Here it is, folks, the new video from RVA noise-rock auteurs Hex Machine! Yes, it’s true–a few months ago, I presented you guys with a new Hex Machine video that was basically just an album cover floating overtop of an abstract background while a song plays. And I’m not apologizing for that, either, because the song was just that good! But this is the real thing–an honest-to-goodness video for “Chub,” the newest single from Hex Machine’s second full-length album, Fixator, which came out this week on Learning Curve Records. Hex Machine leader Trevere Thomas and his current crew of road warriors may start this track with a wall of screeching noise, but there’s a real melodic sensibility lurking beneath the distortion and headbang-worthy riffs, as you’ll see on “Chub”‘s chorus.
What’s even cooler about all this is the video, directed by Philip Shive of the mysterious Voice Of Pizza, which really does look like the sort of clip that an off-kilter noisy alt-rock band would make back in the early 90s. It mixes what appears to be found footage from 30 to 40 years ago of all kinds of random stuff–a skipping businessman, little league baseball players, a dramatization of a surgical procedure–and some serious film distress that results in constant visual interference falling across the screen. I can’t really describe it any better than that, but it’s really cool and looks like the sort of video that Barkmarket used to foist upon an unprepared audience during the last hour of Headbanger’s Ball. Barkmarket mixed with the Jesus Lizard isn’t a bad musical reference for Hex Machine either, and it’s great that they’re bringing that sound to the RVA music scene–we could always use more loud, weird rock n’ roll! Check out the video, and pick up a copy of the new Hex Machine album, Fixator, available online and in fine local record shops now!
