Photo by Daniel Topete

All roads lead to the fun, and with that, happy birthday to Ian Shelton who probably couldn’t have asked for any more to celebrate after his latest trip around the sun following a big year for his band, the hardcore boundary-shifting Militarie Gun, who released one of the year’s best albums, full stop, with Life Under the Gun. There’s more on the way with that momentum, too, with a full headline tour mapped out, making this year’s Coachella poster, and come this Friday, drawing even further outside the lines of even their own convention when Militarie Gun releases the EP, Life Under the Sun, a companion piece featuring repainted versions and collaborations on known tracks with the likes of Bully and Mannequin Pussy, as well as a cover of NOFX’s “Whoops, I OD’d”. Their birthday gift to us today, however, is their team-up with progressive post-hardcore lifers Manchester Orchestra on their rework of “My Friends Are Having A Hard Time”. Here, the two bands fill in the blanks as to what Militarie Gun might sound like if they swerved fully into experimental electronic pop, pristine yet peering vacantly even further into the struggle just to get through the day. And it’s days like this that are cause especially to remember just how far you’ve come from the point of feeling that way.

Directed by: Isaac Deitz

Militarie Gun’s Life Under the Sun will be released January 26th on Loma Vista Recordings.