In the video for “Slage Wave,” the first single off Moviola’s recently-released eleventh album, Earthbound, the employees of Don’s Tiny Weenies toil over the grill as they dish out Doge Dogs and Pigs on a Golf Course. “You’re a wage slave, from the cradle to the grave,” the song goes, “you don’t work, you don’t get paid, you don’t get nothin’.”
Fate- or, rather, the labor movement- intervenes in the form of a customer in a Johnny Paycheck, who hands over a “Take This Job and Shove It” sticker. A Pete Seeger-like musician follows, sliding a union handbook across the counter. It’s a video that almost has a happy ending, until the hot dog vending machine arrives.
“We debated on how to end it,” says Jake Housh, who plays guitar and piano/keys in Moviola and also shot and edited the video, “but it seemed kind of realistic maybe that the machines will win.”
With “Slage Wave,” there was a conscious attempt to make a political statement. “I always think about The Minutemen,” says Housh, referencing the early 1980s San Pedro punk trio. “Not that we sound anything like the Minutemen, but I always appreciated that the Minutemen had the guts to say stuff. I really admire that in music.”
In the video, the politics are visible (“even though they lost, there’s still a union message in there,” Housh points out) but also juxtaposed with comedy. “I was thinking about Buster Keaton. The hotdog suit. Marching around with signs,” he says. “You don’t see that as much anymore. Bands just being silly or doing a Monkees-style video or whatever.”
Moviola was formed in Columbus, Ohio, where most of the members are still based, back in 1993. Their brand of indie rock draws from varied influences in a way that’s stunningly cohesive considering that all five band members write and contribute vocals. “If we can sit around with an acoustic guitar and a couple of voices and accomplish the song, it’s usually a good sign,” says Housh. “Then you can do it rockin’ or slow it down or give it a reggae beat or whatever. We’re more into the song creation and having a song that can stand, even with just a guitar or something like that.”
There might be points of reference in a Moviola song, but nothing that ever becomes quite obvious. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing to say, this song feels to me like it could go in a Kinks direction or this song feels like it could be some kind of Country Joe and the Fish,” adds Jerry Dannemiller, who plays guitar, pedal and lap steel. “Then it goes through the meat grinder of Moviola and it ends up sounding nothing like the Kinks or Country Joe and the Fish or whatever. That’s just the way it goes.”
Lyrically, too, there’s a cohesion between the songs as they tap into the American landscape, literally and figuratively, with both seriousness and serious humor.
“I think that there’s a difference between comedy for yucks and straight-up jokiness,” says Dannemiller, “and then you can hold two thoughts in your head at the same time, the idea of a serious topic, yet you’re delivering it with something almost like gallow’s humor, in a way, and a degree of wit.” The latter option is where Moviola’s songs reside. “I would hope that permeates how everyone in the band, some more than others, how we write songs or write lyrics,” Dannemiller adds.
In “Dancing Divorcees,” Dannemiller describes a road trip across the 1-75, which runs from Florida to Michigan, partially inspired by his own travels. In it, he sings, “choices in Valdosta/of deep fried cuisine/got seven neon Chick Fil As/that’s what freedom means.” It’s a line that cheekily comments on the fast food scene in Georgia, while also commenting on the redundancy of U.S. road trips. The name of the fast food mega-brands may change depending on which state you’re in, but you know you know you will see the Chick Fil As or Taco Bells or McDonalds in roadside clusters. “Some people view that as a hurray, go America,” Dannemiller says.
And then there’s “Hillbilly Effigy,” which, as you might have guessed from the title, references J.D. Vance. “I’m from Middletown Ohio, which is where JD’s from, so this guy has been getting under my skin from the beginning,” says Housh. “I kept trying to articulate something. I wanted to write something, but I didn’t know what it was.”
With wry and poignant observations throughout Earthbound, Moviola presents a collection of songs that speak to the difficulties and absurdities of American life today. “However insignificant it might be, it’s a voice of, or tries to be a little bit of a voice of, dissent or espousing maybe how shitty things have gotten,” says Dannemiller.
Earthbound by Moviola is out now.
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Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Read her recently published work and check out her upcoming gigs or listen to the latest Beatique Mix. Follow on Instagram or Bluesky for more updates.
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