Love is an integral part of pop music; as is sadness. Nick Hornby, through the visceral prose of his character Rob Gordon in High Fidelity*, once questioned, “Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?” And to this day it’s still a question that is damn near unanswerable.
This is the kind of melodrama that Prints Familiar revel in. They are a Sydney four-piece who dabble in indie rock laced with post-punk vocals, ala Interpol, bright Brit-pop guitars and melodies a little reminiscent of Aussie heroes Skyhooks. What is most striking about the band however is their ability to weave a tale with the prowess of seasoned wordsmiths – something they wasted no time in boasting with the clip for their debut single, Screenshots.
Pineapple pets, chocolate labradors and projectile spitting lads collate to tell the best love story of the year so far in the wonderful debut video from Prints Familiar – Screenshot.
Shot in the band’s backyard, St. Peters and Marrickville in Sydney’s inner-west, the video for Screenshot tells a tale of love, delusion, subcultural tension, despair and heartbreak. The clip features the band’s own guitarist Bobby May as he takes a stroll to the shops to pick up a pineapple. Of course, he bumps into a pretty girl (and awesome dog) on the way; but his courting is interrupted by a bunch of hooligans tearing down the street in a silver Ford Falcon, hurling obscenities and deflating the chances of what was sure to be a magical moment between two young lovers.
In a fit of distress Bobby (while seemingly in a punch drunk love daze) buys a pineapple from good ol’ St. Peters Fruit World, ties it to a leash and takes it for a walk when he again sees his muse (and her awesome dog) across the street. While on his way to finally say g’day, the hooligans appear in their silver Falcon and run over the pineapple – which promptly turns into a Fruit Rollup. The dog eats it.
And that, my friends, is how you impress a girl.
But seriously, the whole thing is damn well shot and expertly directed, with just the right amount of cheese, tongue-in-cheekness, and melodrama to formulate the perfect love story. It’s a fitting accompaniment to a tune that is equally as theatrical, with its baritone vocal, sparkling guitar work and amorous swagger that Screenshot as a whole projects. It’s indie rock straight out of the mid-00’s when everyone was a hopeless romantic and everybody sucked at romance. Maybe people back then should have taken a leaf out of Bobby May’s book.
Print Familiar are gearing up to head on tour, check them out at the following:
5th Feb – The Bearded Lady, Brisbane
11th Feb – The Tote Upstairs, Melbourne
19th Feb – The Lass O’Gowrie, Newcastle
20th Feb – The Botany View Hotel, Sydney
2nd Mar – Rad Bar, Wollongong
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*If you haven’t seen High Fidelity, do yourself a favour.
