It’s no secret that Quemasucabeza is one of our favorite Latin American labels. They seem to have every buzzy Chilean (and even Argentine) artist on their roster these days – they even signed Ana Tijoux not too long ago, in case there were any doubts about where they’re heading. And now, another band has joined their ranks: Prehistöricos. The band’s third album, a follow-up to Nuestro Día Vendrá, is dropping in the coming months, and their first single “Nos Vamos de la Ciudad” proves that they’ve come a long, long way since the sad sounds of their debut album, La Orquesta Oculta.
“Nos Vamos de la Ciudad” continues the upbeat indie rock feel of previous songs like “Que suba el momento” and “Con tu cuerpo el huracán.” Its new video, directed by their own frontman, Tomás Preuss, features band members and friends, hooded, dancing to the beat of the song while Preuss sings with his face uncovered. The hooded figures are a reference to the encapuchados, the young, masked radicals known for violent clashes with police at the long-running student protests and demonstrations that have been happening in Chile since 2011.
Despite the public’s polarized view of the encapuchados, the whole thing manages to be pretty uplifting, providing a new reading to the song’s melancholy lyrics about abandoning a city you don’t belong to anymore. The dancers, who get unmasked one by one, seem to be shedding the skins of their past to, in the parlance of Taylor Swift, “shake it off.”
Don’t miss Prehistöricos at the first Mexican edition of Festival Neutral on July 2nd.