By Charlie Maybee
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The Winnipeg-based atonal punk rockers, TUNIC, woke up and chose violence with their new music video for “Fake Interest,” which recently debuted with the release of their new album, Quitter. With imagery that is as huge, noisy, and angry as their music, this is a study of music visualization at its most primal and brutal.
This music video gets right to the point as a collection of ceramic characters meet their demise at the hands of a maniac with a baseball bat in the middle of an open field. As fireworks randomly explode in the background, the damaged remains of our fallen friends scatter wistfully in the wind against a harsh soundtrack of slammed, wailing guitars and guttural screams. “Scatter my ashes” becomes a lyrical motif that ties the sound and the imagery together beautifully.
Despite the clear sense of rage, there’s a playful absurdity to the violent imagery because of the cartoonish features of the ceramic victims. It resembles the dark humor of “Happy Tree Friends,” but extremely punk. TUNIC leans into the wackiness of the whole situation in a very straightforward manner while never breaking their poker face. The whole video plays like a meta-commentary on perceptions about the aesthetic of noise rock being nonsensical, and the use of slow motion definitely adds a dimension of humor that works wonderfully.
“Fake Interest,” along with the entirety of Quitter, is available on major streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, and Bandcamp. The accompanying music video can also be found on YouTube.
This track has been added to our Alchemical Weekly YouTube Playlist.
Charlie Maybee is a dancer, musician, educator, and writer based in Charleston, South Carolina who currently teaches with the Dance Program at the College of Charleston. His primary work as an artist is with his performing collective, Polymath Performance Project, through which he makes interdisciplinary performance art that centers tap dance as the primary medium of expression and research. He also currently plays rhythm guitar for the Charleston-based punk band, Anergy, and releases music as a solo artist under the name Nox Eterna.
After AFI DOCS’s departure, the capital city once again has a documentary festival.
Alchemical Records is a Washington, D.C. based music publication. We cover the Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Richmond, VA metro area music scenes, including band interviews, articles about your favorite musicians, new music and concert dates.
