Shmutz's First Music Video Will Make You Want to Loosen Your Collar

I saw a dead body last week, biking back from Jacob Riis, barley covered by two NYPD officers holding a deep blue tarp. "Let It Rot" I thought.

Full disclosure: Shmutz frontman, Josh Mosh and I used to work at VICE together. Shmutz drummer Vinny Divito directed this video and Nick Evans shot it. We all met at Hampshire College. After playing guitar in the band they asked me to make my acting debut in their first music video. Naturally Noisey had me to write this premiere—not least of all because I sit right in front of them.

Flashback to one year ago. I'm standing on a hill in South Jersey, shirtless, with a rope around my neck. Told to embody the gut-wrenching pathos of a breakup's wake, I spent the entire day chasing a lover's shadow, leaving me in the end with my own failed suicide as the only token of love's destructive cycles.

The first line of "Let It Rot," the premiere track of Shmutz's forthcoming EP (featuring Michelle Rose), sets the tone for it's visual component: "Nothing comes easily but misery." A mix of resignation and power, the video enters itself with the dual catharsis of shedding and cleansing.

And it continues this thread (both literally and figuratively) through a fragmented narrative of desire and loss, heartache and fulfillment, denial and betrayal. The pop progression and catchy tune are meant to serve as a hopeful counterpoint, the absurdity of writing pop music about painful subjects meant to evoke a certain sardonic comedy.

Who wins, in the end? Who knows. And ultimately, does anyone care? The answer is yes, Shmutz cares. They care a lot.

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