So here’s the scoop: Landon is a cool dude, and Vacation Club wrote a song about him called “Landon is a Rider.” Landon’s been in some massively awesome psych bands including Learner Dancer, Church of the Infinite Space Ritual, and Creeping Pink, and he now lives in California, where he plays in Burnt Ones (and continues his Creeping Pink project too, which has some upcoming releases that are quite possibly his best work yet - so look out for those).

If I’m interpreting the lyrics to “Landon is a Rider” correctly, it’s a tongue-in-cheek ode about how Landon moved out of the Midwest to be in California, where he can live a carefree life of awesomeness and take drugs all day in the sun, but he won’t be as cool out there as he was here because it’s a tighter family of fucked-up weirdos here in the Midwest - but ultimately that just doesn’t matter because Landon lives in the magical land of California, where he lives the previously-mentioned life of awesomeness and takes drugs all day in the sun. I mean, this is no doctoral thesis or anything, but that’s what the song seems to be about to me. If I were a good journalist, I’d probably just ask the band, “Hey what is that song about?” but I’m not claiming to be a good anything right now, so uh, ask them yourself if it’s really the kind of thing you have to know.

Anyway, in a fittingly astral-mirroriffic turn of events, Landon has now produced a video of Vacation Club’s “Landon is a Rider,” which pretty much backs up my insignificant theory of what the song is about. It stars Landon as himself, and he has what some might consider a good time, then goes about his day. It's an awesome video with an endearing, comic, low-budget sensibility.

Check it out:

And let’s not forget the music itself: “Landon Is a Rider” is from Vacation Club’s recently-released LP, Heaven is Too High, out now from Magnetic South Recording Co. It’s more of the power-packed, speedy and paranoia-inducing bubblegum-snot-punk we’ve come to expect from Vacation Club, and it’s also a damn-near perfect damaged pop record. With the way that these freaky boys have been packing out local shows and spilling their seed all over the U.S. on recent tours, you can expect to find Heaven is Too High on a lot of people’s “best of 2014” lists, whatever those are worth these days. Most importantly, it’s a shining example of everything that can be right about a rock record in this particular era, and I have hunch that it will be remembered for many years to come as one of the best albums to come out of the Midwest, period.

Listen to Heaven is Too High on MFT below, and order it from Magnetic South.

Also, one more thing while I’ve got your attention: Vacation Club will be playing with pretty-much-clinically-insane experimental act Teen Brigade for MFT’s monthly show series at Indy CD and Vinyl, next Saturday August 2, starting at 7 PM sharp. Check out the BrainTwins-designed flyer below, and get more details about the show via Facebook. See you there!