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Music

Let LA Spazzy Psych-heads Jerkagram Jerk You Into Oblivion With “Cloud Builder”

The riff-raging twin bro’ duo press the VCR button on their warped new video.

Photo by Shannon Corr

Telegram, shmellagram. Jerkagram is the shit—the post-rock-ambient, prog-tasty, metal-centric riff ragers from Los Angeles that is, and the only band we know of made up of a couple of pesky fraternal twin punks. The skinny-assed brothers Gaines—drums-bashing vocalist Brent and guitarist-slash-singer Derek—first wrought havoc in Brooklyn’s DIY deathtraps with the pedal-hopping, Pelican-style heaviosity of 2014’s Let’s Talk About Us before jettisoning NYC for sun-drenched LA.

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That move turned out to be a good one. Jerkagram hooked up with recorder extraordinaire Toshi Kasai (Melvins, Big Business) and got weirder, gnarlier, dreamier, and knottier with help from Hannibal Montana’s Lucas Brode on bass. That vision is crystallized on the recently-dropped Outer Limbs, a razor sharp eight-song beast that melds the influence of the Melvins’ classic Stoner Witch with Don Caballero-like math-jazz and Tweak Bird-esque stoner metal, dousing it all in wads of guitar looping'n’noodling fuckery.

Just like the dizzying and twitchy textured sonics of Outer Limbs, the boys in Jerkagram pile on the glitch-heavy and seizure-inducing effects in the video for the psychedelic spazz attack of standout track “Cloud Builder.”

Jerkagram gave us the lowdown on both the song and the video. “Cloud Builder is a re-interpretation of a song we wrote a few years ago. The initial riffs in the beginning were built on over time, and it was originally instrumental until we wrote the chorus. Our music has an inherent theme of transformation and “Cloud Builder” lyrically supports that: i.e. in order to build we must have a certain trust in what we can't control. It's definitely the poppiest-sounding tune on the album."

And what about the trippy new video?

"We got introduced to Logan Owlbeemoth, who is part of a creative project called TACHYONS+ which creates really cool video art. Derek and I filmed each other doing some dumb stuff and Logan modulated it together with obscure VHS tape footage and pulsed it to the music. It's a transient vibe and a lot of work was put into it."

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Catch Jerkagram on tour here:

MARCH

3 - Thursday - Phoenix, AZ @ Trunk Space
4 - Friday - El Paso, TX @ Bowie Feathers
5 - Saturday - San Antonio, TX @ Imagine Books & Records
6 - Sunday - Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas
7 - Monday - Houston, TX @ The Satellite
8 - Tuesday - New Orleans, LA @ Saturn Bar
9 - Wednesday - Atlanta, GA @ The Drunken Unicorn
10 - Thursday - Columbia, SC @ New Brookland Tavern
11 - Friday - Raleigh, NC @ Slim's
12 - Saturday - Washington DC @ Safari
13 - Sunday - Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie
14 - Monday - OFF
15 - Tuesday - Brooklyn, NY @ Shea Stadium
16 - Wednesday - New Haven, CT @ BAR
17 - Thursday - Boston, MA @ O’Briens
18 - Friday - Providence, RI @ Funky Jungle
19 - Saturday - Lower New Hampshire / Western MA / Upstate NY @ TBA
20 - Sunday - Burlington, VT @ The Monkey House
21 - Monday - Montreal, QC @ L’Esco
22 - Tuesday - OFF
23 - Wednesday - Toronto, ON @ the Handlebar
24 - Thursday - Hamilton, ON @ This Ain’t Hollywood (93.3 CFMU Fundraiser)
25 - Friday - Pittsburgh, PA @ Gooski’s
26 - Saturday - Louisville, KY - @ Mag Bar
27 - Sunday - St. Louis, MO @ Foam
28 - Monday - Chicago, IL @ The Burlington
29 - Tuesday - Milwaukee, WI @ The High Dive
30 - Wednesday - Minneapolis, MN @ The Nicollet
31 - Thursday - OFF

APRIL

1 - Friday - Kansas City, MO - Mini Bar
2 - Saturday - Lincoln, NE @ Zoo Bar
3 - Sunday - Denver, CO @ 7th Circle
4 - Monday - OFF
5 - Tuesday - Boise, ID @ Neurolux
6 - Wednesday - Portland, OR @ High Water Mark
7 - Thursday - Seattle, WA @ Substation
8 - Friday - Bellingham, WA @ Waterfront Seafood
9 - Saturday - Olympia, WA @ The House of Sass (house show)
10 - Sunday - Vancouver, BC @ LanaLou's
11 - Monday - OFF
12 - Tuesday - Tacoma, WA @ Half Pint
13 - Wednesday - Eugene, OR @ Wandering Goat
14 - Thursday - Sacramento, CA @ Cafe Colonial
15 - Friday - Oakland, CA @ Golden Bull
16 - Saturday - Los Angeles, CA @ TBA