LVL UP Share Sweetly Surreal “The Closing Door” Video, Stream Return To Love in Full
Images via Shawn Brackbill, Sub Pop
LVL UP ought not worry about “The Closing Door”—they’re about to kick the damn thing down.
Ahead of the Brooklyn noise-rock quartet’s forthcoming Sub Pop debut, due out on Friday, Sept. 23, but streaming in full now, LVL UP have shared the idyllic video for Return To Love cut “The Closing Door.” The song, which also appeared on the band’s Three Songs EP last summer, is a dynamic and dreamlike meditation on a moment, and it starts off the second half of LVL UP’s latest on a high note.
The video starts off with a peaceful, pastoral feel, following a solitary, backpack-wearing young man on a nature walk. Around the halfway mark, just as a massive instrumental break lifts off, he starts seeing strange, semi-psychedelic designs projected in the air around him. He abandons his things and starts upward, climbing a towering tree until he reaches an unexpected destination. Robert Kolodny directed and produced the video for House of Nod. Kolodny has also masterminded visuals for indie acts including Eskimeaux, Big Ups and The Henry Millers.
LVL UP’s lineup consists of guitarists Mike Caridi and Dave Benton, bassist Nick Corbo and drummer Greg Rutkin—Caridi, Benton and Corbo all write and sing equally. The band’s warmly lo-fi, yet undeniably artful sound is “marked by reverb, harmony and tape distortion, with a keen balance of pop and experimentation,” as nicely summarized in the band’s press bio.