Take a weird trip with Catbite in their video for “Bad Influence”

For as exhilarating as it is to be in love for the first time, it’s also scary as hell. Catbite captures the anxiety of realizing your feelings on their latest track, “Bad Influence.” The follow-up to “Call Your Bluff,” which was released earlier this month, it’s the second single from their album Nice One, which will be out August 6 via Bad Time Records. 

A punchy reggae song that dials the pace down from the racing ska of their first single, the song has an easy groove despite depicting utter chaos. Drinking 40s and driving each other insane, it’s clear they don’t mind the madness. Putting her good judgment aside, lead singer Brit Luna exclaims “there ain’t no way you can deny / we’re good for nothin’ but each other / let’s make bad choices til we die.” Totally reckless, it’s the type of relationship that you should probably think twice about. Still, with some tight percussion and lively keys keys, they make throwing caution to the wind seem like a lot of fun. 

In a video released to accompany the track, two members of the band accidentally eat some spiked banana bread. Trying to shake off the haze while she plays, Luna’s drugged-up delusions include a disappearing guitarist and some floating cat faces. The humorous concept for the video is based on a true story when guitarist Tim Hildebrand’s whole office unknowingly ate edibles. 

“We applied that story to the song because it just showcases the whole paranoia and catastrophizing of being in a meaningful relationship for the first time, or being in a band where we all mean so much to each other, or literally being dosed and not knowing what is going on,” Luna said. 

You can watch the video below and pre-order Nice One here. Catbite’s August 6th album release party at PhilaMOCA sold out in four hours, but the band announced they would be presenting a free multi-camera livestream for those who missed out on getting tickets (“accessibility is the damn future baybeeeeee”). They’ll also play IREM Pavilion in Dallas, PA on August 7th, and Musikfest in Bethlehem on August 8th (more info on those shows here), and will open for Nathan Gray of BoySetsFire at MilkBoy on November 5th.