AUSTIN, TX- Dope music with dope aesthetics gets my attention, guaranteed. The Austin-based band Drakulas hit the spot for me with their song “Level Up” and its corresponding music video.
Created by Zach Blair (Rise Against, Hagish) Drakulas is an art-rock quartet that they’ve identified to be more of a collective if anything, similar to what Queens of the Stone Age is, with members of Riverboat Gambler, Rise Against, and other groups joining in on the fun.
“Level Up” comes from their recently released album Terminal Amusements, which is a… pardon my French… a kick-ass album. It’s an album that really feels like music that a bunch of really talented friends decided to make for the hell of it, pulling from all of their inspirations to create 12 fun cuts that range from new wave to garage to punk. And while the styles may modulate from track to track, there’s an indescribable edge to their sound as a whole that really makes the 12 tracks a cohesive whole.
The animated video for “Level Up” is as cool as the song. Pulling from popular NYC imagery as inspiration, Drakulas’ frontman Mike Weibe (Riverboat Gamblers, High Tension Wires) says:
“It’s a made-up world that’s an amalgam of old New York movies that I saw when I was a little kid […] I’d never been to New York so my perception of the place was influenced by everything from ‘The Warriors’ and ‘Taxi Driver’ to the opening credits of ‘Welcome Back, Kotter’.”
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