A Place to Bury Strangers have made a good name for themselves by channeling the aloof nihilism of the Jesus and Mary Chain and the paralyzingly loud concert experience of Dinosaur Jr. This sullen wall-of-sound approach tends to get them lumped in with neo-goth and nu-gaze, and not without justification, but while their early efforts did indeed sound like the derivative works of angsty trenchcoat mafiosi, their transition over the course of their four albums, from their 2007 self-titled debut to last year’s Transfixiation, show a band with much more up its collective sleeve than mere homage. Compare the definitive early track “To Fix the Gash In Your Head” to the more recent single “Straight”; the noisy guitar washes, (Peter) Hook-y bass lines and ear-stabbing synths are constants, but with every subsequent release the band becomes capable of saying exponentially more with those elements, and the albums stand more on their own merits rather than seeming like mere requisite adjuncts to their concerts, which have always been an electrifying, immersive experience.
 

 
Discussions of the band tend to revolve around guitarist Oliver Ackermann, who’s found success as founder/builder of the boutique effects pedal company Death By Audio—yeah, he’s one of the many player/effects builders whose existence Kirk Hammett recently handwaved, as if Metallica needed another asshole—and who turned the street-level presence of his Brooklyn warehouse into what became a legendary music venue also called Death By Audio, sadly now defunct. But today we’re here to talk about the band’s bass player, Dion Lunadon, who just released his first solo 7”, “Com/Broke.” Lunadon (née Palmer) had a robust career in his native New Zealand prior to his 2010 initiation into APTBS, most notably with garage rockers The D4. This new solo single was created in a “creative spasm” during a break in APTBS’ touring schedule, in which he claims he wrote and recorded about fifty songs. Stereogum  compared the track to Toy Love and The Gun Club, and yeah, while it retains his band’s mope-rock worldview (“I’ve got no reason to hold on”) and thoroughly noisy mesmeric ambience, it’s a pretty straightforward and vigorous rocker with none of APTBS’ gothic trappings.

It’s DM’s pleasure today to debut the song’s video, about which Lunadon had this to say:

I came up with the concept for the video in December. My idea was to put something action packed together that moved at pace with the music. Lots of action. When looking for the right director I was suggested Ryan Ohm.  Talking with him I felt he got the idea and concept about what I wanted to achieve. The story revolves around the main character “V”. He is in a car crash and dies. His ghost is in some sort of hell although he doesn’t realize it. He gets dragged into a den of debauchery. He realizes hes surrounded by monsters, legs it, only to get accosted by Satan himself and thrown into the fires of hell.

 
BONUS! Here’s A Place To Bury Strangers live on Seattle Public Radio’s KEXP.