As Tejon Street Corner Thieves continue to tour in support of their 2022 album, Thick As Thieves, the Colorado “trash-grass” outlaws have shared a new music video for “Demons”, premiering today exclusively via Live For Live Music.
The gloomy number confronts a closet full of skeletons with a grizzled sadness that seems to push past sorrow and into celebration. With driving guitar strums and gritty, wistful vocals by Shawn D’Amario bolstered by rhythmic texture from Connor O’Neal (banjo/backing vocals) and a haunting violin part by Bridge City Sinners’s Lightning Luke, “Demons” is a devil-may-care anthem wrapped in a grim reckoning with that lifestyle’s razor edge (“There’s poison in my cup / I won’t think twice to drink it up / I’m wondering if I’ll even make it through the day”).
“‘Demons’ is about battling addiction,” O’Neal explains to Live For Live Music. “The literal demons in the song are representative of drugs and drinking. Those demons will eventually catch up to you if you don’t fight them.”
In the video, stylized as grainy home film footage, the weary D’Amario and O’Neal step out into nature to contemplate their demons. As they howl the song’s eerie refrain (“Oh, there is fire in my grave / What do those demons say?”), viewers are presented with various iterations of a memorial shrine. Each time the altar is displayed, a beaten-down bottle of liquor is glaringly present, begging the painful question, “Is this a funeral for a sinful existence they are attempting to leave behind, or is it a farewell to the life they’re losing by continuing to chase the bottom of the bottle?”
Watch the Kevin Zinger-directed music video for “Demons” by Tejon Street Corner Thieves below.
Tejon Street Corner Thieves – “Demons” (Official Video)
Tejon Street Corner Thieves’s new album, Thick As Thieves, was recorded at Royal Recordings in Colorado Springs, CO with producer Bill Douglas (Veruca Salt, Smashing Pumpkins) and released via Liars Club, the new label formed by Amigo the Devil and indie powerhouse Regime Music Group. Thick As Thieves blends Americana, folk, and bluegrass with a newfound level of depth, complexity, and authenticity that situates the band on an uncharted sonic spectrum.
The band enlisted Olafh Acevedo to illustrate the album’s cover art, which depicts a holy angel and a fallen demon enjoying the riches of a heist. To further accentuate the music, fans who purchase physical copies of the record will also receive an original Tejon Street Corner Thieves comic book to accompany the album recounting the harrowing tale of the band’s escape from disaster in the desert following a bus breakdown.
The new “Demons” visuals follow a previous Thick As Thieves music video for the toe-tapping, banjo-picking single, “Whiskey”. While it serves as a fan-favorite drinking anthem at the group’s rowdy live shows, the song’s lyrics go much deeper, contemplating the struggles of homelessness and the dark path of using alcohol to cope.
Stream or purchase Thick As Thieves, the new album from Tejon Street Corner Thieves, on the platform of your choice here or listen via the Spotify player below.
Tejon Street Corner Thieves – Thick As Thieves – Full Album
Tejon Street Corner Thieves are preparing to wrap up a tour supporting The Dead South with performances at Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids, MI on August 10th and Cincinnati, OH’s Riverfront Live on August 11th. For a complete list of upcoming tour dates, head to the band’s website.