Walla Walla, Washington's band of friends, Chastity Belt understand the city wide importance of a good couch. Watch as Julia, Gretchen, Annie and Lydia physically uphold this wisdom in the Stacy Peck video for "Seattle Party". A song of soirée cultural commentary becomes symbolized by the floral upholstered seat as the homebound object becomes mobilized by the band. With a little bit of teamwork effort, Chastity Belt treats the stationary living room piece as a portable item that gets to tour with the gals about waterfronts, houses, parklets, tunnels, parks, balcony vista points, and everywhere you would want your most beloved piece of furniture to be.
Peck's video brings absurdist-fun visuals that further enriches the fresh element of Chastity Belt's BFF approach and friend-power spirit. The dedicated persistence brings an instant to party to anywhere in Seattle, or Washington for that matter. Like the geographic versatility of the couch, the connected synergy of Julia, Annie and Lydia's chord timings ring off Grethchen's shared drum notes make for a friendlier, full but minimalist, new Northwest sound. From the humorous audacity of bringing such a sacred and beloved rec room rest into a cafe; this is the ultimate in a commitment to being comfortable at all times anywhere. From their lyrical best friend for life only invitation exclusives, and the party goer concern of "I think they're having fun"; they present the genuine care of 200 couches and a feeling of household warmth anywhere and everywhere.
Lead singer Julia Shapiro talked briefly about the the song's formative inception, couch carrying, corner cutting, all in the name of cushioned comforts.
What was the Chastity Belt's recipe for creating a song about Seattle soirées?
"Seattle Party" is the first song we finished working on once we'd all moved to Seattle. We wrote it at the end of last summer, and at the time it felt different than any of our previous songs, which we had written with the intention of performing at frat parties to drunken, grinding college students.
What were some of the challenges and struggles of hooving a couch around Seattle?
Dragging a couch around Seattle was difficult, but it happened to fit perfectly in the trunk of Lydia's car, which helped. That is a total secret though. You're not supposed to know that we didn't carry it everywhere. At the end of the day, we drove it over to the show we were playing at Heartland, so that we could sit on it during the performance. We were too attached at that point to leave it behind. Now the couch is back, safe and sound in my living room. It's one of the most comfortable couches to sleep on, and probably the greatest piece of furniture of all time.
Chastity Belt's album No Regerts will be available August 13 from Help Yourself Records, the single "Seattle Party" is available via Bandcamp.
