Cities Aviv – “URL IRL” Video (Stereogum Premiere)

Cities Aviv – “URL IRL” Video (Stereogum Premiere)

Around this time last year we awarded Cities Aviv’s Black Pleasure Mixtape Of The Week. Before exploring that “stark and unforgiving” release, Tom described the Memphis rapper/producer like so:

Cities Aviv has an interesting and impossible-to-replicate background. He comes from punk rock, but he also comes from Memphis, the city that birthed tape-hiss crunk fight music, and shades of both of those things echo around deep in his music. As a rapper/producer, he can be a friendly and disarming presence.

That friendly, disarming side comes across in a big way in “URL IRL,” the first video from Aviv’s upcoming album Come To Life. For a moment it looks like it’s going to be an homage to the Replacements’ boombox-only “Seen Your Video” clip, but when the pop-splicing beat kicks in, so does a celebration. Audio-wise, it’s an exceptionally catchy and forward-looking sound — the sort of sneakily avant-garde banger you could blast at a house party — and it bodes quite well for Cities Aviv’s 2014. Watch the TerrorEyes-directed visuals below.

Come To Life is out 1/28/14 via Young One Records. In the meantime, Cities Aviv is part of a stacked bill Friday 12/13 at Brooklyn’s 285 Kent with Factory Floor, Yvette, and DJ Kris DFA.

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