Jarhead – Montreal, Canada – Experimental Folk
I haven’t written about too many solo artists for Musigator, but there’s one who has always been a stand-out for me. Jarhead is the most recent musical project of Montreal musician Jared Brasset, who plays mostly what you could call experimental folk. His emphasis is on creative guitar arrangements and recording styles, along with a minimalist lyric style.
I’m not going to lie: a lot of Jarhead’s material can be pretty dark. A friend once referred to it as music he listens to when he’s sad and drinking. But sometimes, like a drink, the right tone of music can help people get through tough times. There’s a lot of feels going on here. But, as I’ll get into for the video for “Lip Kiss,” Jarhead has his share of wild, fun songs as well. And that’s what makes listening to Jarhead great: the variety of emotions he can embody.
Lip Kiss
Jarhead’s music video for the song “Lip Kiss” shows the power of a strong, simple concept for an indie music video. In the video, Jarhead walks around attached to puppet strings, showing a day in the life of the Jarhead character wandering around the streets of Montreal. He snags a bottle of wine from a passed-out partier, gets punched out because of a misunderstanding based on his strings, and finds a guitar in a recycling bin. The video ends with the one-shoed Jarhead finally catching a break, only to find one last twist to mess with his afternoon. It’s a well-shot, cheeky look at the life of a street musician, and its charm is only matched by the music it showcases.