Drakulas, the art-rock quartet from Austin, TX, have shared their music video for Fashion Forward, a no wave’d-out anthem extolling the rise of a cult fashionista. Directed by Vanessa Pla and shot on 16mm, Fashion Forward was shot in a space next to an adult video store on the outskirts of Austin, TX on a Sunday and is a hat tip to the short films of Kenneth Anger and Andy Warhol. Fashion Forward is the first single lifted from the band’s forthcoming Stuart Sikes (The White Stripes, Rocket From The Crypt)-produced full-length album that will be released via Dine Alone Records next year. Check out the video clip via YouTube below.
“We kind of went down a hole of experimental short films to grab ideas from,“ says the band of the video’s inspiration. “In the concept of our new record, the songs are stories that cross between an arcade/porno theater and a hip art gallery run by an ambitious occultist. Fashion Forward focuses on a Factory style cult leader throwing a decadent drug-fueled party that is a preamble to a ritual; many rituals involve sex and substance.”
A sonic marriage of proto-punk, garage, 1980’s synth and new wave with lyrical content to match, Drakulas are a concept band donning black turtlenecks & medallions who exist in a fictionalized, late-‘70s metropolis soundtracked by drugs, pornography, video games, nightclubs, art movements and a little bit of a occult esoterica to spare.
Formed by Mike Wiebe and Rob Marchant of the Riverboat Gamblers and Zach Blair of Rise Against as a fully formed art project to explore new, dark avenues and be set apart from other projects, the band quickly went from a diversion to a full-time endeavor by touring, making videos and cultivating acolytes around the globe.
After the OWOWOWOW 7-inch release and ‘Raw Wave’ full-length debut, Drakulas will release their brand new full-length album via Dine Alone Records next year.
