As a phrase, Picture You Staring, the title of TOPS‘ second album, is simultaneously intimate and voyeuristic. The title comes from a pretty innocuous line in the bright pop single “Way to Be Loved” that goes “I can picture you staring / out the window / not caring.” But in the video for “Outside,” a lounge-noir track steeped in synths and longing, director Fantavious Fritz expresses that idea in full – as a series of fragmented, refracted gazes.
The “interactive video” shows multiple angles of TOPS lead singer Jane Penny doing ballet-like choreography in a dark foggy room in front of a mirror image of herself. It takes place across multiple movable video windows, each window a different color and running at a slightly different speed, hosted on a simple black background. The viewer is looking at Jane as she is looking at herself, but as soon as you focus on one angle you lose sight of the rest.
Fritz said, “Outside…carries such sublime simplicity and unity, like a well-curated collage or painting of sounds. This website came out of a desire to experiment with the internet as a medium and visually portray this idea of collage with video / performance. In ‘Outside’, the internet serves as a canvas for play with colours, shapes and moving kinetic form, allowing for many different viewings of the piece.”
Picture You Staring is out now on Arbutus. TOPS will tour Japan, the US, and Canada in February and March and then Europe in May in support of the album.
TOPS tour dates:
February
7 Kanazawa, JP – Artgummi
8 Osaka, JP – Chika Ikkai
9 Hiroshima, JP – 092 Banquet
10 Fukuoka, JP – Utero
11 Kumamoto, JP – Navaro
12 Kobe, JP – Helluva Lounge
13 Kyoto, JP – Metro
14 Tokushima, JP – Crowbar
15 Hamamatsu, JP – Kirchherr
16 Nagoya, JP – KD Japon
17 Tochigi, JP – Hello Dolly
18 Sendai, JP – Space Zero & NeoBrotherz
19 Tokyo, JP – O-Nest
20 Fever (late night party)
22 Los Angeles, CA – The Echo (All Ages Early Show)
23 San Fransisco, CA – Brick & Mortar
25 Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
27 Vancouver, BC – The Biltmore
28 Deportivo Lomas Atlas (NRMAL Festival)
March
5 Minneapolis, MN – Icehouse
6 Chicago, IL – Subterranean
7 Detroit, MI – UFO Factory
8 Toronto, ON – Smiling Buddha
9 Hamilton, ON – Baltimore House
12 Dallas, TX – Three Links (Red Bull Sound Select Dallas: Curated by Gorilla vs Bear)
13 Waltham, MA – Chums
14 Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right (late night)
19 Quebec, QC – Le Cercle
20 Montreal, QC – Le Ritz PDB
May
11 Birmingham, UK -The Hare & Hounds
12 Bristol, Avon, UK – Start The Bus
13 Manchester, UK – Gullivers
14 London, UK – Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club
19 Luxembourg, LU – De Gudde Wëllen
20 Rotterdam, NL – WORM
21 Hamburg, DE – Aalhaus
23 Mannheim, DE – Maifield Derby Festival
24 Dortmund, DE – Way Back When Festival
26 Prague, CZ – 007 Club Strahov
27 Leipzig, DE – Goldhorn
28 Berlin, DE – Privat Club
30 Copenhagen, DK – Vega (Ideal Bar)June1 Stockholm, SE – Lilla Hotellbaren
3 Amsterdam, NL – OT301
