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Aug 13, 2021 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Merissa Blitz

Last month, Brooklyn-based garage rock outfit Damn Jackals returned with their first single of the year, “Lovely Nuthin.” The track is the band’s first since their 2018 debut record, Crooked Castle Vol 1. In the intervening years, they’ve been honing their sound, pulling from proto punk, glam rock, and modern indie for a charming fuzz-laden retro revamp. After a brief hiatus thanks to COVID, the band is back with new music and new live shows this year. Today they’ve shared the video for their latest effort, “Lovely Nuthin,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Lovely Nuthin” is a perfect demonstration of Damn Jackal’s style, mixing evergreen vintage ‘60s surf and doo-wop aesthetics, filtering them through scuzzy garage rock influences, and dropping an added dose of modern swaggering glamor on top. That same mix of retro glam and slick theatrics is equally on display with the accompanying video, directed by Brendan McKnight (Death Valley Girls, Frankie and The Witch Fingers), shot by Ibai Vigil-Escalera, and choreographed by Matilda Sakamoto. Sakamoto, McKnight, and Vigil-Escalera nail the look of an old-school ‘60s variety hour, brought into 2021. Meanwhile, the band delivers an underlying dose of tongue-in-cheek humor as they embody the strutting rockstar stereotype critiqued in the lyrics.

Frontman Beau Croxton says of the video, “Brendan has a great love of classic music videos where you look back in awe of all the production and effort. When he sent me some sketches and ideas of how big we could get this, we knew it had to be shot that way or not at all. Ibai Vigil-Escalera was so excellent in making every single creative art decision and lighting look on the set possible. Brendan and I originally spoke about having the video more focused around band performance, but after seeing how excellently Matilda Sakamoto’s choreography portrayed each mood and lyric, we were in awe.

As the songwriter, seeing the dancer’s practices blew me away and it meant the world to me. The stars shined through on set and we prioritized capturing the dancers and their infectiously upbeat vibe. The dance world is quite new, fresh, and fascinating for us. It was a real pleasure for all of us to work with and see the live talent from the dance crew - Matilda Sakamoto, AJ Tasley Parr, Taylor Boyland, and Eloise Deluca.”

Check out the song and video below and watch for more music from Damn Jackals, coming later this year.