Winstons
There is a perception that the hippest sectors of the east coast consist of artists who are preoccupied with synth-pop fused everything like whatever your favorite new Williamsburg fusion gastro-pub. Longtime Impose readers will no doubt know that this generalization is not true, as time & time again our Brooklyn by Virginia duo of Ben Brock Wilkes & Lou Nutting from Winstons have proved that the rural, rustic Americana primitive spirit of gritty rocking & rolling messy blues can be enjoyed anywhere east, west, north, south & anywhere in between. Having graced us with their exceptional EPs Turpentine & Black Dust & the recent single “Enough“; Winstons’ own Ben & Lou present the world premiere of their Buried Muse video for “Without You”, a single available today from the prestigious Grand Jury Music imprint. Like every offering from the Winstons over the years, their down-home-holistic sound only becomes more seasoned & guaranteed to introduce new generations to styles & sounds that exist far beyond the digital pale.
Presenting a first look at the video for “Without You”, Buried Muse’s visuals captured the Winstons running about Brooklyn streets, to waterfront stare-downs & performance footage taken at a Baby’s All Right show. The weights & measures of being with or without a very special someone are ruminated about through visceral imagery of frenetic jogging from both Ben & Lou that ends with the two discovering their own Americana doppelgangers posted up on a rooftop. From the start of the rambling & rollicking drum & guitar riffs; the two square off as they set out on their own marathon match & meet-up as the song’s romantic fervor propels all the action & emotive ingredients. Winstons’ ballad about commitments to the people, places, desires & everything that drives you is exhibited as a scenic foot race about & around the industrial landscapes of warehouses, breathtaking pier vistas, brownstones, to the bright lit comforts of Baby’s All Right where we see & hear the Winstons in their synergistic element. While witnessing Ben & Lou running about the sidewalks, streets, water-sides & alleys of NYC; Winstons embrace the entirety of their surroundings as one big stage of infinite fascination of insatiable fervor.
Winstons live at Elvis Guesthouse; photographed by Ester Segretto.
Lou Nutting provided the following insights on the song “Without You”:
It’s a love song.
It’s about the struggle between attending to what you know is supposed to matter and what really, truly, matters; efforts towards ascending the arbitrary scaffolding of our modern, currently metropolitan, existence, while they are rendered petty and fleeting by true love, which is in turn at the mercy of the ultimate; This world’s gonna grind my bones, but all my love is yours. There are tiers of importance in an individual life, and the frivolous aspects dealt with most easily and often may accumulate in a distraction that eclipses a more worthy sum of our afforded days.
Winstons at Elvis Guesthouse; photographed by Ester Segretto.
Ben Brock Wilkes shared the following on the video:
Running all-out in January’s frozen-white sun makes for a mood of normalized desperation, of blind momentum. With a jackhammer for a gold pan, wielded proud and manic, swells of murky inertia carry us down-river. It’s easy to get caught in the current. Ever try to swim the Mississippi? Grab a pontoon, it’s the only hope you’ve got. Tread water until it finds you, and when it does, hold on tight. You survive for this thing that frees and floats you—be it a woman, a man, a passion, a flavor, or a sense of self. Without it, you’d be alone. The Buried Muse guys, Sergio and Tony, have a history with skate decks and fisheye lenses, so they were able to capture this feeling in some fun ways. We have a history with that skyline pier. It’s the best ground-floor vista around. Glad that the boats made it in. The video for the b-side of our 7″, Enough, picks up where this one leaves off.
Winstons’ Without You/Enough 7″ is available today from Grand Jury Music.
