A few months ago, the quietly excellent New York group EZTV were in England on tour with Merchandise when Carson Cox, the latter band’s lead singer, fell and broke his jaw, resulting in a slew of cancelled tour dates. With nothing else to do until their already-scheduled return trip, the trio bummed around for a few days, eventually calling up their pal James Robert Sharp to see if he’d be up for shooting a quick video for their song “Hammock,” from November’s High in Place.
It’s a delightful piece of indie power-pop that highlights everything EZTV does well. Vocalist Ezra Tenenbaum sings with a bright melancholy that’s matched by the exceeshdingly British beach at Brighton, where Sharp and the band goofed around for a few hours. They wander into a record store, where they consider both High in Place and Dusk, by the simpatico British group Ultimate Painting. They catch a few moments of a Kevin Morby set back in London. Through it all Tenenbaum threads his vocals and guitar lines, both of which recall a damper version of The Byrds, or a version of Big Star that knows it’ll never be as big as The Rolling Stones. It’s bright, joyful, and easygoing stuff—“Lie on my back / Stare at the sun,” goes the chorus. A few hours after that Morby set came to a close, Donald Trump was officially named the next President of the United States. “I’ve taken to calling this ‘The Last Good Day,’” Tenenbaum says. “A bright and joyful memory before the nightmare of our current Big Baby president became a foul reality.”
You can relive those simpler times—and experience “Hammock”’s still-legitimate joys—below.
High in Place is out now via Captured Tracks.
