Under the hot hum of Austin’s creative current, The Schisms (Carson Barker, Caleb Ditzenberger and Gregg Irick) unveil Don’t Clip My Wings, a delirious leap into the pulp-colored chaos of mid-century imagination. The three-piece band, long attuned to post-punk propulsion and subterranean moods, has turned its gaze upward to the bold, brash panels of a 1950s comic strip come to life.
That grain, however, is electric. The song moves with muscular ease: a taut, post-punk rhythm snaps beneath Barker’s suave croon, before a fuzz-laden chorus tears the frame wide open. There is a flash of Franz Ferdinand’s angular gait, the broad swagger of The Killers’ early pulse, but what follows is their own blur of dancefloor momentum that collapses into distortion.
The video, a collaboration with Three-Eyed Cat, is a feat of animated alchemy: rotoscoping, hand-drawn reverie, and artificial intelligence stitched together with the nerve of experimentation. Its surfaces gleam with nostalgia: chrome skies, atomic silhouettes, a wash of sci-fi phosphor—and then warp into something stranger. Faces distort, limbs fracture, reality folds like celluloid caught in heat. It is both homage and autopsy of Americana, splicing Leave It to Beaver with Videodrome.
“Most of our videos and music have dark and moody concepts,” says Barker, the band’s leader and founder. “We wanted to switch it up on this video and do something against the grain.”
“I’ve collaborated with Carson and The Schisms many times before and it’s always a ton of fun,” said Nate Bayless, founder of Three-Eyed Cat. “Carson’s concept for this video was 100% up my alley, so I couldn’t wait to get started hashing it out and jump into animation.”
Each frame feels alive, ink breathing against phosphorescent light. The video’s climax abandons vintage charm for fevered mutation, where the clean lines of mid-century idealism melt into grotesque futurism. Barker’s bandmates, caught inside the comic’s frames, become both players and prisoners of their illustrated world.
“I think the basic storyline started with me, then Nate really fleshed it out,” Barker said. “He’s much more knowledgeable about comic book art styles and older sci-fi movies than I am so I pretty much gave him free reign.”
That freedom pulses through every second of Don’t Clip My Wings. It is a creation born of play and precision, a collaboration that reanimates nostalgia until it convulses with new life.
Watch below:
Known for their raucous live performances and self-produced videos, The Schisms have shared the stage with legendary acts like Richie Ramone of the Ramones, Barb Wire Dolls, The Goddamn Gallows, Peelander Z, Cheetah Chrome of The Dead Boys, Flametrick Subs, and more. The Schisms have been touring East and West Coast since 2017 after the launch of their first full-length album on Stray Wavs Records.
Funded in part by the City of Austin Live Music Fund, Barker’s vision thrives in the strange frontier between music and media experiment.
“That music fund opened up worlds of opportunities for me,” Barker said. “Austin is still a great place for musicians to live.”
In this latest metamorphosis, The Schisms take their place among Austin’s alchemists, turning ink, noise, and ambition into something incandescent and alive.
Follow The Schisms:
Or via: