Today, no wave avant-rocker Johnny Falloon is letting us in on an absurdist cabbage patch nightmare with the premiere of the music video for “Diamonds,” one of eight fiery cuts on its debut album, Tell Hell I’m Not Coming.
The video begins with a serene bird chirp behind a still image of a shovel leaned against an overturned armchair. The scene is quickly disrupted when overalled bassist Matthew Greer steps in frame to take hold of the shovel. He menacingly approaches earthbound singer John Edmondson, and a barrage of lettuce-y chaos ensues.
The idea came from the band’s filmmaker friend, Michael Cully, who originally pitched it in a vegetable-themed PowerPoint presentation. The imagery hearkens back to one of Johnny Falloon’s early singles, “Frank’s Gun,” the cover of which is an image of a cabbage patch doll that hangs in the band’s house. Greer says he and his fellow bandmates found the idea to be “pretty left field,” but in true absurdist fashion, they “kinda just let [Cully] run with it.”
Greer also describes the process of filming “Diamonds” as “pretty messy,” adding “I’m pretty sure I lost some of my gums, expressively chewing cabbage is like trying to eat cardboard.”
If you’ve already had the pleasure of catching Johnny Falloon live around town, the premise of the “Diamonds” music video probably comes as less of a surprise. The band has a distinct experimentalist identity reflected in its members’ diverse array of influences—including Anna Von Hausswolff, The Birthday Party, CAN and John Coltrane—and their fluid process when it comes to performing and recording.
The trio, which includes Edmondson, Greer and former Lowertown drummer Joseph Clementi, began performing together in an off-the-cuff fashion in 2022, and never lost its improvisational approach to creating songs. Johnny Falloon’s sound is constantly evolving around the core features of Edmondson’s varied and confident vocal stylings, Greer’s unconventional basslines and Clementi’s frantic percussion. The band also added on saxophonist Scott Kelley for this album cycle, lending an extra melodic element to its arrangements.
Tell Hell I’m Not Coming, which comes out today alongside the music video, takes a handful of favorites from live shows and injects them with some studio innovation to create what the band describes as an “organic, moving and curious endeavor.” It was recorded by Greer primarily in one three-day period at Full Moon Studio, where the band sweat it out for up to 13 hours straight at some points. In each track, you’ll find a well-composed cacophony reflecting on the various stimuli of modern life, from the technological angle of “Diamonds” to post-suburban society to masculinity, always tinted by shades of comedy and drama. Greer says of the finished product, “None of us have ever put out a full-length album under our own names. It’s been a long process trying to get everything done in a professional way so we’re excited to see what we can do next.”
The band is celebrating the release of Tell Hell I’m Not Coming with a show at Nowhere Bar tonight with Vincas and Rauncher. If once isn’t enough, you can also catch Johnny Falloon at Drunken Unicorn in Atlanta tomorrow night with Pinkest and SMALL. A longer tour this November is also in the works. Check out the band’s music and keep your eyes peeled for updates at johnnyfalloon.bandcamp.com/ and instagram.com/johnny.falloon.
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