Photo by Michelle LoBianco
The opening track to Whenwolves’ debut EP Recon For The Weirdos, “Chin Up” gets off to a striking start with a rubbery slo-mo lugubrious groove that doesn’t exactly say “chin up” to this listener but then again that’s kinda the point we’re guessing since this is a song about “about stretching your comfort zone when there is so much pressure not to” so we’re talkin’ your basic stubborn-determination-meets-anxious-paranoia kind of vibe here as in “Chin up! / the walls are watching us”…
…and you can sense the heady mix of hesitation, tension, and anticipation in the music itself with its blunted punchdrunk strut eventually building up a nice head of steam before winding down like a wobbly top with a lyrical refrain (“push / push / push beyond the / groove / the optics haunt / my every move”) that makes me think of someone cheering on Sisyphus as he rolls that damn bolder up and down and up and down the hill again…
…and now there’s a music video for “Chin Up” to help you feel this heady brew even more pungently and if the vid doesn’t show up soon on MTV’s “Spainkin’ New” channel (a channel, or stream, or whatever, that popped up on my Sling menu not too long ago and who even knew MTV still had a sub-sub-sub channel that still shows music videos?!?) I’l be terribly disappointed…
…cuz I could see it slotting nicely between Natalie Carr’s “Wasted Potential’ (“I’m high on all my waited potential / My future is unincidental”) and Jordan Ward’s “Bussdown” (“still I keep thinking ’bout / four or five years from now / and how all this will pan out”) which are the two most recent videos played on the station as I’m writing this cuz “Chin Up” has a similarly "f*ck it, let’s give this a try" vibe but see what you think…
…and when it comes to the music video itself (a DELI debut!) you got Whenwolves’ lead singer/songwriter/guitarist Bobby Lewis laboriously pushing a stalled car up an empty street in what looks like industrial Brooklyn (with a couple bandmates inside, natch) until suddenly arriving at a downhill incline and as the vehicle careens down the block Bobby chases after looking distressed in his Columbo-style overcoat but hey at least his bandmates are having a grand ol’ time inside and I’ll leave it up to you to interpret the ending (video at top of page)…
…but who are these mysterious bandmates you may ask and in response we’re happy to report with some assurance that they’re Kelsey Rodriguez (keyboards and backing vox) and Bobby’s very own brother Billy on bass…
…and on a final note I’m always happy when a song expands my vocabulary and “Chin Up” has done just that with a line that appears mid-song (“refract / contrast the Vantablack”) and as it turns out Vantablack “is a brand name for a class of super coatings…claimed to be the ‘world’s darkest material’ absorbing up to 99.965% of visible light measured perpendicular to the material” so in other words we’re talkin’ none more black which is pretty fitting for “Chin Up” luminous dark thing that it is… (Jason Lee)
Whenwolves celebrate their new music video and recent EP release at Our Wicked Lady tomorrow night (4/14)…