College rock. It’s a term you don’t hear much anymore, thanks to the advent of “indie” and, of course, the catch-all “alternative.”
Once upon a time, college rock was that holy sound found on campus radio stations, buried in the deep end of the radio dial, where earnest DJs would spin homemade tracks packed with jangly guitars, earnest vocals, and melodic vocal hooks often lovingly buried under four-track production values.
Nashville band The Pressure Kids—who appropriately met in a dorm—have taken those classic college rock tones to high school on their latest track, “Team.” The song’s sweet campus vibes arrive inside a smile-inducing music video that pays homage to the master of teen angst, the late movie director John Hughes.
The clip finds younger versions of the band embarking on a typical day in high school that turns into anything but with the appearance of a mysterious young stranger, reminiscent of The Breakfast Club legend John Bender. What started as just another day turns into the challenge of their young lives: a soccer match against the campus “cool kids.”
“We knew that we wanted to create a storyline-driven music video, and became excited by the idea of flipping the ‘high school nerd gets made over’ cliche on its head a little bit,” the band revealed via email. “We drew directly from our adolescent selves: Zach really did wear eyeliner, Allan loved his Ibanez, Nick ate waffles every day after school, Justin wore out his skater apparel, Katy sported the exact same SNL ‘Lazy Sunday’ t-shirt. Wanting to land somewhere in between Rushmore and Kicking and Screaming, we cast the sweetest young actors as our opponents, playing younger versions of ourselves. In that way, the game represents internal battles brought to life.”
Go “Team”!
