March 9, 2012

Cymbals Eat Guitars - "Definite Darkness"

Just released a couple days ago, the music video for "Definite Darkness" from Cymbals Eat Guitars' Lenses Alien is every bit a guilty pleasure, for the most part because it unabashedly hits all the right notes for teen angst. For visuals, we have what's probably the most familiar trope of 90s alt-rock music videos: cheerleaders (or, in this case flag-wavers) at a football game. It's the best kind of high school spectacle: you've got all the popular kids at their most visible, phony, machinistic, pre-determined, etc. Throw in some heavy guitars and (extremely) emotive vocals and you've got teen angst in one of its most compact, transparent expressions. Gah! Social alienation. So painful, so liberating. Bottle and sell that stuff!

It's basically crack for outmoded hipsters (such as myself) who are still stuck in the overworn trenches of mid-90s guitar rock. Play the video and you'll know why I'm still listening the crap out of this album a year after its release.

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