Special Interest Sign to Rough Trade, Share “Street Pulse Beat” Video

Vocalist and frontperson Alli Logout also shared a manifesto to go with the new visual.  
Special Interest Sign to Rough Trade, Share “Street Pulse Beat” Video

Vocalist and frontperson Alli Logout also shared a manifesto to go with the new visual.  

Words: Margaret Farrell

photo by Jess Garten

June 18, 2021

A year ago, New Orleans punk group Special Interest released their great sophomore album The Passion Of, and today the group is celebrating the anniversary by sharing the video for “Street Pulse Beat” and revealing they’ve signed to Rough Trade Records.

The video for “Street Pulse Beat” opens with a spoken-word bit. “Who knew the revolution was to start in your bedroom. Next to a mason jar full of piss and a pile of zines,” one part proclaims. What follows is a captivating scene of love and war. A home of artists, friends, and lovers, where they create and hold space for each other, is raided by authorities. But before the group makes their getaway they have to erase any trace of themselves and anyone who they’ve captured.

Frontperson and vocalist Alli Logout, who directed the visual, also shared a manifesto called “N this place { A Note On The Visual Conspiracy of Street Pulse Beat }.” Watch the video below, and read on for Logout’s words.

What you see N this place is possibility. This possibility is grounded in rejection. The rejection of the recuperation of Black culture, the rejection of the homogenizing force of all institutions, the rejection of individualism and most importantly the rejection of peace. Here in this realm, The conspiracy lies in the halls and the sheets and in the stomach of a laugh you feel deep in your bones. We have found that grief never gets easier; it just is. We are holding it all. All at once.

What you see N this place is love. A love that is gentle and jarring sprouting from the tears that nourish the ground where one’s heart has been laid to rest. A love coming from a place where one never thought love would happen again. Somehow in that way only WE can, we find it over again here in this place. Sometimes it is messy and sometimes it is selfish and sometimes it is even horrid. But even so in this place we believe in a love that delves deeper into our fears and desires, remembering we are soft, beautiful and young as night. A love that bears witness to our wonder, our truths, and our capacity to change. We go forward, not alone but Together, with love.

What you see N this place is a metaphor, what you see N this place is a legacy, what you see N this place is our lives. We are not fated to wither in the margins we are pushed into. We will see the earth before the world ends. We are thriving, joyously, loud in both our triumph and our lamentation. We celebrate through this urgent form of cinema, turning away from what is seen towards what is felt. This conspiracy was made possible only through the collaboration of the artists seen on screen. No role was bigger nor smaller than the other; this conspiracy is collectively all of ours. It was shot in historic punk house, Nowe Miasto. Nowe was around for over a decade and housed many Black artists and accomplices until a fire marshal shut it down in 2014. We gutted it, cleaned it and built every set from scratch. We made this together, we talked it out, this need for rupture, our unfaltering desire to escape. So join us and bask in the mundanity of the day for we know all too well yesterday’s crisis is always just tomorrow’s carry…