Grapetooth Release Third Single, “Red Wine”

Grapetooth, the Chicago-based synth project of Clay Frankel (Twin Peaks) and Chris Bailoni (aka Home-Sick), have released “Red Wine,” the third single from their forthcoming self-titled debut album, out Nov. 9 on Polyvinyl Records.

The track is named after that most essential ingredient in the genesis of the band: wine. The duo initially bonded over their shared love of the stuff, and the name Grapetooth is an affectionate term for someone who drinks a lot of it. Wine is also pretty essential to the feel of their music—their new-wave-ish tendencies are cut with a fuzzy romanticism that says, “I’ve just downed a jug of Sutter Home.” Their first two singles, “Trouble” and “Violent; were flush-faced party tunes that made you want to both dance and break bottles in the streets.

But “Red Wine,” ironically, is a bit more love-drunk than wine-drunk, a bit more heartsick than homesick. It’s the band’s most wistful tune yet, and a welcome change of pace from the doomed disco of their previous releases. “Who’s she calling instead?” Frankel croons, sounding a lot like the inner monologue accompanying a long, lonely stumble home.

The music video, on the other hand, is something else. Equal parts Max Headroom and Prestige Worldwide, the scuzzed-out video features Frankel and Bailoni on a nighttime cruise around Chicago with the top down. They bring along only the essentials: strobe lights, samurai swords and their absolutely sick dance moves. And, we imagine, some Sutter Home, too.