Sporadic Videoage: Buxton + Only Beast + The Tie That Binds

Well, wow. There’s been an honest-to-God flood of music videos coming out of our city lately, so many that I’ve barely had time to even notice ’em before they fly on by. I feel like I’m constantly playing catch-up with this stuff, seriously, and figured I’d better take a minute to point to a handful that I’ve seen in recent days; there’re plenty more, don’t worry, but here are a few things you should watch & listen to:

Buxton – “This Place Reminds Me Of You”
Ah, damn, Buxton; how do you do that to me, every freaking time? I’ve been following the band’s progress for more than a decade now, and with each release they pull me right back in, right back to where I was the first time I heard the band. Granted, they’re a far more mature, more confident ensemble now than they were back in those early days, and it shows on “This Place Reminds Me of You,” which is languid and lounge-y in a way Old Buxton probably wouldn’t have tried to pull off.

And yet, these days they absolutely can pull it off, crafting a bleakly melancholy torch song that sways and swoons through the haze of cigarette smoke and spilled beer, simultaneously lowdown and gorgeously romantic. It’s the sound of crushed hearts whose shards still cut when jostled by just the right place or song or scent. Music-wise, there’s a wistful, world-weary feel to the song, one that makes me think of Tom Petty more than anything else; the Petty resemblance is also in the song’s (and band’s, as a whole) ability to seamlessly meld rootsy Americana sounds with straight-up, nod-along pop catchiness, something that’s all too rare these days.

Happily, the video matches up with the song perfectly, with what sure looks like former Wild Moccasin Andrew Lee doing doing country-Goth karaoke in a dimly-lit dive (Houston’s own D&W Lounge, maybe?) in front of an array of mirror balls, crooning somberly to a lovelorn, downtrodden audience that looks like it fell out of True Detective. Like the song, it’s beautiful and bleak at the same time, the kind of strange, almost mystical juxtaposition you sometimes find in unlikely places late, late at night.

Keep an eye out for the band’s new album, Stay Out Late, by the way; it’s out October 19th on New West Records. Oh, and the band is playing next Wednesday, August 22nd, at the Karbach Brewing Co., as part of their “Music To Your Beer” music series. In case you need more reason to go check it out, I think it’s free…

Only Beast – “Any Me”
Yes. It’s about damn time, I’ve gotta say — before I finally got to see Only Beast in person, all I could find of the band online were a handful of messy, hard-to-hear live recordings, none of which really did the band justice. The music sounded fine, but it didn’t have the bite of an actual performance, y’know?

Happily, that problem’s been rectified with Only Beast’s recently-released video for “Any Me,” off the band’s excellent release from last year, Again. Filmed at least partly in front of Vincent Fink‘s cool-ass mural at Sawyer Yards does a damn good job of capturing the band’s live performances, from guitarist Peter Bernick‘s astounding ability to play bass with his feet (using pedals) while playing guitar and smoking a cigarette to drummer John Salinas‘s utterly inflappability behind the drumkit to frontwoman Danielle Renee stalking around the stage like a (barely) caged tiger getting ready to pounce as the music roars behind her.

It’s a great snapshot of the Only Beast bandmates doing what they do best, intercut with seriously creepy close-ups of the band members’ faces being pawed and clawed by what are basically hands unattached to actual bodies. Watching Salinas, Bernick, and Renee getting, well, “groped” seems like the most applicable word, and hearing Renee ask, “Our sons write the songs and our daughters sing them / Is this the world we choose to believe in?”, I can’t help but feel pretty damn uncomfortable while watching.

Maybe it’s about people being objectified, or more specifically about the weirdness of the modern world when you’re an artist, where people now almost expect to be allowed access to the people whose work they admire? I’m not sure, although Renee’s lyrics about how “there isn’t any me” seems to point to at least some kind of loss of self. Only the band knows for sure.

Catch Only Beast on Saturday, August 11th, up at Spruce Goose Social Flyers Club, where they’ll be playing as part of Barkerpalooza 11. It’s gonna be damn good, seriously…

The Tie That Binds – “Identify Yourself”
And we’ll finish up with another “about damn time” video, this time from a bunch of dudes who’ve been playing music literally as long as I’ve been paying attention to it as a grown-ass adult. (Yes, this means I’m an old.)

The Tie That Binds (and precursor band Badger) was one of the forerunners of the mid-’90s Houston emo scene, the same one I pretty much grew up with; I don’t think my lame-ass band ever played a show with TTTB, sadly, but they were (and are, still) heroes to me and a whole lot of other young, music-loving kids. They were one of The Bands That Could Make It, to a lot of folks here.

These days, I’m a dad with a job and kids and house and all the rest who gets in heated arguments with his 14-year-old daughter about what “emo” is (and no, freaking Panic! At The Disco are not emo, although I’ll grant that they’re pretty good at what they do). And other than that last bit, the same applies to brothers Steve and Rudy Duarte, the founding members of the band (the newer members of the quartet are bassist Kevin Seay and guitarist Jose Vera, formerly of Lake Jackson band Drive The Sky). It feels weirdly like we’ve all grown up together, despite the fact that I only run into the guys once every few years.

All of the above is to say that I am happy as hell to see the band back at it, especially with the release of the new video for “Identify Yourself”. The lyrics are oblique enough that I’ve got no real idea what the song’s really about, but I’m loving the hell out of the music; the guitars crunch and roar, the choruses are damn near perfect for singing along, and the overall feel makes me think of vintage Samiam or Knapsack. Steve Duarte’s vocals sound like not a single day has passed since the band released Half Past Heroes back in 2001(!), and that’s a pretty amazing thing. This is what emo’s meant to sound like, and screw all that drama-school/Goth stuff.

As for the video itself, it’s relatively straightforward, mostly focusing — rightly, I think — on the black-clad band as they play in front of three shifting-color/video screens. Like I said, I don’t really know what the song’s about, but the ID photos of a girl that flash up on the screens at various points are intriguing, making me wonder what the underlying story really is. Somebody getting catfished, maybe? No clue, and honestly, I’m okay with that, as long as this video/song means The Tie That Binds are back for good. Please?