The Who: Fictionist (Provo, UT)
The What: The music industry can be an unfortunately funny thing but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be inspirational. Life on a major record label doesn’t always live up to the hype and Utah’s Fictionist (Stuart Maxfield/lead vox & guitar, Robbie Connolly/lead vox & bass, Brandon Kitterman/guitar & bass, and Aaron Anderson/drums) tasted that fact first hand (hello, Atlantic Records). “Free Spirit” (from their quite impressive 2014 self-titled release) is a bit of an ode to that, so cue director Jed Wells vividly and pointedly trekking the band through all manner of laughable and less than true-to-musical-self scenarios in an effort to package the perfect band image. From the drawing room to makeovers, from a bevy of blond back up dancers to goth/Depeche Mode wannabes, things just get weird. So the moral of the story is just go with what you know – like being an artistically gifted rock band adept at melding glitchy pop with magnetic shadows. We’d write more about this but Bruce Springsteen is on the line and that’s a call we’ve got to take.
The Where: In addition to seeing them on the road this Summer with Neon Trees, you can always find Fictionist at the official website, Facebook or on Twitter at @FictionistNoise.