Halifax four-piece punk band Like a Motorcycle have just released the third single off their debut album High Hopes along with a video that takes us back in time about 90 years. Titled ‘Dead Finger,‘ the song dives deep into the wound of a love that has gone sour. Using music as a form of therapy, the band take an old relationship and turn it into something we can all relate—and yell along—to.
The video for the song was made up of footage clips from the 1929 film Man With A Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov and was edited by the band’s guitarist KT Lamond. Lyrics that touch on how it feels to go through a messy separation, like “All the vows you took so lightly, all the strings you pulled so tightly,” are sung overtop of scenes of Russia during the 1920s Soviet Union. Because nothing is more punk than the Soviet Union.
The clips shown are of everyday life: from newborns and hospital visits to people swimming, dressing for the day (how scandalous for the 1920s), drinking beer and even getting married. At the end, the clip of the wedding is immediately followed by a clip of what could be mistaken for a funeral procession, symbolizing—we imagine—the death of a marriage.
The song was written about a trying divorce one of the band members went through. It becomes apparent throughout the song with lyrics like “I put a ring on your dead finger”—not to mention the song title itself. The band channels all that raw emotions into their music. The realness of the emotion behind the lyrics gives the song an extra edge. It should go without saying that music is therapy, for both the artist and the listener.