punk band’s music vid; so real people doing cringey, no pressure dancing is just what this song needed. In all, some of the best new content put out by a DC band.

Check it out!

Pancho Morris combines Waitsian lyrics with Lynchian visuals in the folky-funny new music video for “Strangetown USA.” Though the song itself doesn’t have huge lyrical variation, its music video is so completely packed with symbols and statements (and a huge cast) that one really must watch it several times to see all the sights. The video starts off with its star, a young man in an all-white outfit whispering in Russian into a red telephone perched inside a hanging bird cage. If that’s not an illusion to Trump and his Russian buddies, well. The star then walks through a factory full of depressing laborers, where everyone–including himself–is clothed in orange jumpsuits and manufacturing rubbish of some sort. We’re then in a slaughterhouse, where a laughing, blood-splattered man hacks away at a carcass. Ah, animal cruelty.

Speaking of the food industry. The star then marches his way toward a diner–first taking a stroll through some sex-kittens that may or may not be alluding to Trumpy’s sexual escapades in Russia and beyond–and up to the counter, where a disgruntled cook slaps a burger bun on a cell phone. Our star slams a shot and in our next scene he’s in a white suit, carelessly strutting by a protest to which he does not seem to give a fuck. We’ll let you watch the rest for yourselves, and tell us what you think! God bless the USA?

This video was shot with an insanely massive and talented crew of folks based in Oakland and was recorded at Zoolabs. Produced by James “Skyway Man” Wallace. Check out Pancho Morris’ work and stay tuned for more. –Michelle Kicherer, Associate Editor