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Dec 15, 2021 By Joey Arnone

Pom Pom Squad (Brooklyn-based four piece led by Mia Berrin) have shared a video for their cover of the 1996 Nada Surf song “Popular.” The cover features Matthew Caws, frontman of Nada Surf. The video was filmed at Bayonne High School, the same location used for the original video, and according to Pom Pom Squad frontman Mia Berrin, is “the last video I’ll ever do on a football field.” Watch the Aysia Marotta-directed video below.

“Working with Nada Surf was such a dream,” states Berrin in a press release. “They’re such an incredible group of individuals and were so kind to everyone in PPS during our time out on tour together. It’s hard not to be inspired by their career, so to intersect with their legacy even a little bit is really special.”

“I think the video is amazing! I love how it feels like a shot-for-shot recreation at the start but quickly takes on its own totally new character,“ adds Caws. “The original was shot in 1996, looking back at previous decades, while this one feels set in the present day, looking inwards and towards the future…another really cool aspect of the video is that the cheerleader character feels more and more sincere and human as the story develops. By the end, she’s much more than a player in a high school creation, she’s a person in the world and the singer of the song. To me there’s a ‘closed film’ sense about Pom Pom Squad. Meaning that even if you could trace influences in their music, it feels as if they’ve invented it all themselves. They are their own world. That’s a trait I’ve felt in all my favorite bands: they’ve created their own reality.”

Pom Pom Squad recently collaborated with illuminati hotties on the Spotify Fresh Finds single “Until It Stops,” which was one of our Songs of the Week. Their debut album, Death of a Cheerleader, came out in June via City Slang. In an episode of our Why Not Both podcast a few months later, we spoke to Berrin. Listen here.

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