BRONCHO's new video, for the song "NC-17," is a chilling meditation on civilization's slow descent into madness — the inevitable devolution of a morally bankrupt society consumed by greed and the destructive impulses of its youth. Well, that or it's just a bunch of bored kids doing stupid stuff to the woozy strut of an infectious rock song — one that straddles the worlds of wistful reflection and gritty swagger.
The video, from director George Salisbury, is shot like a damaged VHS video from the '80s and follows a long-haired middle school kid as he tags along with his older brother and friends, evading his parents, brokering drug deals, and finding more trouble than he bargained for. Through it all he listens to jams on his Walkman cassette player and attempts to document some of the forbidden escapades with a massive, shoulder-held video camera.
Anyone who grew up with an older sibling might relate to at least some of it. "The kid is a younger brother who is getting exposed to a lot of things at an early age by a group of his older brother's friends who don't see the need to sensor themselves," BRONCHO frontman Ryan Lindsay tells us via email. "I got kidnapped by my brothers and their friends. I learned a lot from those drives around town. Like, 'if you tell mom then you can't keep riding along.' The video starts with him rifling through his brother's room and hearing someone come in the house. And the anxiety he has when he's trying not to get caught is a real thing that I experienced a lot as a kid. Always trying not to get caught."
Lindsay says the song's title is a reference to the allure of the taboo, especially when you're a kid and too young to enter the mysterious adult world.
"NC-17" is from BRONCHO's latest full-length album, Just Enough Hip To Be Woman.
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