Sure, most folks will go on about Portland’s HELP being the latest and hottest bunch of Pacific Northwest punk rock saviors; about how vocalist/guitarist Ryan Neighbors’ past includes 14 years spent with indie rockers Portugal. The Man; about how their website (and Instagram) name is www.helpifuckingneedit.com (because couldn’t we all do with a little help?); about how their van has a basketball basket built into its roof; about their creative collision of noisy angularity, cynical stream of consciousness and discordant alt-rock hooks for the listener to hang their ears on; about how much punishment their spines must have endured to capture the cover photo of their latest EP, Courage.
All of the above is worthy of discussion, but my particular brand of immaturity has zeroed in on the band’s use of my most favourite of all-encompassing insult/adjective/expressions of frustration/etc.: “shit hammer.” You yourself can pay witness to Neighbors’ gravelly use of this monumental slice of terminology at the 2:06 mark of their latest video, “Black Cloud” which we are premiering today. Says Neighbors about the video, which is the second single taken from Courage: “The video for ‘Black Cloud’ was filmed and directed by James Rexroad on our August 2024 world tour of Portland and Seattle. The idea was simple, we needed to bust out a music video ASAP and we have talented friends who like our band. James hopped in the van with us for one grueling day and filmed a lot of beautiful faces who attended our shows. This video perfectly captures us. It’s what we do. We play music, shoot hoops and hang out with cool people. The video was edited by Daniel Fickle who shot and directed our video for ‘The Consequence.’”
*please note that if I’m hearing the lyric wrong, that doesn’t stop the fact that HELP, Courage and “Black Cloud” still rule.
Courage is out now on Three One G Records. Order here.
And as an added bonus, here’s the video for “The Consequence.”