While New Jersey power-pop collective Teenage Halloween may be in the studio cooking up LP number three, the band’s lead guitarist Eli Frank has already commenced the release cycle for his debut album as Bummer Camp—a one-time solo moniker that’s evolved into a full band over the course of two EPs and tons of singles released within the past seven years. Stuck in a Dream is a testament to the project’s evolution as it demonstrates Frank’s growth from detailed lo-fi bedroom recordings to headbanging grungegaze, as heard on new single “Pull the Thread.”
As Frank notes, though, the latest track is “a bit of a departure from the rest of the album. It’s a bit slower,” he explains, “a bit sulkier, and has more weight to it. I got the title from watching the Disney movie Hercules. Those three witches who juggle that eyeball around take people’s lives by cutting a piece of thread. Life truly is that fragile and seems like it can end as simply or randomly as that. The lyrics reflect the simplicity of that fact alongside childhood reflection and dreaming—are dreams the infinite?”
While the track was released earlier this week, today we’re getting a psychedelically rendered, VHS-quality visual for “Pull the Thread” created by Frank’s friend Preston Spurlock, featuring Frank and bandmates Brett Bivona, Luk Henderiks, and Ozzie Silva rocking through the tune. “We mostly filmed near one of my favorite Ridgewood venues, Purgatory,” Frank shares. “There are some cool abandoned buildings, truck loading docks, and train tracks, and it’s out of the way enough that you’re not really bothering anyone. I thought the area would follow the mood of the song well and follow the theme of fragility—an area that's been neglected.”
Check out the video below, and pre-order the album ahead of its February 14 release via Trash Casual here.
