So many questions. So, so many questions the new video from New Zealand avant black metal noiseniks Tuscoma brings to mind. We won’t bore you with all of them, but the title of the track accompanying said video, “The Importance of Being Vogue,” is certainly obtuse. Is it an in-joke, a reference to Vogue magazine or just a bunch of words put together to give the song a title? Listening to its relentless, pulsing throb and semi-shrieked/shouted vocals without the visuals of the video there’s no apparent fashion tie-in/reference—sounds like shoegazey/noisy avant metal. And then there’s the video, directed and edited by bassist Craig Leahy, which features footage of runway models, interspersed with the band performing in a rehearsal room and vocalist guitarist, Kurt Williams, thumbing through The Fashion Book. Drummer Joe Wright seems to be sporting some sort of midriff-bearing tunic (nice bellybutton tatt, dude), while Williams looks like he just stepped out of a Satanic church service. And what’s with the white swan lurking in the background? Some kind of reference’s to Björk’s swan dress?
Probably fitting that the track was taken from the trio’s third album, Gu-cci, which may or may not be another fashion reference. Someone smarter than me, probably knows all the answers. I’m just here for the noise, man. Gu-cci was recorded by Evan Pope at Studio 11b in Mount Maunganui, New Zealand, mixed by Chris Johnson at Electric Bunker in Boston, Massachusetts and mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music in Cornwall-On-Hudson, New York. It’s set for release digitally and on vinyl on June 30 via Landmine Records, a label created by members of Blindfolded And Led To The Woods. Place your preorders here.
Here’s what guitarist/vocalist Kurt Williams had to say about the track:
“‘The Importance of Being Vogue’ is a much needed day-to-day ideology for humanity. Without fashion, who are we? It was the last song written for the album and tied all the fashionable themes together.”
