MUSIC

MUSIC Victoria Anthony spills an East Vancouver secret

by Mike Usinger

Depending on where you stand— eight wheels optional—Victoria Anthony has either just done Vancouver a huge favour or she’s ruined things for everyone who loves Roller Boogie starring Linda Blair and owns not just one but two pairs of Moxi Lolly Roller Skates (one clementine orange and one pineapple yellow).

The West Coast teenager’s new video for “Kinda Into You” goes the economical route, with all the action taking place in one locale: a roller rink that combines the best of the ’70s (disco balls and retrothemed quad skates), ’80s (neon, neon, and more neon), and ’90s (hello kool thing silver-tinsel curtains).

As for the song, it’s thoroughly modern pop with just the right amount of sheen, Anthony sounding like someone whose all-time favourite mix tape starts with Pink’s “Get the Party Started” and ends with Rihanna’s “Shut Up and Drive”.

Vancouverites first got to know Anthony in 2018, when Pink plucked her out of the crowd, handed her the mic, and then watched as the 14-year-old nailed “Perfect” for the 18,000-strong crowd. In the days that followed a clip of the moment went viral, with the teenager using her first 15 minutes of fame to launch a singer career that’s brought us, today, to “Kinda Into You”.

Evidently the kind of artist who believes one should always do their own stunt

Victoria Anthony will argue that—despite all evidence to the contrary—there’s only one pair of roller skates for rent when she’s working the counter. And, no, you can’t have a gumball.

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work, Anthony taught herself to skate in a week for the video, which was filmed at Rollerland in the Lower Mainland.

And what is Rollerland? (This operating on the assumption that you aren’t seriously thinking about springing for a pair of hotpink Moxi Rainbow Rider Roller Skates).

Um, depending on where you stand, you’ll either be of the opinion that it’s a place that everyone in the city needs to know about immediately, or the last thing the local rollerskating community needs is someone letting the secret out. Because the more people know that Rollerland exists, the more crowded the place will be on every day with the word “day” in it. g

Pastel Blank makes a case for escaping the basement

by Mike Usinger

Let’s see if we’ve got the narrative right, including that the overriding message seems to be that the devil does indeed find work for idle hands.

The video for “Terracotta Sunroom” opens with the four members of Victoria’s Pastel Blank looking like they take their fashion cues from Duchasse Vintage, the films of John Hughes, and the Matador Records roster circa ’93.

That all three of those reference points scream “retro” makes perfect sense considering both the song’s slanted-and-enchanted vibe, and that the group is glued to a monitor showing camcorder footage from long-gone days when VHS was still locked in a format war with Beta, Laserdisc, and 8mm.

Bored disinterest gradually gives way to vaguely horrified fascination as a priest that’s possibly from the Church of Art d’Ecco does....umm....actually who knows what the hell he’s up to. Is he—to a soundtrack that winningly blends slacker psych with golden-era indie rock—picking his way through a garden that’s in serious need of a landscaper, not to mention a visit from 1-800-GOT-JUNK?

Is the footage of the priest with the statues from a trip to Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia? Or did the video’s creative team of William Wilkinson, Angus Watt, and Alex Bierlmeier call in a favour from the folks at Ital Decor Ltd. in gloriously scenic North Burnaby.

While the answer might be right on screen with the “12 bit” stamp, why is the camcorder footage a colour-blown ’70s-mortuary green? Where does the disco ball fit in, and was Toni Basil in charge of makeup?

But whatever’s going on, Pastel Blank ends up going all in.

Halfway through the video, what seems like ordinary milk somehows turns the band’s members greasepaint white. By the home stretch of the winningly laconic “Terracotta Sunroom”, Pastel Blank seemingly hasn’t seen a sunroom in the better part of a half-century. The clothes are suddenly all black—as in Wednesday Addams meets art-world undertaker—and the vampire-white band members are a coffinblack lipstick tube and none-more black eyeliner away from joining the Scandinavian Death Metal Wars.

Either that, or we’ve got the narrative wrong and the whole thing is a post-ironic Catholic church tribute to the films of Werner Herzog, Hideo Nakata, and Marcel Marceau. Not to mention the latest bit of proof that the devil does indeed find work for idle hands. g