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Music

Watch Memory Pills' 'Beauty of the City'

The Auckland band have a sound influenced by the Fall and Siouxsie and the Banshees, and a rhythm section made of meat.

This story originally appeared on Noisey Australia.

Auckland’s Memory Pills first appeared a few months ago with their debut single “Beauty of the City”, a modern day gothic punk rocker that brought to mind the darkness of the Birthday Party and some smokey moodiness. Vamp and vape.

The four piece—Saan Barratt, Dave Khan, Sam Ralston and Matt Short—who have all done time in various New Zealand musical outfits including the Vietnam War, Blood Bags and Raw Nerves, have returned with a video for the track that will be included on their forthcoming EP Train Wrecks In The Night.

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Recorded on a zero budget, the video features a gaggle of mostly non-professional actors, some subtitles and the band playing in their jocks!

We had a chat to Saan to find out more.

Noisey: The video is quite surreal. Who came up with the concept?
Saan Barratt: Geogia Schofield, who shot the video, and I came up with the broad idea and then I ran with it.
I wrote and dressed each character to suit their individual style. With the exception of Hannah Paterson (the girl lying on the leaes) none of them are working actors so I wanted everyone to be as comfortable as possible and I didn't expect them to actually be able to act. Although Ford Jones, the protagonist, actually provide to have some real natural talent.

Was the band's drycleaning not ready in time for the shoot?
We had no money and thought that some sort of uniform would look pretty sweet. Our bassist Matt W. Short dressed up as Tom Cruise one Halloween, so I grabbed some fake Ray Bans and white undies from the $2 shop and got the boys to dress us up like Tom from Risky Business.

The sound has a kind of US 90s feel. Does this reflect the sounds of the band in general?
We're still in our infancy so it's hard for me to comment on our sound but I always thought we sounded like an American band that's heavily influenced by 80s British Gothic post-punk, like Sisters of Mercy, The Fall and Siouxsie and the Banshees. But with a rhythm section made of meat.

‘Train Wrecks In The Night’ will be available later in the year.