New Video: Humour - Pure Misery
When Ukraine won the Eurovision song contest and the continued war with Russia meant they couldn't host in 2023, the UK - who finished second - were the obvious choice to step in. After an exhaustive round of bids, just two cities remain in the running. Liverpool's musical heritage is well known globally, but perhaps Glasgow doesn't have the same pull, particularly with the mainstream.
A city that has the spirit of Rock n' Roll coursing through its veins and has spawned some of alt-pop and indie rock's most famous and creative names; Glasgow is very much the outsider of the great musical cities the UK has to offer.
It seems the perfect place therefore for new So Young Records signings Humour to flex their muscles. The band are still in their infancy, but is a complex mix of unhinged post-punk, unpredictable art-pop and untamed post-hardcore; a life force that is as compelling as they are disorientating. Some of their early gigs saw them play with bands like Do Nothing and Folly Group, whom they share a similar off-kilter ethos with.
📷 Craig R McIntosh
Debut single 'yeah, mud!' was a startling blend of no-wave style dissonance with the shouted, often maniacal vocals of frontman Andreas Christodoulidis taking centre stage. Follow-up 'alive and well' took a more conventional approach, with guitar tones straight out of Interpol's Turn On the Bright Lights, but building the intensity to rival the peerless Protomartyr. Again Christodoulidis' vocals sound impaired with intoxication and passion overwhelming as he bellows the chorus:
Gone far/but haven't looked back/Fading intellect/yeah that's what you said there.
New single 'pure misery' - the title track from their forthcoming debut E.P - builds around a simple choppy guitar note that is accompanied by a drum beat that barely musters enough enthusiasm to keep time. The bassline gives enough bounce for the song to flow and it takes very much the same space as Yard Act's 'Rich'. When the band hits its stride and everyone is involved - guitars apeing each other, rhythm section entangled in its own glorious messy accord and Christodoulidis babbling in increasingly incoherent tongues like a man possessed - it's quite the force to be reckoned with.
" 'Pure Misery' is about finding or putting yourself in a position where you are expected to have something important to say and realising that you don't really. I wrote the song about being the singer in a band and standing up to address lots of people in a very serious way as though I must have something meaningful to relate to; something the audience needs to hear. It feels a little ridiculous doing that sometimes, especially when since the songs are most often about stories or feelings. So the narrator of the song is supposed to be trying to convince the audience that he has something very profound to tell them and he's kind of stalling until he can come up with something." Andreas Christodoulidis
The track also comes with a new video which sees Andreas singing from a water tank, the sunroof of a mobile home, a paddling pool and most often, a hole in the ground as the band play surrounding him. The video encapsulates the essence of the lyrics and more strikingly, the claustrophobic sense of anxiety behind the performance.
Pure Misery is released on November 25th via So Young Records.
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