Los Angeles Featuring Blank Frank – “His hard”

Blank Frank – His hard from math tinder on Vimeo.

We recently posted a great track by +1, Message=Message. Soon after, we struck up a new friendship with the creators who call themselves Los Angeles. They’re a collective of multidisciplinary artists from, well, L.A. They directed us to another song with a video that captivated us immediately.

“His hard” is full proof that DIY is not dead. The song, featuring the frenetic Blank Frank, is a low-fi piece of darkwave electronica reminiscent of early Fischerspooner. The video shows Blank Frank wandering the streets of L.A., dancing with quite a fondness for his junk, and riding the subway wearing a ball gag.  His shirt reads MY OTHER CAR IS A FIST.  There are many masks as well (more on that later). He flails, looking for something that perhaps only the key he wears around his neck can find. There is a moment when Frank breaks from dancing to check his texts and take a smoke break, “I take my pill, indulgently” he sings. Even seekers need a time out, it suggests. Maybe it’s not supposed to be cheeky, but it comes across with a wink to me. The video is hard to decode, so I don’t try to – it’s fun to watch and a pleasure to see a group of legitimate freaks come together to make something pretty special. It’s a refreshing piece of art which captivates me, moves me personally, and converges and connects with my own experiences.  We already want more from Los Angeles. Their throw it to the wind/on the fire aesthetic has us in their claws.

A few days after I started watching the video on repeat, Andrew Matson from the Seattle Times published a piece on NPR’s music blog which had me paying closer attention to the masks worn throughout the “His hard” video (all constructed by Blank Frank). “Musicians And Their Masks” is a fascinating piece which explores performers and their fascination with obscuring their image, personality or identities. He writes about why artists might want to conceal their faces, and interviews mask and headdress makers about their inspiration.  We recommend you take a look – it’s great.

We’d love to hear what you think about the video.   I love the track on its own as well, so do yourself the favor of downloading it too. We’ll be looking closely at their associated label, Mountain Fighting Records to see what else they’ve got up their sleeves.