Video: Surf Curse, ‘Sugar’

Matt Wallock on March 31st, 2022

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Surf Curse (sort of) made their late night debut this week with their video for “Sugar,” which finds the indie-rock quartet performing a new banger on the set of “The Knight Show,” a fictitious program hosted by Max Knight.

Currently based in L.A., the band came “all the way from Las Vegas, Nevada, except the guitarist who’s from Nebraska and the bassist who’s from Oklahoma — an important distinction,” says Knight as he introduces the group. Led by drummer-vocalist Nick Rattigan and guitarist-vocalist Jacob Rubeck, Surf Curse is rounded out by bassist Henry Dillon and guitarist Noah Kohll.

Rattigan and Rubeck have both kept busy with other projects (namely Current Joys and Gap Girls), but “Sugar” proves that they continue to save their most combustible material for Surf Curse, the band that’s earned them an ever-growing cult following. Produced and mixed by Chris Coady and recorded between New York and L.A., “Sugar” moves from heart-on-my-sleeves verses to cathartic, hook-driven choruses, then snaps into a very-Surf Curse emotional outburst-as-crescendo. Lyrically, it’s a track about yearning for affection: “My god you are such a looker / Tell me you love and give me some sugar,” Rattigan cries.

“Sugar” is Surf Curse’s first new single since their 2019 album “Heaven Surrounds You,” which followed 2017’s “Nothing Yet” and 2013’s “Buds,” both of which were recorded at the Smell. Last year the local lo-fi favorites blew up on TikTok and re-released “Freaks,” which originally appeared on “Buds.” Now they’re prepping their fourth album, which will arrive as their major label debut for Atlantic Records.

||| Watch: The video for “Sugar”