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Music

PREMIERE: Here's PAPA's Strange New Video for "Hold On"

The LA-based duo return with a killer new song and a video that proves pale squid shrugs and fish eyes are so hot right now.

Some things worth noticing up top:

1. That bass line. Holy funk.

2. Singer/drummer Darren Weiss' bendy-ass neck in the first few seconds. Does your chiropractor know you can do that?

3. The guitarist appears to have skinned Pepé Le Pew and turned him into a hat. NO PEPÉ!!

4. Directed by Taylor Bonin, this video includes some naked people in powder paint, sets upon sets of speaker stacks made of cardboard boxes, and apparently the new chic accessory is anything that once swam in the ocean. You simply must get a squid shrug in a delicious shade of pale. It's extremely now.

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It's been a minute since we skyped with PAPA to ask them such pertinent questions as "Age / Sex / Location?" and in the interim they've been very busy touring with the likes of Cold War Kids, Girls, Handsome Furs, and most recently handpicked by Florence and The Machine. This new song—their first since the 2013 debut Tender Madness—works a slick groove, a kind of halfway house between early Virgins and Fool's Gold. Here's what Weiss had to say about the whole shebang:

"Without really meaning to, our video turned out like some kind of vintage horror film, doing its best to look futuristic. And even though it was unintentional, I think it compliments the music even more than we had intended. There's a lot in the song about the dread to be modern, or rather to fit in to contemporary culture. The only thing creepier than current pop culture to me, is trying to squeeze yourself into it. So even though the video ended up being more nightmarish than intended, I think it really gets the point across.

"The song itself is a protest. The energy and rhythm we set to the lyrics are the antidote to all the noise that makes us want to hold on in the first place."

The boys have been busy working on a new record with producer Shawn Everett (Weezer, Julian Casablancas and the Voidz), but until that drops, check out their new video below: