Just weeks after the release of their long-awaited second album, Modern Condition, Melbourne trio MOD CON have not only announced the record’s upcoming launch show, but also unveiled a new video and remix for album track “Electric Whip”.
Released toward the end of October, Modern Condition came three years after MOD CON’s debut album, with its members dealing with not only a global pandemic, but other musical commitments during that time. Released just as restrictions lifted in their native Melbourne, it was a timely release, and one that saw the band – including main songwriter Erica Dunn – asking countless questions about the world we live in.
“I guess Modern Condition can be taken as a barometer of how healthy (or unhealthy) any state of affairs is,” Dunn told Rolling Stone Australia upon its release. “Checkin’ the tank or whatever.
“It’s also a spin on the human condition and an observation of where we are in our current context. I think I’m not necessarily offering answers but I’m sure asking a hell of a lot of questions.”
However, after being unable to launch the record properly due to the uncertainty of live shows and public gatherings, MOD CON have now unveiled their plans for the album’s live debut.
Taking to The Nightcat in Fitzroy in early December, the trio will be joined by the likes of Parsnip, BRICKHEAD, Teether & Kuya Neil, and Jacky Winter DJs for the event. Meanwhile, regional fans will also get a similar experience, with a show in Castlemaine the following week seeing MOD CON joined by RVG and Blonde Revolver.
Alongside the live announcement, MOD CON have also shared both a new video for album closer “Electric Whip”, but also a bonus single remix from production extraordinaire Jacky Winter, who adds a truly unique yet intoxicating side to the track.
“The electric whip is dangerous and compelling,” explains Dunn of the track’s lyrics. “It’s inciting you and inviting you. It’s the power in the wind, written about everywhere; by Joan Didion and the Santa Ana, fanning wildfire & murder rates or by Toshiyori and the Oroshi, earning its rep as a heartless woman bent on destruction.
“It raises the hair on our necks and taunts us to action, stirs shit up: knife-fights, extrospection, trance-like participants offer inexplicable obedience to its siren call. A Piteraq, a Williwaw- it’s a myth that we’re in control at all.
“In homage to a late childhood friend, too sensitive for the weather, throwing rocks off the primary school roof, no leaf unturned in restlessness. Never stop following the spirit. Follow it till the end, and fade out.”
Meanwhile, its accompanying video clip sees director Nick McKinlay incorporating an extended re-imagining of the album’s artwork theme – the Roman artefact Bocca Della Verita or Mouth of Truth – while bringing the fourth wall down.
MOD CON’s Modern Condition is out now via Poison City Records.
MOD CON Modern Condition Album Launch
Thursday, December 2nd
(With Parsnip, BRICKHEAD, Teether & Kuya Neil, Jacky Winter DJs)
The Nightcat, Fitzroy, VIC
Tickets: Moshtix
Thursday, December 9th
(With RVG & Blonde Revolver)
Theatre Royal, Castlemaine, VIC
Tickets: Oztix
