Grapetooth • "Blood"
Chicago can be a particularly rough city to inhabit during the Winter. Days become excruciatingly short, the wind slashes through your face and the cold is unforgiving. Yet for all the bleakness surrounding them, residents still manage to congregate after work in dimly lit apartments to share some cheap beers and a good time.
Grapetooth might have lauded Japan’s Yellow Magic Orchestra as a primary influence, but they embody the Midwest spirit by finding and exuding joy under bitter weather and circumstances. The duo, composed of Clay Frankel and Chris Bailoni, have rapidly become local darlings, managing to pack show after show with people eager to dance and sing along to their synth-heavy music. An impressive feat for a band that formed just two years ago and has only released a handful of singles.
“Blood” is their latest single, accompanied by a video, and it sounds like friends getting together at a house party on an eerie November day with PBR, the proximity of bodies and dancing serving as the only conductors of heat. The video transitions between a foggy day in the desolated outdoors and a reckless rage inside an abandoned loft, encompassing what it feels like to live here when the city is unwelcoming to tourists quite fittingly. With a self-titled debut album in tow via indie-label Polyvinyl Records and a headlining show at Thalia Hall, expect Grapetooth to keep Chicagoans warm through the Winter.
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