“NOBODY PUTS BABY IN A CORNER”: Summer Slaughter EDITION

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Though distant from our current fall bliss, local band Babe Corner’s first single off their debut album Crybaby, entitled “Summer Slaughter,” recounts the awfully familiar feeling of the end-of-summer comedown. The breezy tune is paradoxically a song about grief; one that was inspired by the passing of a band member’s family member in August.

Babe Corner is an all female four-piece indie-rock band hailing from Vancouver. Catchy guitar riffs, dreamy synths, and soothing melodic lead vocals are backed up with a four-part harmony, giving Babe Corner a nostalgic rock vibe. They have received notoriety in the local music scene for their playful live shows, showcasing their unique brand of songwriting, and opening for bands like Peach Pit, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Yukon Blonde, etc. 

Shot on film, the music video for “Summer Slaughter,” directed by Lester Lyons-Hookham, is a Lynchian-style film that compares the scent of an East Van chicken factory to the forbidding anguish that comes along with the end of summer and its associated sadness. Grief is particularly represented in the form of lifeless bodies spread around unrecognizable Vancouver locations. The band is ambiguously “dead” and “alive” throughout the video; the girls are blinking and lip-syncing in their lifeless state, representing a personification of the debilitation of a summer depression. 

The film appears to be an ode to various 80’s and 90’s films, particularly films such as The Elephant Man (dir. David Lynch), where there are isolated close-up shots of the mouths of the band members as they lip-sync lyrics such as “summer slaughter makes the smell of death so near” while blood runs down their noses. These shots are immediately juxtaposed by the band members’ elegant and frilly pastel pink outfits seen in wide-shots of their bodies, spread lifeless around the city. 

Unlike classic horror tropes, the “dead” corpses presented in this music video are lying out in broad daylight, creating a level of normalcy to this otherwise alarming sight. In contrast, the only shots of moving bodies that would indicate any living being whatsoever in this film are shots of the girls’ legs walking in the darkness, evidently shot at night. The use of lighting, and even the band members’ eyeliner, is intentional and stylistic throughout the video, including classic colours and archetypal elements from the summer season, such as various shades of blue from the sky and ocean.

The corpses also represent a defeated feeling of dread and the inescapable torment of grief–once again invoking the seasonal affective disorder often experienced when transitioning between seasons, particularly summer to fall. 

Although there are moments of sadness scattered throughout this album, Crybaby, it’s also a celebration of the peace and triumph that comes with moving forward through changes and challenging times.

Check out the music video for Babe Corner’s first single “Summer Slaughter” here, and follow them on Instagram @babecornerbaby.

Tasheal Gill is a film production student with a passion for storytelling through various artistic platforms. She is dedicated to uplifting BIPOC voices, and telling stories through a socially conscious lens. Follow her on Instagram (@tashealll).