Baltimore’s Thee Windows started as guitarist and songwriter Dustin O’Keefe’s bedroom project Dusty Tupelo. Having played in various New Orleans-based bands throughout the 2010s (notably opening for Bully, Homeshake, and Pinegrove), he relocated to Baltimore in 2018. There he enlisted bassist Keegan Gore (who makes their own music as Sleeper’s Awake) and drummer Chris Birch of the Victory Records signed math-rock quartet The Junior Varsity to round out the lineup.
Perhaps influenced by the colder weather of Maryland compared to south Louisiana, or maybe the energy of the collaborative experience, the new songs had a certain edge that was missing before. As the group’s writing and recording process progressed, the sound morphed from drum-machine and synth based experimentation into straight up indie rock with nods to shoegaze, emo, folk, and post-punk.
The trio’s debut album, Margin of Error, arrived on October 14th — and their cassette release show takes place on December 2nd at The Crown in Baltimore with support from Billy Basement, Gay Baseball, and Sleeper’s Awake.
Today Glide is premiering the video for the standout track “Warning.” The song finds the band blending shoegaze, left-of-the-dial alternative rock, and pop-punk with lyrics that hone in on finding your purpose in the world. The quick track balances catchiness with reflective lyricism that pulls you in and makes you think.
Keegan Gore (bassist of Thee Windows / co-writer and co-director of the music video) describes the inspiration behind the song and video:
“Making the ‘Warning’ music video was very collaborative. Dustin had this idea about waking up in a world that’s labeled in sticky notes — so I sorta ran with that and said ‘what if the labels got progressively more abstract and weird’. Then we sat down to write and shoot it over the course of a couple weeks. The whole process was really fun and we got a bunch of our friends to come over and help.
I think the sticky note idea works well because the song is, in a sense, about how others might define you or the world you inhabit. So much of our lives seem to be determined by preconceived notions of what it means to be happy, successful, etc. and so there’s a freedom in ripping off labels (or burning them) and kind of finding your own meaning or purpose in the world.”
WATCH:
