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Oct 20, 2020 By Christopher Roberts The Beths

New Zealand four-piece The Beths released a new album, Jump Rope Gazers, in July via Carpark. Now they have shared an amusing video for the album’s “Mars, the God of War” in which they all embark on a spy mission/heist, complete with double crosses, disguises, and homing pigeons. Sports Team (Annabel Kean and Callum Devlin) directed the video. Watch it below, followed by the band’s upcoming tour dates (yes, in New Zealand then can have concerts thanks to their government effectively dealing with the coronavirus).

Frontwoman Elizabeth Stokes had this to say about the video in a press release: “The video has a really silly energy that everyone really embraced. With NZ being COVID-free, there’s a real palpable joy and euphoria in being able to get together and make something. We feel very lucky and Sports Team smashed it out of the park once again.”

Directors Devlin and Kean add: “As well as being genius musicians, in our minds The Beths are defined by being a committed, intelligent and extremely efficient team, and have turned the collaborative inner workings of an indie rock band into an art in itself. We wanted to explore that side of the band in the ultimate team-up genre; a high stakes twist laden heist movie. Obviously. Also, we seem to find the idea of The Beths entering into a life of crime frankly hilarious. We love working with The Beths. No band is more committed to exhausting every possible gag out of a situation. We initially plotted out the entire film, but decided to abandon it in favor of making as gag-dense a video as possible, if that makes sense.”

On Nov. 14 at 5 p.m. Eastern Time The Beths are doing a livestream concert from Auckland Town Hall via Bandcamp. Tickets are available here.

Pick up our current print issue (Issue 68) to read our interview with The Beths on Jump Rope Gazers.

Previously The Beths shared Jump Rope Gazers’ first single, “Dying to Believe,” via a video for the new song. “Dying to Believe” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared another song from the album, “I’m Not Getting Excited,” via a video for the track. “I’m Not Getting Excited” was also one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared another song from the album, “Out of Sight,” via a video for the track where the band goes bird watching. “Out of Sight” was also one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared a video for “Jump Rope Gazers.”

Jump Rope Gazers is the band’s second album, the follow-up to 2018’s amusingly titled debut, Future Me Hates Me. The Beths feature Elizabeth Stokes (vocals/guitar), Jonathan Pearce (guitar), Benjamin Sinclair (bass), and Tristan Deck (drums). The album was recorded at Pearce’s Auckland studio, where he also produced the album.

A previous press release gave some hints as to the themes on the album: “Stokes’ writing on Jump Rope Gazers grapples with the uneasy proposition of leaving everything and everyone you know behind on another continent, chasing your dreams while struggling to stay close with loved ones back home.”

Read our review of Jump Rope Gazers.

Read our My Firsts interview with The Beths.

The Beths Tour Dates:

Fri. Nov. 6 - Auckland, NZ @ Town Hall
Sat. Nov. 7 - Gisborne, NZ @ Gisborne Beer Festival
Sat. Nov. 28 - Wellington, NZ @ Beers at the Basin
Sat. Dec. 19 - Hawkes Bay, NZ @ Black Barn Winery
Sun. Dec. 27 - Taupo, NZ @ Le Currents
Fri. Jan. 8 - Kerikeri, NZ @ Bay of Islands Festival
Tue. March 30 - Southampton, UK @ The Loft
Wed. March 31 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Thu. April 1 - Manchester, UK @ Club Academy
Fri. April 2 - Glasgow, UK @ Saint Luke’s
Sat. April 3 - Dublin, IE @ The Workman’s Club
Mon. April 5 - Bristol, UK @ SWX
Tue. April 6 - Birmingham, UK @ Castle and Falcon
Wed. April 7 - London, UK @ O2 Kentish Town
Thu. April 8 - Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2
Fri. April 9 - Paris, FR @ Point Éphémère
Sat. April 10 - Lyon, FR @ Marché Gare - Hors les murs
Sun. April 11 - Milan, IT @ BIKO
Tue. April. 13 - Düdingen, CH @ Bad Bonn
Wed. April 14 - Lausanne, CH @ Le Romandie
Thu. April 15 - Munich, DE @ Kranhalle
Fri. April 16 - Vienna, AT @ B72
Sat. April 17 - Prague, CZ @ Underdogs’ Ballroom
Sun. April 18 - Belin, DE @ Lido
Tue. April 20 - Copenhagen, DK @ Vega Ideal Bar
Wed. April 21 - Hamburg, DE @ Molotow
Thu. April 22 - Cologne, DE @ Artheater
Fri. April 23 - Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso Noord
Sun. April 25 - Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
Fri. Aug. 6 - Sun. Aug. 8 - San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands

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