Today's Pick

Just in time for their national headline tour, revered Florida punk rock band Hot Water Music has unveiled a new video for their single, "Drag My Body." This track, along with twelve others, can be found on their current eighth full-length album in nearly two decades, "Exister," which is Florida punks' first album since 2004 and was released back in May via Rise Records. The band starts a tour in Tampa on January 16 with La Dispute and The Menzingers.

This rock foursome, which was formed back in 1993, has been a staple of the music scene for many years. Fans may see this as a sudden return for the group, however they only pressed pause in 2006, to pursue individual projects. Overall, the break worked; two years later, Hot Water Music reconvened to perform live, with a few shows involving into many, firing at full capacity for this new phase of their career.
"Drag My Body," is the first track from the record, and it finds the quartet returning to their roots in aggressive, emotionally volatile music. "Sooner or later we all inevitably hit a wall, and lose steam and find ourselves in the vortex of self-inflicted torment," says frontman Chuck Ragan. "'Drag My Body' is a simple story of finding oneself at a point of no return, at the end of a rope and teetering on the edge of madness with the realities of failure looming. Just as well realizing the capabilties of pulling oneself up from those obstructions and simply carrying on."
Considering the band's emotional and anthemic amp-cranker, it only makes sense that the video is a bit of a heart-tugger too. Directed by Josh Hegard and shot in Silverlake, California, the clip shows the band playing in the bar where a fight breaks out between biker-like individuals, as an old barfly trying to make ends meet selling art on the street and blood at a clinic. He favours a local tavern that clearly doesn't want him there, with a young bartender scribbling the message "go away bum" on a napkin before shoving it under his nose. Despite this, he keeps over-tipping the gal with his accumulated hundos, which serves to make the girl rightfully feel like shit once she connects the dots. It's dark but reflects well on the song.

You Me at Six have unveiled a music video for their song "No One Does It Better," the third single off from English alternative rock band's latest third full length record, "Sinners Never Sleep." The five-piece will release "No One Does It Better" on April 8th, straight after finishing up their massive UK tour, and it's a bit more dramatic than some of their previous offerings.
The group is from Weybridge, Surrey and formed back in 2004 and since then has been producing plenty of hit songs. The new album "Sinners Never Sleep" sees You Me at Six exploring their most mature sound to date extending the band's scope wider than ever before. Heavier tracks such as Radio One A listed lead single "Loverboy" and new "Bite My Tongue" merge into the melodies of "Jaws On The Floor" and "Reckless." Whereas new single "No One Does It Better," "Crash" and "When We Were Younger" sees the band a little quieter and more introspective.
You Me at Six, who stormed into the charts at number three with their fast approaching Gold-selling third album "Sinners Never Sleep," show their more melodic side with the release of "No One Does It Better," as the band wanted to mix stuff up as "Loverboy" was rock. Reinforcing their crossover from underground heroes to mainstream contenders, You Me at Six have sold out their forthcoming biggest headline tour to date.
The video was shot during the band's current US tour in some desert back in February, and shows the band out on the open road, having some bonding time, and enjoying the sunshine. The video highlights those darker themes of life: hinting towards addiction, depression, regrets and mistakes, but brings the whole thing full circle by revealing the importance that friends, family, and lovers make in pulling us through. At least, that's how we've interpreted it.

Michigan based post-hardcore act Chiodos have posted their video on IFC for "Notes In Constellations" taken from band's third album, "Illuminaudio." Behold the cosmic time lapses, captured in the dark of night with a new motion control technology in this newly released video, which weaves a tale about two lovers who are separated by a tragic death.
"Notes In Constellations" was written about Christopher "Notes" Olsen, a longtime musical collaborator, producer and friend of Chiodos vocalist Brandon Bolmer. The song was inspired by the untimely death of Olsen and references the pain of losing a loved one. Bolmer elaborates, "I had started writing the song years ago, on a trip up to the snowy mountains of Big Bear, CA with my girlfriend, her sister, and Notes. The song was originally written about two lovers who were forced to part ways from one another. After his death, the song took on a dual meaning and became a song that Notes could have written for his girlfriend after he passed on."
The video by young directors, Ryan Southwell and John Stephens, inspired by this sad back story, weaves a tale about two lovers who are separated by a tragic death but still with each other through the stars. It features multiple astro time-lapse shots of various locations in California, which were filmed using new multi-axis, motion control technology. The time-lapse footage creates a cinematic, ethereal visual with a ghostly, distorted sense of time. The band's performance footage was filmed using a green screen, with the song's narrative elements captured in downtown Los Angeles.
No CGI or post effects were used in the filming of the heavenly time lapses you are about to witness, they are completely organic, in a cosmic sense. The Los Angeles based directors have been shooting together for several years, but this is only their second official music video. Southwell and Stephens used a new, multi-axis, motion control technology to shoot them outdoors. They shot all of the band performance footage against a green screen, the female narrative at a loft, and the astro time-lapses at various locations in California over a period of several nights all for real -- nothing is CGI or was comp'd in post. After talking about the concept with Bolmer they decided to explore the star lover theme fully and create a distorted sense of time using the time-lapse and a lot of slow-motion. "It's about losing someone you love and coming to a belief that they're still with you in the stars," Stephens affirmed.