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Music

The Sidekicks' New Video Will Make You Dance, Even if They Don't Feel Like It

Watch "Don't Feel Like Dancing," from their new album 'Happiness Hours.'

The evolution of The Sidekicks is one that most bands struggle to pull off. Started by four high school friends back in 2006, the Cleveland band wasted little time dashing off raucous pop-punk songs, the kind that overflow with the boundless energy only teenagers can muster. But as the years wore on, The Sidekicks stopped being concerned with how quickly they could rush through their riffs, taking the time to craft the best pop songs they could muster.

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While most high school bands struggle to make it past graduation, The Sidekicks excelled once they were outside of those confines. Not only did they survive any growing pains, they shook off their former sound and began forging something that was a more revved up take on Elvis Costello songs. 2012’s Awkward Breeds saw them embrace a bit of vintage soul music, and 2015’s Runners In The Nerved World cemented their place as a band punks still love, even if they’re no longer a punk band.

The video for “Don’t Feel Like Dancing” is a prime example of what The Sidekicks achieve on their fifth album, Happiness Hours. The song starts off like a downtrodden ballad, with vocalist Steve Ciolek backed solely by an acoustic guitar and warmblingly plaintive. But when “Don’t Feel Like Dancing” finally bursts open about a minute in, the band’s bouncing major chords reframe Ciolek’s claims. The video matches the song’s upward trajectory and general theme about walking the tightrope between nostalgia for your past and living in the present moment. At times, Ciolek is decked out in full clown makeup, and at others, he’s content to carry around the parts of his past self that still suit him and don’t look too ridiculous.

In a way, the video for “Don’t Feel Like Dancing” speaks to what The Sidekicks have created over the past decade. The band is indebted to their past, but they don’t feel the need to be pretending they’re those same high school kids who just want to write punk bangers. That’ll always be part of them, and it’s that spirit that informs their current take on pop music, but as “Don’t Feel Like Dancing” shows, it’d be much more embarrassing if they tried to step back into those shoes.

Happiness Hours is out on May 18 from Epitaph Records. Pre-order the record here.