Memba Vids 2016 #4: Teen Suicide “Bright Blue Pickup Truck”

We notice some commonality flowing through the 4 videos for Teen Suicide’s 2016 double-LP. For starters, 3 of them resemble trailers for imaginary Sundance mumblecore.

“Bright Blue Pickup Truck” caught our attention first, and we’re surprised it didn’t appear in more “Best of 2016” lists, but then again we might just be suckers for this particular style: Coming-of-age elements, young womanhood, a desire to break away from the suburbs, wanting more out of life. It reminds us of the first film we ever saw at Sundance, Laurel Nakadate’s Stay The Same Never Change (which is still unreleased in any commercial form, although the trailer is still on Youtube, embedded below).

We’re also suckers for cigarette smoking in videos (even though we’re non-smokers, but it just looks so friggin’ cool). The only Teen Suicide video from 2016 with no smoking shows a dude getting pelted with a hundred empty Marlboro packs. We also love the religious imagery in “The Big Joyous Celebration” (embedded below) and the superfluously intense guitar almost-smash in “Alex.” The album is good too, but they deserve credit for what might have been the most solid run of music videos from any band this year.