EXCLUSIVE Premier: The Kickstand Band (video) "Still Thinking of You Tonight"

The Kickstand Band's guitarist/singer Gordon Smith found out about the inherently stressful challenges of "video shoots" back in 10th grade when he attempted a musical re-imagining Robocop in the gallant role of Don Quixote.   So it's been more than ten years since the songwriter got in front of a camera. He, with Allison Young on bass/vocals and Anthony Kanakri on drums, just got out from in front of microphones in their home recording space - producing their debut full length Puppy Love - love at first listen for anyone inclined to throwback surf-pop boogies with rhythms needling up into the indie-punk speedometers.

Let's not have any grand love stories or windmill-piercing cybornetic police/knights belting ballads, let's keep it simple. One shot. One shot only... with...lots of panning, lots of costume changes......lots of lights... wait... ...lots of bodies bustilng around... ...lots of different instruments... glitter-storm...a duck? The shoot for their single, "Still Thinking Of You Tonight," got unintentionally complicated rather quickly. But basements breed clutter organically, so why fight it?   Smiths' brother was originally going to direct...until he moved toL.A."So, I went out and bought a (relatively) cheap camera and got some editing software and watched a TON of youtube tutorials to learn how to use it," Smith says. "The internet is amazing for that kind of thing."   Our scene: Allison's basement, (also: Kickstand rehearsal HQ), interior, night time? Filmed on the day of Dally in the Alley actually. As our scene of general good time chaos and rock party frivolity passes back and forth and back and forth-again, we sort of crescendo with a gratuitious beercan shotgunning scene. ("How else could we get ten people into our basement for a video shoot?")   Like Robocop of La Mancha, Smith says, this shoot was equally stressful...still enjoyable, though, considering it was a new experience.   "It ain't exactly a pristine, DSLR affair, but I like how we could throw something like this together with some duct tape, a basement and 2 cases of Genesse."   Puppy Love is available now on SubSprawl/Quack Media. Smith said that, firstly, everyone whose heard it has dug it and that's assuring, but that secondly, all the writers out there summing the thing up have actually done an okay job in his eyes.   That's irksome in a somewhat good way. "Maybe I didn't do enough towards providing a good amount of complex-musical-'stuff' for them to sink their teeth into..."   We don't need every album to be Bish Bosch... "Still..." might likely still be stuck in your head after you've long left this blog post...