Photo by Rider Doolittle
Vundabar have earned quite a following since releasing their sophomore record, Gawk, in 2015. The Boston outfit have found themselves performing with the likes of PWR BTTM, Diarrhea Planet, and Alex G, picking up more and more fans along the way. With cult notoriety now at a peak in their hometown, the band is looking to spread their influence by rereleasing Gawk on March 10th.
Those who already own the album still might want to get their hands on this reissue, though, as it features a brand new bonus track. “Shuffle” comes through with creepy distortion, a reflection of the poisonous narcissism at the song’s core. In a press release, Vocalist/guitarist Brandon Hagen described the thrust of the song:
“I originally wrote this song to reflect on the toxic nature of communication when it reduces to an intermediary for self obsession. The narrator and the instrumentation both swaggering and arrogant, it brings us into the mind of one willing to use anything as a mirror. The lengths such a person would stretch to catch their reflection in the gleam of another’s eye is truly terrifying, as is the audacity to hold that entitle. Listening back to the song I can’t help but see one quaffed man of recent notoriety at the center of it. With a chorus like ‘I just want to hear my own voice,’ how couldn’t he be?”
While all proceeds from digital sales of “Shuffle” will be donated to Planned Parenthood, the track comes to us today via the above video. Scripted by Hagen and directed by George Watts (Holler Productions), the clip reflects the song’s “interpersonal self-infatuation” in the “protagonist’s “exploits and culminates in his death at the hand of an equally infatuated driver. It was meant to show how singularities exist within pluralities or how someone can die trying to bring flowers to their own reflection.”
Purchase the reissue of Gawk and “Shuffle” here.
