This current decade has brought back the lo-fi post-punk sound in a big way, with acts like Drab Majesty, Twin Tribes, and Lathe of Heaven looking to pick up the baton that Ariel Pink dropped a while back. (Look up what happened with Pink if you don’t know.)
Shadowing, the latest entrant to the new wave of nu-post-punk, includes Keil Corcoran (of STRFKR) and collaborator Justin Pittney, as well as front person Spencer Stegman and multi-instrumentalist Matthew DeLoach. Over the past three months, the project has released two tracks, “Rain Song” and “No Relief”, both showcasing the group’s haunting sound and rhythmic pulsing to strike fear into those too pure of heart and delight those who dance with the darkness.
Now, Shadowing returns with their third single, “Alive,” an urgent major-key jam that sounds like a missing track from the 80s that would send lost media sleuths into a frenzy. (Think “Subways Of Your Mind”.) The song’s chorus strikes an interesting question: “If we never really had to die, then are we really alive?” This, plus the catchy hooks, tempt you to turn off the lights, set your computer screen to a red background turned up super high, swing your arms around, and tap into the darkness within.
Speaking of lost media, the music video for “Alive” – created by Stegman – blends clips from B-movie horror and skin flicks to create a montage of darkness, degradation, and degeneracy. Skulls, crosses, blood, Satanism, and sex flash across the screen, forcing you to forsake innocence and witness the warped and foul. As the song asks: If you can’t face it, do you know what it’s like to live?
Written by Will Sisskind
