by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Bat Zuppel are a Pittsburgh treasure, one of those local bands that everyone in the region knows should be making noise on a national level. The quartet released their most recent album MIRROR/RORRIM back in November via Crafted Sounds (The Zells, Spooled Up, EyeBawl), a record that doubled down on the things that make them unique, a blistering hybrid of noise rock, slacker punk, and garage psych. Everything is wrapped in the framework of an indie rock band, but there is a constant artistic streak burning at the core of each twitchy and exuberant song.
“Suspicion,” the album’s centerpiece already had a cinematic quality of sorts, but their new video takes the song’s warped twang and runs with it. Shot on a farm in rural Pennsylvania with director Ben Hammock, the band play a gang of cowboys just moseying about, with one cowboy’s mind fixated on past memories. As we see visions of “her” we’re lead to believe his visions are of a love lost, materializing her vision wherever he goes. It borders on tragic at times but the memories feel pure and joyous, a look back at the good times. Oh, and there’s an enormous guitar solo played in a field… which is to say, you had us at enormous guitar solo played in a field.