Joydrop - Sometimes Wanna Die

2001

Joydrop - Sometimes Wanna Die (2001) Era: Post-Grunge / Y2K Alternative Rock (2001) - Canadian alt-rock crossover moment; MTV2-era breakthrough for Toronto indie acts on major US indie labels High curatorial value as a documented MTV2-rotation artifact from a Canadian alt-rock act whose commercial trajectory was directly interrupted by post-9/11 broadcast decisions, making it a rare intersection of music industry history, Canadian rock heritage, and a verifiable case of political/cultural event-driven censorship. The video's unattributed director and absent production records further elevate its archival importance, as it risks becoming an orphaned artifact without institutional preservation. Context: Released in summer 2001 on Tommy Boy Records, 'Sometimes Wanna Die' arrived at a pivotal and ultimately truncated moment for Joydrop. The single reached #11 on Canada's Airplay chart and ranked #65 among the top 100 most-played songs on Canadian radio that year. Its MTV2 placement represented a genuine US breakthrough for a Toronto alt-rock act. However, the song's title became a liability following the September 11 attacks, when it was pulled from US radio stations entirely, a fate shared by hundreds of titles flagged by broadcasters in the aftermath. The band subsequently lost their record deal when their label was absorbed, cutting short a career that had earned them a 2002 Juno Award nomination for Best New Group. The video thus stands as a document of a band at their commercial peak, captured just before extraordinary external circumstances ended their momentum. Director notes: The video was produced in 2001 to support the lead single from Joydrop's second album Viberate on Tommy Boy Records. It received rotation on MTV2 in the US during the summer of 2001. The Music Video Wiki entry for this video explicitly lists the director as unknown with no label credit specified. No production company or crew credits have surfaced in any searchable database.