“Violets” is a lo-fi lament about an unrequited love, so it makes sense to portray that visually by drowning sorrows with a mason jar of alcohol (and almost literally drowning in packs of Marlboros). We’re not just being oddly specific: this is the premise of Teen Suicide’s new video.
“‘Violets’ is my favorite song on our album,” frontman Sam Ray told us. “Thank you to my friend Harmony [Tividad] for recording all the vocals with me; It wasn’t my favorite before that. Her voice is truly incredible. Listen to her band Girlpool, they are the best.”
The lyrics are so succinct that we’ll just quote them in their entirety here: “I dream about being with you / While you’re doing the laundry / In the shade of an oak tree / You see right through me / Someone calls me a liar / But I’m covered in violets / You mean the world to me / Don’t ever let them tell you different.”
“Violets” is a short song (this video clocks in at 1:46), but by no means is that abnormal for Teen Suicide. The band’s sophomore album It’s the Big Joyous Celebration, Let’s Stir the Honeypot (released on April 1 via Run for Cover Records) is a 68-minute, 26-track LP, and 11 of those tracks don’t surpass the 2:30 mark. Maybe that’s a statement: “Violets,” along with the rest of the album, is direct. It often doesn’t take long to explain yourself when you ignore flowery clichés and just get to the point. That makes these divulgences intimate and genuine, like a heart-to-heart with a friend.
It’s the Big Joyous Celebration, Let’s Stir the Honeypot is available to order here, and if you dig it, we hate to be the ones to tell you not to hold your breath for their next record. That’s not to say this group of people will stop making music together, but that they’ll be doing it under a different name from now on: Their Bandcamp page reads, “changing our band name after this last record (honeypot). woo! sorry for the dumb name we chose it a long time ago w/o thinking about any negative implication of it & regret that.”
Image: Run For Cover Records
