Shot up with piss and vinegar unaware of our dissonance
Beating your chest with the confidence of ignorance
The applause for the kill that I tried to ignore I lived in my bedroom but I can’t anymore
They make me pick my head up off the floor
Texas post-punk trio Don’t Get Lemon have unveiled their video for the synth-pop ballad “D.I.E.I.N.T.H.E.U.S.A.”, a song featured on the group’s forthcoming debut album Hyper Hollow Heaven.
With their lush songcraft that fuses the sensibilities of Danish synth and Mancunian new-wave, Don’t Get Lemon find humour and beauty in the grotesque that surrounds us, crafting intricate dance music and a colourful torrent of motion for a dark, frustrated world:
“We create a swirling tension around electronic-pop and fears and anxiety about the future of our planet,” they explain.
Don’t Get Lemon’s electronic-pop puts vocalist Austin Curtis’ baritone on full display, as it gravely spells relative doom and cheeky paranoia over upbeat, maximalist compositions by Nick Ross and Bryan Walters.
“The music is light because we like pop music. We like fun songs,” they admit. “We don’t want to be labeled as just being a darkwave band or spooky post-punk, we actively try to create and carve out our own existence. The lyrics have dark and serious subject matter at times, but I don’t think they are deliberately dark or depressing. Yes, they can be tinged with a certain sadness, but there is also humor, and beauty in the grotesque.”
The latest single off their debut LP Hyper Hollow Heaven (out March 2022 via à La Carte Records), the glossy synth ballad “D.I.E.I.N.T.H.E.U.S.A.”, features a karaoke-themed video, directed by Jennifer Battaglia – as well as an instrumental karaoke video, should you wish to warble along.
“This song is the most unique song on the album; it’s our first ballad,” says the band. “…It’s about not wanting to die in America, and my desire to always get away from it but feeling trapped to it, but if I knew I were to die tomorrow or that I had a limited amount of time left, I would free myself of any perceived responsibilities and shackles and get on a plane and leave.”
Watch the video for “D.I.E.I.N.T.H.E.U.S.A.” below:
don’t get lemon’s debut LP Hyper Hollow Heaven will be issued on vinyl, cassette, and VHS tape, mirroring Adam Curtis’ use of archival footage to help visualize the narrative. Hyper Hollow Heaven is a statement to have and to hold, to hear and to view. The band calls the VHS release the “definitive” experience of the band, as it expands upon lyrical content and provides visuals to reinforce moths of the album. They want listeners to feel less passive and detached while they experience the music.
“Thinking about the reality we’re inevitably headed to can be debilitating, and the album is self-aware that art and individual creativity and freedom is helpless in changing anything,” the trio insist. “That change can only come through collective action, which is tough to commit to because it’s a form of self-sacrifice, and goes against our own self-preservation. Which is ironically what we need to survive on this planet. Some of the images created can be dark and surreal but there is also tongue-in-cheek black comedy and humor to the absurdity of it all and that in a twisted way there’s a seduction in seeing the end. The lyrics are conscious of the futility of art in saving us. That’s not to say art isn’t a reason for living or isn’t beautiful, but it in and of itself cannot bring wide-spread change.”
Food for thought.
Preorder Hyper Hollow Heaven here.
BONUS: Watch the karaoke sing-a-long version of “D.I.E.I.N.T.H.E.U.S.A.”, below:
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