Snakeskin - "Skull Kid"
Snakeskin is the longtime project of New York based-songwriter Shanna Polley. Through this medium, she’s always made boundary-pushing music. Her 2018 album Hangnail was rife with infectious fuzz and thought-provoking lyricism. She spliced artistic mediums and ventured into concept album territory with 2021’s Heart Orb Bone, a three-track EP that featured an accompanying visual component. Made in collaboration with artist Williams Bottini, the visual record portion includes a shot-for-shot recreation of a scene from Star Trek: The Motion Picture for the song “TV” and a trippy, Baby-Einstein-inspired video for the title track. For her latest release, Summoning Suit, Polley is building off this concept even further, as she plans to release a full visual accompaniment to the record again in partnership with Bottini. The full film appears to be a mix of more narrative-driven music videos, like the one released in July for the track “Wasabi,” and concept art lyric videos with a sole anchoring image, like the one for “Skull Kid,” the album’s introductory track.
“Skull Kid” sounds and feels nostalgic in a way that’ll especially resonate with millennial gamers. Polley has shared that she’s an avid gamer in past interviews, so the title’s reference to the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is not surprising, and if you spent some time with that game in your youth, you’ll notice that the song actually samples music featured in the “Forest Temple.” Polley shared that the song is “is written from the perspective of the record (Summoning Suit), buried underground. The record is spinning. It possesses the cicadas to create a huge sound in its name: the overture, which features the chorus of every song from the album.”
Check out “Skull Kid” below!
“Skull Kid” appears on Summoning Suit, which is out now via Substitute Scene Records. You can order a copy on vinyl via Bandcamp.
Tonight, Snakeskill will be performing at Our Wicked Lady alongside Marissa Paternoster and Anna Altman. Tickets are available now via Dice.FM.
The visual album for Summoning Suit will be screened in its entirety this Wednesday, September 18th at Film Noir Cinema. Tickets are available via Eventbrite.
