Kevin Bronson on July 29th, 2022

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Three videos we like for three songs we like: Enjoy these visuals for the latest singles from King Mala, More* and Giant Waste of Man …

KING MALA, “Punchline”

It’s my party and I’ll get all emo if I want to? That’s King Mala’s “Punchline,” a bass-propelled, horn-spiked new single that shows the El Paso-bred songwriter, born Areli Castro, at her self-effacing best. Director Conner Landers Sorensen’s video is wildly imaginative (who knew the Grim Reaper had cheerleaders?), as the songstress inhabits several guises on the way to confessing, “All I really want is a pity party.” King Mala says the song, the follow-up to April’s single “Cult Leader,” is “about turning 24 and crying at my own party (true story). I wanted to write a song that embraced the disaster, embraced being twentysomething and not knowing what you’re doing. This song is about being a mess and having a great time anyway. Basically, I’m a crybaby and I’m proud.” Catch King Mala opening for Upsahl on Sept. 29 at the Constellation Room or Oct. 22 at the Roxy.

GIANT WASTE OF MAN, “AMPM”

Giant Waste of Man stretch out into the nether reaches of post-rock on their album “Biographer” (out Aug. 26), but their new single “AMPM” is a three-minute post-hardcore scream into the void, with drummer Brandon Hardy’s heavy hitting driving home the vitriol as hard as the chorus: “Everywhere I look there’s nothing to love / You can’t cheat a dam without causing a flood / Everywhere I look there’s nothing to love / Kill the billionaires and bathe in their blood / ’Cause their lives are worth nothing.” Director Raechel Zarzynski is similarly intense, as three women go out on the town and meet three men … who have no idea what they are in for. The song is the follow-up to “Millennial Ghost.” The band plays the Echo on Sept.21.

MORE*, “Anything Can Happen”

More*, the asterisk-deserving collaboration between Kane Ritchotte and Malcolm McRae, dig deep into neuroses on their new single, “Anything Can Happen,” which gets into a groove not previously inhabited on the duo’s singles. “As someone who has battled with anxiety most of my adult life, I’ve spent a lot of time considering how to overcome it,” Ritchotte says. “I’ve bit my nails down to the cuticle, paced around rooms twisting and pulling the tips of my hair, and spent hundreds (thousands) of hours tinkering away at nothing in dark studios around L.A. This is a song I made whilst trying to evade a nagging restlessness that seems to follow me everywhere.” Keene McRae (see the duo’s “Really Want to See You Again,” “Woman on the Move” and “Whose Side You’re On,” among others) directs the video for “Anything Can Happen.” Anything really can.