video: "Cheap Regrets" - The Districts
words: Sean Fennell
We find ourselves in an age of perpetual, sneaking guilt. You know the triggers; the 60 degree day in the heart of January, the inexplicable pair of ten-dollar jeans, your favorite value menu double cheeseburger. It’s not our fault, but it’s kind of our fault. We were thrust into this world, we didn’t make it, so who can blame us for throwing our hands up, tossing away responsibility, and dancing our way through last-capitalism oblivion? If this is our fate, there’s no better song than The District’s new single “Cheap Regrets” to soundtrack the doom.
“Cheap Regrets” is the second track from the band’s upcoming album You Know I’m Not Going Anywhere (3/13 via Fat Possum) and it continues to flex the expansive indie-rock muscles The Districts have been honing throughout their first three records. “Cheap Regrets” is a big, propulsive, grimy song, like New Pornographers, circa 2000, playing in a dive bar. In short, I love it. It has a force to it, a greasy energy that makes me want to bust out all my most embarrassing dance moves. Apparently, lead-singer Rob Grote had similar ideas, as the video for the single features Grote strolling around Philadelphia in Gordon Gekko chic, with briefcase in tow, before he chucks his luggage into the Schuylkill River and showcases his own hip-thrusting gyrations. We may be in a world full of “Cheap Regrets” but it might serve us best not to dwell, and to dance instead.