Most break-up songs do not also threaten the entire planet. “Slam Hunk” is not most break-up songs. We are thrilled to be premiering the video for the second single from Teenage Bees, an industrial-pop number narrated by the rogue planet of Lars von Trier’s Melancholia as it bears down on Earth, having what sounds like the time of its life on the way down. Yeah, a little bit different to the usual!
The song has been out since 12th June, and it refuses to do anything by halves. It’s crunchy, bassy and forboding, before an uplifting chorus sucks you in. From there on, it’s a wild ride. Nine Inch Nails menace runs underneath it all, and a closing line (“might be best not to want, if you don’t want me”) arrives more as a threat than a sentiment.
The clip was made with Brisbane video artist Hamish Hill (@substation.club). It runs on neon, grain and analogue warmth before stitching in B-roll pulled straight from PS1, N64 and PS2 games, a fittingly nostalgic playground for a band of unrepentant video game obsessives. Green screen performance shots round it out, and bandmate Jeremy Hunter cut the whole thing into something that feels equal parts dancefloor and dead arcade.
This song is a load of fun about the end of everything, and that tension is the entire point. Teenage Bees have billed themselves as Brisbane’s most unserious serious band, and “Slam Hunk” is the evidence: ordinary destruction staged on a mythic scale, played with a wink.
The band features former members of Hungry Kids of Hungary, Babaganouj and Inland Sea, veterans of Brisbane’s 2010s indie scene now trading guitars for synths, ’90s video game textures and a mood board that stretches from LCD Soundsystem to Beck. Years of songwriting sit beneath the chaos, which is precisely why a track about planetary annihilation still knows exactly where to put the hook.
The band mark the release with an all-ages headline launch show at Season Three in Woolloongabba on Friday, 17th July (8 pm AEST), with Pilot Crisis and Stjep along for the ride. Tickets are on sale now: click HERE. Get along if you can and support live music.
“Slam Hunk” is out now on all major streaming platforms.
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