Sixteen Jackies release gruesome video for their latest single “Just Kids”

The new Sixteen Jackies single, “Just Kids” is a total bloodbath. In a tattered dress, lead singer Jody DeMarco seems to be trying to outrun a psycho killer, playing into the Philly band’s fascination with the macabre. The track is the first single from their upcoming EP, Hostile Architecture, which will be released on October 29 via Born Losers Records. Thematically, “the flower bed from which the rest of the songs grow” is the baggage that comes with growing up queer and closeted, according to the band. 

Turning what should be a coming-of-age moment into something more hostile, the single is about a closeted boy losing his virginity in the woods and the subsequent fear of being outed: DeMarco wrestles with this by screaming “what does it mean when you say you’re on my team?” A classic soul-style backing makes the song seem wistful until you take a look at the lyrics. Reminiscing on the soft swaying of the trees and his hands in their hair, they appear gorgeous at first, but are gruesome under the surface. “I like how the breezy yacht rock atmosphere plays against the insecurity and desperation,” DeMarco says.  

Sixteen Jackies will also be playing Losers Fest on Saturday, September 11. They will share the stage with Total Rubbish and Johnny Dynamite & The Bloodsuckers. Night Sins will close out the show with an after-hours DJ set. 

You can check out the video below and be grab tickets to Losers Fest here.