Jason & The Scorchers — Find You

JUL 01 1989 · 12:00

Jason & The Scorchers — Find You (1989) Era: Late MTV Golden Age / Cowpunk Twilight (1989) - Final phase of the cowpunk movement's mainstream flirtation; post-EMI, major-label A&M era representing the genre's last bid for commercial crossover before alt-country supplanted it in the 1990s. A rare audiovisual primary source documenting Jason & the Scorchers at the height of their major-label ambitions and the apex of the cowpunk era. The video's quantitative fingerprint — fast cutting (2.04s ASL), warm color temperature (1.684), high contrast (60.69), and high motion (8.50) — authentically encodes the band's celebrated live energy within a late-80s analog production context. As one of only two singles from the commercially unsuccessful Thunder and Fire, this clip is an underrepresented artifact in the broader alt-country and Americana archival canon. Context: Released in 1989 as a single from Thunder and Fire (A&M Records), 'Find You' arrived at the twilight of the cowpunk movement's brief mainstream moment. Jason & the Scorchers — formed in Nashville in 1981 — had spent the decade pioneering a fusion of punk aggression and country roots that predated and helped catalyze the alt-country boom of the 1990s. By 1989, signed to A&M after being dropped by EMI, the band represented a last-gasp major-label effort to cross over. The album was a commercial disappointment and the band dissolved shortly after, yet critics including the New York Times praised their raw power. The video's warm, high-contrast, fast-cut aesthetic mirrors the band's identity as incendiary live performers caught between Nashville traditionalism and rock insurgency — too country for rock radio, too rock for country radio, as their own history attests. Director notes: The video accompanies 'Find You,' one of two singles released from the album Thunder and Fire (A&M Records, 1989), the other being 'When the Angels Cry.' The album was recorded fall/winter 1988–1989 to analog tape at Digital Studios, Nashville, Tennessee, and mixed at The Enterprise, Los Angeles. The band's A&M tenure was brief; they were dropped from the label shortly after the album's release. No production company, director, or video commissioner credit has been located in any public archive consulted.