Back in 2015, Jeff Rosenstock released a new album titled We Cool?, which had a profound impact on a Long Island kid named Chris Keough. The record inspired him to take music more seriously, and this past winter, Keough (who releases music as Barely March) got to work. He borrowed his mom’s MacBook for a couple weeks to record Marely Barch, his debut album that came out in, you guessed it, March. The album was a surprise success, a chart-topper on Bandcamp that earned critical favor beyond the platform.
Now Barely March has a new video for album highlight “Corduroy,” an emo-influenced track that’s a nonstop rush of indie energy. The song’s video could have been made in an hour and delightfully reinforces the fact that Keough is a young guy: The simple clip shows Keough sitting in front of green screen footage of Rock Band, eating a bowl of cereal and playing some (actual, non-plastic) guitar. The green screen footage in question comes from his previous clip for “Thinking Emoji,” which shows gameplay footage of the song being played on Rock Band with song’s lyrics on the screen. Maybe his next video will be a clip of him watching the “Corduroy” video?
The track shows that Keough is musically wise beyond his years (he just turned 21 yesterday; Happy birthday, Chris!), even if his sudden success leaves him too humble to admit it: “I’m not sure what I’m doing and at this point I’m too afraid to ask,” he says about his blossoming career.
Watch the video for “Corduroy” above.
Marely Barch is out now via Halloween Records. Get it here.
