Kevin Bronson on May 26th, 2015

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The band in Lieutenant’s new video is not Lieutenant, and that’s the point. Director Daniel Contrero’s “Believe the Squalor” is played out in a chapel amid fire and blood by a metal band — just about the polar opposite of singer-guitarist Nate Mendel and the guys he recruited to stage his solo project Lieutenant. Mendel, the co-founder of Sunny Day Real Estate and currently bassist in the Foo Fighters, explains: “I was in the brackish zone between a solo project and a band and wasn’t sure of what the identity of the band would ultimately be. I thought, ‘Why not play that out by creating a performance video using the 100% incorrect musicians, in this case a black metal band?’ I texted the idea to a friend of mine, Jim Rota, who was a producer on the ‘Sonic Highways’ project, and also fronts the metal band Fireball Ministry. He responded with a photo of Pete Majors covered in stage blood, on stage with his band Harassor.” The song is one of the highlights of Lieutenant’s heady debut, “If I Kill This Thing We’re All Going to Eat for a Week,” which came out in March on Dine Alone Records.

||| Previously: “Belle Epoque”