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Dec 29, 2020 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Joseph Yarmush The Besnard Lakes

Montreal psych rock band The Besnard Lakes have shared their latest single, “Feuds With Guns,” premiering with Under the Radar. The band is currently gearing up for the release of it’s extravagantly titled sixth LP, The Besnard Lakes Are The Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings. The concept behind the album is equally impressive as well. The record acts as a journey to and from the brink of death, chronicled through a seventy-two minute double LP epic. The first side is entitled “Near Death” while “Death,” “After Death,” and “Life” follow after. The band has already shared two singles from the album, “Our Heads, Our Hearts On Fire Again” and “Raindrops,” both of which made our Songs of the Week.

“Feuds With Guns” invites listeners back into The Besnard Lakes’ dreamy landscapes, swept along by the tide of the band’s hazy psychedelic style. The song’s initial skeletal organ and insistent guitar slowly expands into brilliant multi-colored fractals of psychedelic pop. Powerful drumming anchors the song’s structure while washes of synths, string flourishes, and soulful saxophone fill the band’s colorful dreamscape. While hanging on to the vibrant style the band has cultivated over several records, with “Feuds With Guns” Besnard Lakes also delivers one of their most intoxicating pop songs yet.

The band says of the song, “‘Feuds With Guns’ is one of the first songs written from our upcoming LP. This one is a good slow-dancer! Written almost entirely in the Cabanon at The Rigaud Ranch, this one started out as an organ and drum idea that morphed into a little OMD-style pop song.”

The video matches the prismatic beauty of the track itself with equally dazzling animation courtesy of director and animator, Dr. Cool. He says of the video, “I rotoscoped a couple of the big dives from a video of an extreme high-diving contest that took place in the 80s. About a week after I had animated the first guy’s big jump, I returned to the video to check out some other usable clips. I realized I had never watched the full clip of the first jump - I had just stopped once he hit the water. I found out that after he lands in the water he floats back up unconscious and then gets taken away on a stretcher. So now what was I supposed to do? People in the comments were asking what had happened but no one knew the answer. After a bunch of snooping around the internet, I found the guy’s Facebook and he’s TOTALLY alive. His name is Pat and he lives in Florida. I messaged him but he hasn’t answered.”

Check out the song and video below, and look for The Besnard Lakes Are The Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings, due out January 29 via Fat Cat in the U.S. and Flemish Eye in Canada.

Also read our 2013 interview with The Besnard Lakes.