VIDEO PREMIERE | The Sour Notes, "Best"
Preaching from the pews to the pulpits — Austin’s own iconic The Sour Notes; press photo courtesy of the artists.
Those with their ears to the ground of the Austin, TX scene are no doubt familiar with the beloved local band The Sour Notes. From their prolific offerings to their even more cult-ish side outfit Memory Keepers; Jared Boulanger, Amarah Ulghani and Jeremy Harrell make music that sings to the spirit, soul and center of the human experience in ways that are full of care, concern and generous statements of universal love. With a warm sound that draws from the cavalcade of college radio influences to the artful dodgers of the past decades, The Sour Notes bring us to the here and now of the present in a communion of unrelenting joy and jubilation that stands at the precipice of what wonders await for those with ears that listen, eyes to see, beings that feel, arms and hands that hold in the unity of our often fractured states of the union. In lieu of sugar coating the the conundrums and quagmires of our trajectories, the Austin group leans into the continuous growth and beauty that abounds in a world of imperfect people as works in progress (always learning, always listening, always growing).
Presenting the debut of their DIY visual for “Best” from the album More is the Pity, The Sour Notes take their sound that was recorded in a nearby church and give it the glossy green screen treatment with lyric video touches to accentuate the song’s message. Jared, Amarah and Jeremy are seen in peformance like a pop art multimedia ensemble a la the vintage Beat-Club program with colorful lava lamp shapes moving and morphing amid a yellow backdrop. "Best" muses over the nature of relationships at crossroads, the meanings of bonds shared between two parties and all the questions that are exchanged in communicative conversations, constructive arguments and civil quarrels and qualms (that are often anything but).
Lyrical recitations of go off and live your best life, you do you and more uphold the painful and sometimes scary art of letting go with respect for one another's autonomy with some deep existential inquiries into the whys in which we as humans get involved with one another that extends beyond the pale of the rhetorical line of questioning. "Best" is a ballad about being our very best to one another, ourselves, seeking greater states of bliss and truths that rocks with an electric melancholic aesthetic of affection that strives toward a better understanding about the nature of coupling and uncoupling that is honest and thoroughly genuine. It is a statement about living our truths and giving our loved ones the room and space to do the same in a motion to live and love in accordance to the best of our potentials (both realized and everything that we collectively have yet to realize about ourselves and others).
Jared and Amarath penned an introductory preface to both the song and video for “Best”:
In a different world, we’re on tour in support of our new album “More is the Pity” right now. Instead, we wrapped up recording that album with SXSW getting cancelled, our rehearsal space being sold to developers, and many of us unsure on how to continue making art. A couple of the songs on our new album were recorded at a music venue our bass player Amarah worked at, that unfortunately closed permanently as a result of the pandemic. We were all very lucky though — despite some major life changes.
Though we are not religious, we found a progressive church downtown (where we vote) that allowed us to rent it from time to time, since their public services also shut down. Up until recently, Austin was affordable enough where musicians could rent a house to practice in…but when we were pushed into a formal rehearsal space due to living in an apartment, we had to think outside of the box. Churches tend to be popular spots for official SXSW showcases and I always enjoy reading about bands like Fugazi, Belle and Sebastian, Arcade Fire putting on shows or recording albums in alternative spaces whether out of necessity, comfort or just a different vibe. For us, we’re trying to be as resourceful as possible with the limited options available at the moment.
Image still taken from the video for “Best”; courtesy of the artists.
Something that we didn’t anticipate from renting a church, was having a chance to spread out and position our gear any way we wanted for the first time really. Our previous practice space was a 9x14 room inside a thin-walled warehouse, where multiple bands played in close quarters at the same time. It could get disorientingly [sic] loud in there at times, making it difficult to work. Having the privacy of the church to record in not only returned years of life to our eardrums, but also gave us the opportunity to film a series of socially distanced live performances with our smart phones, including a piano version of our song “Best” that we released on VHS tape! After that, we were kinda in DIY video making-mode, so we rented a green screen and edited a few camera angles together ourselves for a music video. That is kind of what “Best” is all about — trying to make the best out of a situation and roll with the punches…which is what creatives do best, even if it seems as if everything the universe is trying to get in the way of what you love doing.
The Sour Notes' album More is the Pity, their Live Multicam VHS Tape and more merch can be found here.