The Vaccines – see the video for their new single Handsome
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Version 0 of 1. “The way bands look has always for me been a really important part of pop and rock’n’roll music,” Vaccines frontman Justin Young told the Guardian’s Michael Hann in 2012. “If a band looks good, they’re more seductive. It wasn’t supposed to look heavy rock.” It looks as if that preoccupation with the aesthetics of rock’n’roll continues to occupy Young’s mind in 2015, with Handsome, the first single lifted from their new album. While almost certainly imbued with a sense of irony (“thank God I’m handsome!”), the new material isn’t a huge departure from their previous recording, but is nonetheless armed with beefed-up production from David Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Tame Impala, MGMT) and Cole MGN (Ariel Pink, Beck, Nite Jewel). Watch the video for Handsome below: Shot in a warehouse in Brooklyn before Christmas, the tale of martial-arts trained vigilantes and their lizard leader was produced by art collective Canada, and directed by Gerson Aguerri, who is part of the collective. “We wanted to create a video that was a sort of bubblegum ode to cinema and, in particular, Hong Kong kung fu movies,” says Young of the video. “Music to me is entertainment and escapism: we wanted the video to be an extension of that. We wanted to create another world, in which we can play aspirational, heightened versions of ourselves.” Although further details of the follow-up to their Come of Age album have not been confirmed, the band have also announced a short UK tour in March and April – away from the arena venues of their last run of dates and into more intimate settings such as London’s Brixton Electric and Nottingham Rock City. The full list of shows is as follows: March 27 Nottingham Rock City 28 Hartlepool Borough Hall 29 Glasgow Old Fruit Market 31 Scunthorpe Baths Hall April 1 Manchester Albert Hall 3 Portsmouth Pyramid 4 Bath Pavilion 5 Folkestone The Leas Cliff Hall 8 London Brixton Electric Tickets go on general sale at 10am on 23 January 2015. Out on 9 March 2015, Handsome is available to pre-order now – fans may be interested in a limited-edition orange vinyl 7”. |