Video: Tennis System, ‘Clearer’

Kevin Bronson on May 1st, 2018

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Wherever you decide to shelve the music of Tennis System — they’d be comfortable in the noise-pop, shoegaze and post-punk niches — the L.A. trio have become a powerhouse at it. The band’s new EP, titled “P A I N,” is but the latest example, a six-song barrage of muscular power chords, swirling effects and wave after wave of noise adding up to sonic escapism at its most blissful. What’s to escape from? Plenty. Singer-guitarist Matty Taylor touches on our obvious external crises and the more inscrutable internal ones. Like in “Clearer,” which recalls the old line “wherever you go, there you are.” Director Logan Rice’s video for song, which stars Niamh Hannigan, plays out that dread.

As for the title of the EP, which came out Friday, “It’s called ‘pain’ for a reason,” bassist Sam Glassberg says. “It was painful to make. We made sacrifices to make the album.” Adds drummer Garren Orr: “It’s a painful time right now, and everyone’s understanding their own relationship with pain.” May we suggest “P A I N” as an anesthetic.

||| Watch: The video for “Clearer”