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Music

Synthpop Eccentrics Surrender the Spirit Go Manson Family in Their "Control" Video

The group gets stabby to the sweetest pop sounds.

Surrender the Spirit is Jonathan Rauberts and Kristen Sonntag. They are happily married, have a beautiful baby, and are creepy as fuck. Marriage can engender an “us versus them” attitude where everyone who is not family can safely be qualified as “in the way meat.” This can be a solid attitude both for the upcoming apocalyptic hellscape and for making pop music. Pop music, at it’s best, is a steely blade, my friend. Surrender the Spirit, through their patented brand of electro-pop, provide a TV on the Radio/Abba influenced summer sheen for darker explorations of control and failure. And their new video is a Manson Family mash note where Sonntag and live band member, Karen Paris, act out some Real Housewives of Tartarus psychodrama with a carving knife. It was inspired by the Manson girls' game of "creepy crawly,” where they ladies would sneak around in people’s homes while they were still there and asleep. Stabbings happen. Literal sparks fly. The ladies stare at the camera and leave the scene of the crime, hand-in-hand. Johnny (who made the video “soup to nuts”) is never seen, though his fate is strongly implied. It’s all very romantic.

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Surrender the Spirit have an EP, Premonition, with tracks mixed by both Jorge Elbrecht (Lansing-Dreiden) and Kurt Feldman (Ice Choir, Pains of Being Pure at Heart) coming out on September 25. Check out the video for "Control" below and start a family of your own.

Zachary Lipez is getting ready for helter skelter. Follow him on Twitter.