Pissed Jeans - I've Still Got You (Ice Cream)

MAY 29 2007 · 12:00

Pissed Jeans - I've Still Got You (Ice Cream) (2007) Director: Monty Buckles Era: Mid-2000s Noise Punk / Sub Pop Underground (2007) - Era of noise-rock's post-hardcore revival on indie labels; Pissed Jeans' Sub Pop debut cycle coinciding with renewed critical interest in AmRep-lineage punk aesthetics High curatorial value as a confirmed, director-attributed artifact from Pissed Jeans' pivotal Sub Pop debut cycle. The video encapsulates the band's defining aesthetic and thematic concerns, suburban alienation, absurdist humor, anti-glamour punk ethos, within a fully realized surrealist concept. It received coverage from Stereogum and The FADER at release and represents a distinct node in the mid-2000s noise punk visual canon, making it a significant document for both genre history and Sub Pop institutional archives. Context: Released in 2007 as part of Pissed Jeans' Sub Pop debut cycle, this video embodies the band's signature approach of applying noise-punk ferocity to mundane suburban subject matter, in this case, emotional dependence on ice cream as a coping mechanism. The band, formed in 2004 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, were celebrated for discerning nihilism in everyday situations and mixing volatility with humor, traits that made them an outlier on Sub Pop's roster alongside more polished indie acts. The video's surrealist concept, an ice cream man as a diabolical figure, translates the song's tragicomic lyrical content into visual form, reinforcing themes of consumer comfort, alienation, and working-class stagnation that define the Hope for Men era. Director notes: The video concept centers on a satirical, surrealist narrative involving an ice cream man coded as a diabolical figure, with the band integrated into the scenario. Stereogum described it as a clip 'in which the devil comes disguised as a grinning, wholesome ice cream man, and Pissed Jeans come as the special ingredient to Satan's frozen confections.' Reverse-motion footage is a noted technique in the video. The clip received coverage from Stereogum and The FADER upon release in September 2007, functioning as promotional material for the Hope for Men album cycle on Sub Pop Records.