LA-based post-punk band Agender have dropped a double A-side video for their new singles "Trouble & Desire" & "Womb 2 Wound".
The double video, directed by Amanda Lovejoy Street examines attachment styles and faces anxiety head on in the pursuit of finding oneself, playing on both sincerity and humor. Street, who has worked with American rock-punk band !!! Chk Chk Chk as well as the critically acclaimed short film Magic Bullet, explains, "Agender's latest two for one video explores what an experimental video game on attachment styles might be. The first video follows lead singer Romy the "Dismissive '' as she tries to avoid being caught by Claire, the "Preoccupied".
Like with much of the album, Hoffman wrote the tracks and plays everything on them from synths, to drum machines, guitar, including the lead vocals and even had a hand in their production with an assist from David Scott Stone (LCD Soundsystem, Get Hustle, Unwound).
Hoffman reveals the tracks are "probably the most unhinged, synth heavy, synth-punk jams on the album. They sit somewhere between the late 70's minimal synth punk pioneer 'The Normal', early 80's L.A synth punks Nervous Gender and the more modern sound of 'The Faint'." Describing their sounds, she continues, "Big synth lines and layers, twinkling guitars and a steady drum machine beat create a bed for vocals to protrude from. It's all about the vocals. They're urgent, they're umph. Monotone over melody. Delivered with conviction." Hoffman concludes, "The song sounds like what living with an attachment wound feels like. Like nothing is enough and everything is too much."
The second video propels Romy into an abstract womb space aka the origin of her attachment style. We move between Romy navigating the smothering "wombs" and into a stylized relationship space where we see the attachment dynamic between her and Claire continue to play out - one where real intimacy is never achieved. George Haas from Mettagroup L.A acts as a "therapist" to narrate and witness."
"Trouble & Desire," is a fast-paced, drum-backed track that meets where being anxious and avoidant in a relationship intersect. "Womb 2 Wound" builds on the bold tone as it opens opens with the classic assertiveness of Agender's Romy declaring, "Fuck my biological clock with my philosophical cock." "It begins with a punch in the face. The face is that of expectation and time. The song is about a hyper-aware person striving to be an ego-less, body-less self, who can transcend pathology and their attachment to people and things. It's a song that champions the notion that the solution to all problems is always spiritual."
Both songs are from their new album 'No Nostalgia', out now, produced by David Scott Stone (LCD Soundsystem, Unwound), and mixed by Sean Cook (St. Vincent, Angel Olsen).
Watch the clip below.
Tags: Agender
