When Hideous Sun Demon released ‘Gimmicks’ in April last year, it seemed to come as something as a transition point for the garage-psych crew. While they’d already been toying with glimpses of post-punk on their previous EP Good Time, ‘Gimmicks’ took the nervous energy up a notch - with its hyperactive new-wave pulse beneath a stack of razor-sharp guitar stabs and Vincent Buchanan-Simpson’s motormouth vocals.

A year later they dropped Development Hell, an EP that managed to fuse together each of the band’s conflicting personalities, blending together heaving and atmospheric moments alongside their usual manic garage-rock. But today they’ve come full circle with a brand new clip for ‘Gimmicks’ created by Guy Tyzack, that ties the track’s frenetic stamina back to the band’s most haphazard tendencies.

Like the title suggests, the clip celebrates and exaggerates the grosser sides of the music biz, as the band lean into whatever novelty they can find to make a sale. With its mash-up of sleazy business men, elaborate props and jumbo cups of coffee, the final outcome is pretty grotesque but just as fun.

To get the full insight, Vin has shared a few thoughts with us:

This is our new video. It was gonna be done ages ago but naturally COVID screwed us around. The theme of the video is us trying to con people into buying this useless product. I mean that’s probably self explanatory but there you go, I explained it anyway. I call it the Ultra Convenient Utility Maximiser. Whilst it looks incredibly slick and professionally made, it's actually just a piece of a kids toy stuck onto part of a meat grinder. Jake and I stuck it together with putty, string and hot glue. Then we spray painted it. I reckon it's the peak of our creative lives, and it might be fair to say that all our previous artistic endeavours have simply been a warmup to us presenting this, the Ultra Convenient Utility Maximiser.

The video is about 2 minutes and 30 seconds long. This is because the song is also about 2 minutes and 30 seconds long. In all seriousness though, we were really happy to work with Guy and all the hardworking crew who made this possible. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it and commission us to make you your own Ultra Convenient Utility Maximiser.

The song itself is me not very subtly ripping into bands and other artists who seem to value hype over creative value. It’s not the most original idea, but it’s one that does mean something to me. There seems to be a lot of bands these days that get props for things that aren’t really musically related at all. Sometimes it’s through selling a certain image. Sometimes its novelty, lowest common denominator lyrics. Worst of all is when it’s an underwhelming “joke” band that insists on reminding you of its existence at any and every opportunity. I think there’s a growing social aspect that encourages this sort of faux-art unfortunately.

I mean I say that, but realistically I’m just jealous that bands have found a better marketing angle than I have, whilst I work shitty casual jobs and explain to Uber drivers my unpaid career in music isn’t a “hobby”. The full title of the song is “Vincent Whinges About ‘Gimmicks’ to Distract Himself From His Own Personal Shortcomings”.