Brite Futures "Too Young To Kill"

Before I start laying down the public relations script, let me just say I had a minute and a half to kill, so I pressed the arrow button on Brite Futures' video of "Too Young To Kill."

Sure, it's a bit Milky Way but everyone looks so adoreable and the music is so nicely early 80's, like if Chilliwack had a chick in the band.

True story: I just typed "chink," giggled when I noticed the error and then erased the offensive remark.

I rather liked the video and encourage everyone to go out and buy a case of whippets and do them while you watch the video.

Once I went bowling while doing nitrous oxide the entire game.

I scored a 43.

Here's what people who were forced to like the video said about it:


BRITE FUTURES is: David Price (keyboard, guitar, vocals) / Luke Smith (guitar, vocals) / Shaun Libman (vocals) / Conor Sisk (drums) / Claire England (bass, vocals, keyboard)

Dark Past is the new album from Seattle's fun-loving quintet Brite Futures. It is a youthful, swaggering mix of synth-happy pop, rock, funk, disco, and New Wave that has been described as "punk rock Abba disco Osmonds with chainsaws." It challenges the notion that irresistible pop can only be peddled by solo artists propped up by big-name songwriters and major labels. It's game on in Fall 2011 for these pop, indie-minded twenty-somethings when the band releases their new album on November 1st mixed by Eliot James (Two Door Cinema Club, Kaiser Chiefs) and produced by the band's guitarist and vocalist Luke Smith

On first listen to Brite Futures' fiercely catchy new album, Dark Past, it might seem like quite the misnomer. The album's synth-happy mix of New Wave, rock, funk, and dance music packs all the boundless pep of a hyperactive kindergartener on a never-ending sugar high. But tune in closer to these ten tracks and you'll soon hear the pain behind the pop.

"The title Dark Past is a half-serious reflection of the tough times we went through over the past few years," says guitarist Luke Smith, referring to the band's split with Warner Bros. Records during the days when they were known as Natalie Portman's Shaved Head (NPSH).

The band and Warner Bros. Records had different ideas about NPSH's artistic direction and the two parties mutually agreed to end the relationship. The band's dance with the majors left them conflicted - a difficult time that serves as a potent reminder about the importance of creative freedom and what it means to be truly independent. After that experience, Luke, Shaun, Claire, and David decided it was time for a new band name. "For as much attention as being called Natalie Portman's Shaved Head got us, it was also holding us back," Luke says. "It was nice to shed that name and be our own thing for the first time." (Brite Futures address the issue in the final episode of their hilarious "Conversation with Natalie" trilogy on their YouTube channel.)



Now signed to the indie label Turnout, Brite Futures have emerged stronger and excitedly in control of their artistic endeavors, which also include their clever videos and visually inspired merch. "It's like we're a whole new band that got to start all over again," Claire says.

Dark Past is brimming with brilliant moments ....a lovingly stolen Beatles melody on "Too Young To Kill," lyrics that reference The Kinks and Gossip Girl in the same breath, the occasional face-melting guitar solo and the epic and rousing "Black Wedding," which addresses the aftermath of extricating themselves from their contract with WB and reveling in the freedom to make the kind of music they wanted again.

"We want to prove that we can compete with the big guys. You don't see many bands doing this on their own," adds Luke. Noting his pride at Brite Futures' "underdog status," he says he's now happy to have weathered the bad breaks that inspired Dark Past. "We came out the other side with a new sense of confidence, and it's amazing to have this album to be an account of that."