The Burlington-based indie rock five-piece J Benjoy, according to their own description, make “bummer-rock that makes you smile.” This is an accurate way to characterize their Kayhl Cooper-directed clip for “Armchair,” the entropic anthem off of their LP Dogwood Winter. Filmed during a Vermont winter, the cool-toned visuals alternate between the band members playing instruments together and being carted around on armchairs around the city to much eerier scenes of dark hallways and faceless men wheeling them away. Things must destruct before they can be rebuilt, but as the first verse goes, “things fall down / but they don’t always fall into place.” It is in this space — where life has yet to snap into place, where something doesn’t quite fit but you have to figure out how to move forward anyway — that J Bengoy have created “Armchair” and it’s one worth talking about. J Bengoy will be playing at Brooklyn’s Union Pool tonight (August 25) and will be back with another show in Burlington at ArtsRiot on September 7. – Lilly Milman, photo by Kayhl Cooper
