Barra Head : "Undermine" from Undermine b/w Gradiska 7"
Shot by Lucas Swenninger and Ricco Højland Hansen
Directed and Edited by Ricco Højland Hansen
Peace out!
Go Get Beat Up. Get in the fight. Don’t look back. Forget your job, forget your money, forget your status. Something much more important is at stake. Barra Head has got something at stake.
What is Barra Head? Barra Head is what happens when drummer Jakob Hvitnov, guitarist and singer Mikkel Jes Hansen and bassist Arvid Gregersen get together. Half a disciplined dance, half a raging battle between instruments. Barra Head is throwing oneself head over heels into endless touring and troublesome recording projects. Barra Head is questioning the given, challenging existing structures. Barra Head is taking the beatings that may follow.
Go Get Beat Up is Barra Head’s third album. They’ve found a more melodic and immediate form but have managed to maintain their distinct expression. The band has always been an exciting acquaintance, both musically and lyrically, and that has not changed on this record. Each track is served cool, dry and tight. They won’t bring you easy answers or simple slogans, but prefer to ask questions and describe the complex world they exist in. These are not the kind of tunes you’ll be humming along to in your local super market, but these are songs that catch hold of you if you let them.
Barra Head is a hardworking band that has played over 250 shows throughout Europe since the release of their 2001 debut Songs and Departures. Their touring has brought them through 18 countries, among them the civil war-ridden former Yugoslavia. Experiences that have served as inspiration to some of the songs of the album. Songs that deal with the
frustrations of the modern world. Take for example the track ‘Some Wars’ that deals with paranoia in a terror-stricken time, or ‘Common Ground’ that deals with the conflict of the now torn-down squatted house, Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen.
Barra Head have always done everything – composition, mixing, mastering – themselves, but with the new album they wanted to focus on their music alone. Hence, production was put into the hands of a list of very capable gentlemen. Go Get Beat Up was recorded by American indie legend Tim O’Heir (producer of Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh, Hole, etc.), mixed by J. Robbins whose work includes Jawbox, Dismemberment Plan and Against Me! Finally, the album was mastered by Alan Douches whose hands also finalised such diverse acts as LCD Soundsystem, Converge and Low. It would be only fair to say the band is in good company on this album.
The new album will be released January 28 by Play/Rec in all of Europe. The band is eager to throw themselves in the fight once more. Go Get Beat Up.
DISCOGRAPHY
BARRA HEAD - "Go Get Beat Up" [cd][lp], Play/Rec 27.
1 Some Wars
2 Common Ground
3 From Hope Comes Doubt
4 Undermine
5 Somebody's Floor
6 Gradiska
7 Legitimate
8 Iron To Skin
9 Idiot On Treadmill
10 Accept The Risk
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