I probably don’t need to tell you that hockey is currently having a bit of a moment outside of the realm of sports, thanks to an instantly iconic indie rock needle drop sandwiched between six hours of steamy hotel-room trysts carried out by the two biggest stars of a fictional version of the NHL. Yet I can’t imagine John Andrews & the Yawns foresaw the phenomenon that is Heated Rivalry when they ideated the music video for “Something to Be Said,” the single the band is sharing today to announce that their fifth album of gentle slacker-pop tunes will be out later this spring. Marking the former Woods member’s first non-Woodsist release, Streetsweeper will arrive April 3 via Earth Libraries.
“Something to Be Said” takes the form of a folk-pop earworm, bolstered by contributions from Art Feynman’s Luke Temple on bass, Florry’s Will Henriksen on fiddle, and EL labelmate Star Moles contributing backing vocals—as well as his Yawns backing band, featuring Noah Bond and Keven Louis Lareau who also play alongside Andrews in Cut Worms. “I woke up from a dream with a melody of some strange Rolling Stones song that didn’t actually exist stuck in my head; one of those rare situations when you’re not sure where something came from, but there it is and you gotta follow it to see where it goes before it fades away,” Andrews shares. “I immediately picked up my guitar and figured out four chords for it and the rest of the lyrics just eventually came.”
As for the aforementioned video, Andrews—who’s also an animator—notes that he was inspired by an Arthur Tess photograph from the 1970s of a kid playing hockey in Manhattan. “We filmed the music video around my neighborhood with Hilla Eden shooting Super 8,” he shares. “It was a really beautiful day. I made some animations for it and also asked my friend Shayna Strype to make animations, as well. To go over some ideas we met up at the Alligator Lounge (yes, that one). I gave her some old hockey magazines and she shot the animations at Mono No Aware on the Oxberry (a downshooter used for traditional animations).”
No one gets concussed while staring doe-eyed at their opponent/secret lover, but it’s still certainly worth a watch. Check it out below.
