When Impose first covered PWR BTTM’s “Ugly Cherries,” Spencer Davis wrote, “To live while queer is to find oneself subjected to violence—both political and physical—in every realm of life. Queer lives also encompass friendships, loves, trips to the grocery store, college graduations, and other trivial miracles whose interweaving forms the tapestry of life.” These dualities are now further explored in the Upstate New York duo’s new video for their debut LP’s title track, featuring Ben Hopkins and co-created with Chris Daly (of Salvation Recording Co.).
As Hopkins told The Fader,
“I’ve set my ‘best self,’ aka me in crazy monster drag, against my ‘worst self,’ aka me miserably staring at my cellphone alone in my apartment, in an attempt to take stock of my whole self. All of the behaviors within the video are my own, and in staging them side by side I’m trying to take ownership of the good, bad, weird, and fabulous parts of my personality.”
As such, we watch one version of Hopkins play video games while another, clad in a Girl Scout vest, turtleneck, and green glitter (with a piece of kale tucked under a baseball cap) tells us, “My girl, gets scared, can’t take him anywhere.” In the final few shots, Hopkins and Liv Bruce drive the song to its climax (“He’s alright!!!!”) decked out in some seriously cool hot pink jumpsuits and googly eyes.
Ugly Cherries is out September 18 via Miscreant Records and Father/Daughter Records. Pre-order here.
