9 April, 2021Print
NYC’s duendita and LA’s Frankie & The Witch Fingers Wrap 2020/2021 Dr. Martens Presents: Music & Film Series With New Short Films
2020/2021 Dr. Martens Presents: Music & Film Series featured
Filmmakers: Ali Roberto (LA) and Gabriel Gomez (NYC)
Music artists: Blimes and Gab, Cautious Clay, duendita, Frankie & The Witch Fingers, Lauren Ruth Ward, NEZ, Orion Sun, The Regrettes, Rosehardt, Stuyedeyed, Sunflower Bean, Tolliver
PORTLAND, OR (April 9, 2021) New York-based duendita and Los Angeles’s Frankie & The Witch Fingers are the final artists to release short documentary films as a part of the 2020/2021 Dr. Martens Presents: Music & Film Series, in partnership with COLLiDEAgency. Led by LA filmmaker Ali Roberto and NYC-based filmmaker Gabriel Gomez, the 2020/2021 Dr. Martens Presents: Music & Film Series celebrated artists in the LA and NYC music scenes respectively working hard and uplifting those around them despite these unprecedented times.
Revisit the Dr. Martens Presents: Music & Film Series in full here: https://www.drmartens.com/us/en/dm-presents
In her film NYC’s duendita speaks about finding stillness and using her newfound energy to make music that expresses her innermost self. “Music for me is the place where I can go to express my deepest feelings,” she says. “I’m making an archive of what I am feeling now, what I am expressing now, and where I’m from...” Watch duendita in the Dr. Martens Presents: Music & Film Series here: https://www.drmartens.com/us/en/dm-presents-duendita
LA’s Frankie & The Witch Fingers discussed creating visual art pieces during quarantine, selling them in auctions and donating the proceeds to the Black Lives Matter movement, The Loveland Foundation and more. Watch Frankie & The Witch Fingers in Episode 14 of the Dr. Martens Presents: Music & Film Series here: https://www.drmartens.com/us/en/dm-presents-frankie-witch-fingers
Next Tuesday, April 13th, Frankie & The Witch Fingers will perform live on the Dr. Martens Instagram page at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET as a part of Dr. Martens Presents: Music & Film Series. Tune in here.
Last month, the Dr. Martens Presents: Music & Film Series highlighted LA’s four-piece band The Regrettes and New York City’s Stuyedeyed who each spoke about their own community pursuits and how they each remain optimistic. More info on duendita, Frankie & The Witch Fingers and the Dr. Martens Presents: Music & Film Series below.
ABOUT DR. MARTENS
The first pair of Dr. Martens boots rolled off the production line on the 1st April 1960. With its trademark yellow stitch, grooved sole, and heel-loop, it was a boot for workers, initially worn by postmen and policemen; comfortable, durable and lightweight in comparison to its competitors at the time.
Throughout Dr. Martens history, the brand has been adopted and subverted by diverse individuals, musicians, youth cultures and tribes. These are the people who stand out from the crowd and their journey of self-expression has always been accompanied by a pair of DM’s.
The simple silhouette allows people to customize each pair; whilst on a utilitarian level, their famous durability and comfort make them ideal footwear for the world of gigs and street fashion. On an emotional level, they are a flag of attitude and empowerment.
ABOUT DUENDITA
duendita is an independent artist from Queens who splits her time between New York City and Berlin. She grew up immersed in the classical music tradition.
duendita is inspired to create art that provokes listeners to express themselves and begin journeys of purpose. Her work is guided by her spirituality and a love for the human experience.
She has been featured by numerous outlets including The New York Times, Pitchfork, Newsweek, GirlBoss, The Fader, Variety, and more. In 2018, she released her debut EP, direct line to My Creator, created over the span of two years. The record blends live instrumentation with sampling and explores themes of faith, dedication, and identity. Currently, she is recording new music and spending her time with nature.
ABOUT FRANKIE & THE WITCH FINGERS
https://frankieandthewitchfingers.com/
Bubbling up from the psychedelic tar pits of L.A., Frankie and the Witch Fingers have been a constant source of primordial groove for the better part of the last decade. Formed and incubated in Bloomington, IN before moving west to scrap with Los Angeles’ garage rock rabble, the band evolved from cavern-clawed echo merchants to architects of prog-infected psych epics that evoke a shift in reality. After a stretch on Chicago/LA flagship Permanent Records the band landed at yet another fabled enclave of garage and psychedelia – Brooklyn’s Greenway Records, now working in tandem with psych powerhouse LEVITATION and their label The Reverberation Appreciation Society, the group’s latest effort is dually supported by a RAS / Greenway co-release.
After years of searching for the specific alchemy that would tear open the cosmos, they found the formula with the addition of Shaughnessy Starr on drums in the summer of 2018. They began a new cycle and tripped into tip-on double gatefold territory, flesh-ing out their lysergic impulses into a monolith of sound that closes in from all sides. The band reached new levels of grandiosity and utilized every minute to manifest their psych-soul Sabbath in four dimensions, spilling psychic blood on a populace ready and eagerly waiting. Yet, as expansive, inventive, and immersive as any studio album might be, the band is born for the stage. As their live prowess caught the ears of some legends in their own right, the band practically lived on the road last year with stints opening for Oh Sees, Cheap Trick and ZZ Top. Along the way the constant pulpit of the stage would form ZAM into a transformative experience while plotting their next permutation of space and time.
That transformation, Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters… (repeated infinitely,) rises like a Phoenix from the road tar, van exhaust, and ozone crackle of amps in heat. Once off the road it was recorded in just five blistering days. Though, while the tour may have hammered the album into shape and brought about a wind of change, those changes stretched to the band itself as well. In the wake of the tour the band’s longtime bassist Alex Bulli made his exit, with the majority of bass parts on the album being written and played by multi-instrumental magician Josh Menashe with occasional pitch in from songwriter Dylan Sizemore. Stripped to their core the band has created their most ambitious work to date, an album that takes the turbulence of ZAM and crafts it into a beast more insidious and singular than anything in their catalog. Moving forward, the band has taken on new blood. Completing their lineup, Nikki Pickle (of Death Valley Girls) will join them working the new album out roadside on bass. A new horizon of Frankie and the Witch Fingers draws near and we’re all set to follow them into the unknown.