Thin Lips | photo by Rachel Del Sordo for WXPN
UNLOCKED: Go back to school with Thin Lips in “I Wonder”
So we’ve talked a bunch these past couple days about Philly four-piece Thin Lips, and the serious undertones of their seriously catchy punk rock. The way they find release from personal struggles in loud riffs and fast drums.
But there’s another way the band finds release: by making sure fun is a conscious a part of their personas. We certainly saw that in the video for “Never Again,” where the band plays itself, a rival band and various audience members in attendance at a musical face-off at Kung Fu Necktie. Chrissy Tashjian told Noisey that it was “our homosexual Blink 182 video” and that about sums up the goofy party vibe they chose to visualize their hard luck anthem.
Today, there’s a new video for another Thin Lips song. And yes, it’s also got a total party atmosphere. The song is “I Wonder,” a bare-knuckled jam about letting go that falls in the third act of their new Riff Hard – the band’s debut record out tomorrow on Lame-O Records that we’ve been featuring all week on Unlocked, The Key’s recurring series on new and significant releases from Philly artists.
In it director Adam Peditto puts the band in an Undeclared setting, beginning with a basement kegger show at State College (not State College, PA — just a universal state college) and ending with them going back to school while sneaky party kids usurped their band identity.
Making cameos are Allegra Anka of Cayetana, Joe Rienhart of Hop Along, Sam Cook-Parrott of Radiator Hospital and Brad Pulley of Pine Barons, among others. And the two-and-a-half minute blast crystallizes a point I made on Monday: sometimes life can be very serious, and the best answer is to not take it too seriously.
Watch the video below, and get details on tomorrow night’s Thin Lips album release party at Everybody Hits via Facebook.
Riff Hard is the featured album in this week’s edition of Unlocked; check out Monday’s spotlight on “No Obituary” here, read yesterday’s album review and check back tomorrow morning for an interview with the band.