half-alive

One Liner: Dance-pop with rad choreography

Wikipedia Genre: Indie pop, pop, alternative rock, dance-pop, electronic rock, electropop

Home: Long Beach, CA

Poster Position: Level 3 (11) 
Weekend One Only.
Friday.

Thoughts:  Remember that AJR band? I do not like that band - they very much annoyed me when they were getting lots of radio play a year or three ago. Well, this band reminds me of that. Which is too bad, because a young person in my office specifically brought them up as a "great rock band" right when the schedule came out. So, in my mind ever since then, I'd had a "great rock band" waiting for me to check out on the poster. This is much more pop and dance-forward than anything I would really consider to be rock. It is three guys, and I am shocked that they are listed as lead singer, drummer, and bassist. I honestly did not think that a drummer was being used anywhere on this album - just sounds like a machine.

Their big hit popped out in 2018, as a single accompanied by a music video that caught a lot of people's attention. "The video attracted attention for its choreography and cinematography, done by lead singer Josh Taylor and JA Collective, and received positive reviews from publications including Alternative Press and Rock Sound, the former calling the cinematography "first-class" and the latter calling the band "so multi-talented"." All of the attention led to a real record deal, a tour, and recording of new music. This is that single - "Still Feel" - with 131.6 million streams.

And 73 million views for that video, so its definitely a thing.  Totally badass choreography.  100%.  I want a deep dive on how many takes that took to nail, because they freaking nailed it.  The song is good-not-great but the video is amazing.  By the way, that location, with all of the square lighted tiles, was the Batcave for the Christopher Nolan movies.

When the original two members first got together, they launched an ambitious project to create fifty songs together and "Still Feel" was one of those 50.  But according to a video I just watched, it was an entirely different style of song originally.  Their first EP was in 2017, featuring three of those songs, but pretty much this same sound.  First album was 2019's Now, Not Yet, which featured the big hit but didn't repurpose those EP songs.  2022 saw the oddly named Give Me Your Shoulders, Pt. 1 as well as Conditions of a Punk, which repeated the songs from the Pt. 1 album.  The top track from those 2022 albums was "What's Wrong," with 19.1 million streams.

More great choreography, and another okay song.  I really love when they do the dance moves where the guys get tangled together by the arms and move as a writhing unit.  Looks super cool!

There is also a Tiny Desk show, pre-pandemic.

His falsetto is so effortless - he just jumps up into that register at will and without any seeming difficulty.  I like that they brought the dancers along even for the Tiny Desk, although their "reading and Rubics" performance is a little too cute for me.  The sounds in "Still Alive" are really slick - that slick bass and the 70's squiggles on the guitar are cool.  But that third song, when they do the dancing, is for sure the worst of the three tunes they play.

Curious if they'll do all of the dancing stuff on stage at the Fest, or if this is more something they just save for their videos.  I just watched a Kimmel appearance, and it appears they do keep the dancing going.  Might be a fun show to see live.