Video: Tijuana Panthers, ‘Path of Totality’

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Tijuana Panthers (Photo courtesy of Innovative Leisure)
Tijuana Panthers (Photo courtesy of Innovative Leisure)

Tijuana Panthers call their new album “the musical version of a beachside, drop-top cruise — punctuated by deeply human lyrics.” Not that anybody was expecting “Dude, that was epic!” — the Long Beach trio have always been smarter than that. But, three years since their last release and 11 since their first EP, Tijuana Panthers are older and ostensibly wiser.

The new album, “Carpet Denim,” will be out July 12 via Innovative Leisure. The fifth full-length from Chad Wachtel, Daniel Michicoff and Phil Shaheen, it was made at Jazzcats Studio in Long Beach with Jonny Bell. The band describes it as balancing lighter topical matter (there’s a “Twin Peaks” moment, they promise) with heavy stuff.

And that’s apparent in the lead track, the seriously titled “Path of Totality.” It’s a frolicsome three minutes built on a merry swirl of “woo-hoo-hoos,” which belies the fact that the song was written after a friend of the band lost a battle with alcoholism.

Check out the goofball video as the band assures, “There’s better days to come for me / If you wanna come then you will see.”

||| Watch: The video for “Path of Totality”

||| Live: Tijuana Panthers play the Observatory on Sept. 19 (tickets on sale at 10 a.m. Friday) and the Regent Theater on Spet. 20 (tickets on sale at 10 a.m. Friday). Both shows are with No Age.