Photo by Graham Tolbert

The irony of Hotline TNT calling the lead single off their newly-announced third album, Raspberry Moon, “Julia’s War” is that it’s the least traditionally Julia’s War of all Hotline TNT songs so far. You don’t have to tell these pages that there’s been an over-abundance of shoegaze that’s beginning to wear thin out there the new music world these days, but if there ever were were a band who could stake the claim to being one of the more innovative contributors to its revival from an esoteric slant while signaling the time to boost it forward into directions beyond buried vocals and algorithmic feedback wash, then the New York band led by Will Anderson would be them. “Julia’s War” — titled in homage to the influential DIY imprint of They Are Gutting a Body of Water’s Doug Dulgarian which has released early works by Wednesday, MJ Lenderman, and Glixen, the lot of the TAGABOW catalog itself, and looks to tomorrow with fib and Her New Knife — leaps even further from the hi-fi-blasted indie-pop of Cartwheel in full band formation alongside guitarist Lucky Hunter, bassist Haylen Trammel, and drummer Mike Ralston. That “na na na nah” chorus is so big and dumb, yet warming in earnest with its attempts to reach for the rafters in ways you rarely hear the scene attempting to do. It’s a perfect sendoff as they look toward their past to pave the way for shoegaze’s possibilities in the future.

Directed by: Johnny Frohman

Hotline TNT’s Raspberry Moon will be released June 20th on Third Man Records.