I’m always looking for the COVID silver linings and I’m picking up that one of them is old school level creativity in music videos – and this week’s example is Please by Present Company. (Extra bonus: their debut album Talking on Couches is releasing today!)
Present Company is a new alternative band. Members include Eddie Chisham (lead vocals, guitar, synth) and Christian Nelson (lead vocals, guitar, synth) and Seth Lemmon (bass). Eddie and Christian are also filmmakers, which explains a lot.
I was just talking to someone the other day about the impact 2020 (COVID, George Floyd, wildfires, murder hornets) will have on music; it’s interesting to see the influence on the Please video. It’s very conceptual about the life of being a box person and the inherent box dangers or running out of power (because box people need power) and the societal dangers of being a box person.
The electronica sound girds the techno-feel of the story of the video. It’s upbeat, with what sounds like hints of The Shins.
Into the mix are great shots of Minneapolis tourist attractions – the Bob Dylan murals downtown, the Prince mural in uptown, the Grain Belt sign and more. It made me so happy and I realized that it was the antidote I needed after a drive through our beloved downtown all boarded up this week. It’s a weird time to be in Minneapolis; somehow this very strange (and I mean that in a good way) video captures images of old Minneapolis and the current civil disquiet.
Mostly Minnesota 