Video: Foxx Bodies, ‘BPD’

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Foxx Bodies (Photo by Rochelle Shipman)

The music of L.A.-based Foxx Bodies is somewhere between scream therapy and talk-sung inner monologues. The best way to handle it is to hang on every word.

Over guitars that sting like the trauma singer-lyricist Bella Vanek seeks to unpack, the band turns pain into punk-rock theater, even, at times, seemingly comical, if the truth didn’t hurt so much. The quartet — the singer, along with Bailey Moses, Adam Bucholz and Matt Vanek — originated in Tucson, Ariz., before matriculating west. Now signed to Kill Rock Stars, their second album, “Vixen,” was made with producers John Goodmanson (Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney, among many others) and Erik Blood (Shabazz Palaces, Tacocat), and it will be out Nov. 5.

“BPD,” their latest single, finds Vanek fully immersed in her no-words-barred speaking-singing. “BPD is short for borderline personality disorder, which is one of my multiple mental health diagnoses,” she says. “Each instrument is used to match the lyrics as they go from a predictable ‘neurotypical’ stream of consciousness to repeated self-hating phrases to loss of words or ability to function. This song was originally written for cathartic purposes, but it was recorded in hopes that borderline can be seen in a more sympathetic light. Many of the symptoms of BPD stem from low self-esteem, fear of abandonment, depression, anxiety, or abuse rather than the popular narrative of inherent intolerance or neuroticism.”

Penelope Uribe-Abee directed the video for the latest single.

||| Watch: The videos for “BPD” and “Bad Kid”

||| Stream: “BPD” and “Bad Kid”