Video: Tanlines, ‘Pieces’

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Tanlines are a whole lot better at making ’80s mope-pop than they are at shooting hoops, as their new video for “Pieces” indicates. Here, Eric Emm and Jesse Cohen bring their weak sauce to a 2-on-2 basketball tournament in Venice Beach and get schooled even worse than they would in a 50-and-over bloggers’ league. And how much game does Tanlines’ new album “Highlights” (out next week via True Panther) have? Depends on your appetite for second-wave New Wave. The follow-up to 2012’s “Mixed Emotions,” made in L.A. with producer Patrick Ford and in New York with Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor, is a straightforward, guitar-driven affair with echoes of bands like the Teardrop Explodes. “Slipping Away” slips past atop bristling guitars, while “Invisible Ways” chugs along mournfully on a pile of regrets. Wear something dark and sing along.

||| Stream: “Slipping Away” and “Invisible Ways”

||| Live: Tanlines play Monday at the Echoplex and Tuesday at the Observatory.


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Photo by Autumn de Wilde