Forget Romeo and Juliet. For alt-rockers almost monday, to feel ‘alive again,’ they need to find a love like Justin and ‘Hailey Beebs,’ and they scour all over the city for it.
At the start of almost monday’s “Hailey Beebs” video, frontman Dawson Daugherty is on a mission. With a powder-blue suit, shaggy hair, and steel determination, Dawson goes in search presumably for the woman who makes him feel alive the same way the titulary Hailey Bieber makes her beau, Justin Bieber, sparkle whenever she walks into the room. “High socks ’til your knees / Just like Hailey Beebs,” sings Dawson, amid shots of his bandmates – guitarist Cole Clisby and bassist Luke Fabry – playing along. “You’re the one I’m chasing / I don’t care no more, I’ll be at your door / Waiting to run to you, baby.”
Shot on 16mm film in their hometown of San Diego and directed by friend Jack Revell, per Paper, the video captures the grit and ennui that comes at 2 AM. When Dawson hangs his head out of his Uber, the night’s air blasting through his hair, there’s a tangible sense of longing. There is something incomplete with Dawson as he makes his David Bryne-esque herky-jerky motions in a suit seemingly inspired by Stop Making Sense. That feeling is never more evident than in the downtrodden look as he stumbles along the crosswalk, wrapped up in his own feelings while Luke and Cole jam on.
It’s a low-key, lo-fi affair that captures a punk spirit. It’s the perfect companion to the song, which the band tells Paper is about “taking a good relationship you once had and wishing you could go back and do it over again,” much like how Justin first dated Hailey in 2015, split in 2016, and then reunited with her in 2018. “I wrote your name on the wall,” sings Dawson. That optimism for a happy ending in the face of grim reality, hoping to see the sun when there’s no light in the early morning, is deftly wrapped within this song. With clever lyrics — “Miss you, I can feel the withdrawal / You’re something I believe in / Time melts into nothing at all” – and a charming alt-rock sound that is both classic and fresh, almost monday have delivered a rock ballad perfect for this moment in time.
“hailey beebs” is a taste of almost monday’s forthcoming project. The band released their debut EP, don’t say you’re ordinary, in 2020. Despite arriving smack dab in the middle of the pandemic, the release built a huge buzz, with its first single, “broken people,” landing them in the Top 20 spot on Alternative Radio. Zane Lowe is a fan of the band, and GQ dubbed them one of the breakout musicians you need to know in 2021. If you don’t know them now, you’ll get a chance this summer when they release their second EP.