The Witzard World Premiere: LULU LEWIS (Dylan Hundley & Pablo Martin)'s $24 Harlem Punk "ALL JUST PRETENDING" Video [-feat. Jay "J-Zone" Mumford, William X. Harvey & Clay Russell]
"$24 spent on what exactly?" I somewhat feverishly quipped, to which
Lulu Lewis
guitarist and co-founder
readily replied, "two skull masks and a party gun with a flag that says BANG!!!... the rest,
Dylan [Hundley]
did on an
iPhone
... and
iMovie
, some public domain footage, and the rest, we did [with] the band at
Bill Harvey
's place. We put a sheet and lights on the back and did shadows... pretty simple" via text. Let me back up and provide a little added context here: I've recently been in touch with
J-Zone
's resident studio engineer and
bandmate
Pablo Martin
, who graciously agreed to let me premier his band,
Lulu Lewis'
latest video-single,
"All Just Pretending"
here at
The Witzard
. He attests, and I wholeheartedly believe him, but it's still a little hard to believe, that their self-shot black-and-white
"All Just Pretending"
video only cost a measly $24 to fund and produce! "I think that's the major achievement of the [videos] we do...
was 0 dollars and we spent 25 on this one," Martin excitedly continued.
"All Just Pretending"
has an inherently lush, B-movie quality to it, as well as well as a rather unique 1960's
Lounge Music
-esque vibe reminiscent of
Amy Winehouse
meets
Garbage
frontwoman
Shirley Manson
.
Lulu Lewis
is just
Pablo Martin
's latest band (in addition to
The Du-Rites
, PABLO, and
Tom Tom Club
) formed in 2015 along with actress, producer, visual artist, and song-writer
Dylan Hundley
; part-time guest musicians additionally include drummers
and
Julius Solo
, guitarist and bass player
Bill Harvey
, bassist
Hannah Morehead
, and background vocalist
Clay Russell
. "We do what we like to call
"Harlem Punk"
—our soulful
Punk
version from
Pablo
's beloved hood. We took the name
Lulu Lewis
from a grave at
Trinity Cemetery
in
Harlem
, so we have a respectful relationship with death,"
Pablo Martin
wrote within a recent email describing
Lulu Lewis'
seemingly organic formation. Martin records and self-produces all of
Lulu
's compositions, which ultimately aim to combine multiple mediums with music and video elements as the foundation. It appears as though
Dylan Hundley, Martin & company
have an as-yet-unannounced full-length in-the-works, as they currently have four completed songs uploaded to their
, in addition to "another
Du-Rites
snippet video" ahead of their temporarily shelved pre-album 7-inch and a forthcoming single from
PABLO
, of which Side B "will be [mixed] within a week or so."