Durry's live show is rad.
In front of six large TV monitors, five marquee letters that spell out DURRY and one inflatable tubeman named Tony, frontman Austin Durry thrashes to songs from their latest album, like "Bully," "This Movie Sucks," "idk i just work here" and more. Not familiar with those songs? You should be.
This summer the band dropped This Movie Sucks, an atom bomb of an album filled with new pop-punk nostalgia. Recess vernacular meets millennial counter culture in songs that vary in styles, but combine to reflect the plight of today’s struggling young adults and the grind of living. A topic Burnsville, MN-born siblings Austin and Taryn know well.
During the pandemic, the Durry siblings did what many young people did: moved back in with their parents. In mom and dad's garage, the pair began writing, performing and blowing up under their shared last name. In addition to their captivating new sound, the siblings' campy and hardscrabble DIY visuals, like the music video for 2021's "Losers Club," shot entirely on a spinning merry-go-round, generated many online fans.
Durry has found its audience in the downtrodden, the nihilistic, the self-critical and people who just like to cut loose to unkempt indie rock dripping with emo. Today, alongside Austin’s wife Ashley Durry on bass and Dane Hoppe on drums, they're spreading the Durry gospel in their highest-production tour yet, which kicked off with a packed show at xBk Live in Des Moines in early October.
This Movie Sucks
Austin and Taryn struck gold with the second song they ever put out, “Who’s Laughing Now,” in 2021. To keep momentum going, the band rushed to release their debut full-length album, 2023’s Suburban Legend, which features a remix of their breakout hit. With the first album out of the way and their fanbase growing, Durry took proper time concocting their sophomore album: This Movie Sucks.
“I think on this record, we were able to be a lot more intentional about every little piece and just the art of it as a whole,” Taryn said. “I think our first album was a lot more reactionary in a way. And technically we had enough songs to make an album. So we threw them together. The second album [however] has been a great process.”
Usually in music, "cinematic" is used to describe sounds that are wide and all-encompassing. For This Movie Sucks, it's literal — from visual design to the music videos. It starts with the album's cover, which features Taryn and Austin sitting on a couch, perplexedly staring at a staticky television they'd just loaded with a VHS tape. The viewer is looking through the TV screen back at the band.
Flip the album over and you get the reverse view from the couch of that same retro TV and two stacks of VHSs representing each track on the album, in the style of classic movie genre fonts. For example “idk i just work here” (track nine) is written out in the blocky red text associated with 2000s comedies such as Are We There Yet?, Daddy Day Care and Scary Movie. While “Start A Band” (track six), a pulsing track about jumping in headfirst, is an homage to This Is Spinal Tap.
Staying true to the band's roots, much of This Movie Sucks' visuals were cooked up in their parent’s garage. Those visuals reference and "recreate" a bevy of iconic films and movie posters, which, Austin said, were the perfect vessel to flex the band's hardened “DIY skills." They even constructed a Jurassic Park-style Jeep out of mic stands and cardboard cylinders. You could even say that their commitment to the theme of cinema verges on psychotic.
Take, for example, the music video for their single “This Movie Sucks." The video pays low-budget homage to Jurassic Park, Kill Bill, The Matrix, Godzilla vs. King Kong, Alien, Men In Black, The Terminator and still more '70s — '00s classic films. That's a lot to pack in to less than three and a half minutes. But, whether it was Austin as shirtless Jeff Goldblum or Taryn’s near perfect flying kick a la Trinity in The Matrix, the siblings make it fun. For film purists interested in "This Movie Sucks," consider whether the scenes pass the siblings' self-described "squint test" — just don’t squint too much.
“We left a Goodwill sticker on the toy dinosaur on purpose,” Taryn said, “Just so you know it’s not too real.”
Lyrically, the album seems to exist without the presence of a fourth wall, beginning with the very first song, "Bully." The song starts with a public address: "Greetings, people of the internet! / It's your friend from the real world! / I've been reaching out, trying to make contact / All I'm getting back are relevant comments."
While it breaks from the cinema theme, another attention grabber on the album, “The Long Goodbye,” is an earnest, yearning duet unlike anything they’ve produced as a band. Not only is it the sole acoustic country effort on This Movie Sucks, it’s the pair’s first crack at the genre period. “The Long Goodbye” highlights Austin and Taryn’s gentle harmonies, with a deserved spotlight on the softer side of Taryn's abilities, in a brutal but reassuring lament about how “barely getting by” is just a part of life. It’s also the band’s only percussion-less track.
Zillennial Easter Eggs
‘Zillennial’ is a term for those born during the '90s and early 2000s. It's a narrow window and describes a generation, folks like Austin and Taryn, who may remember putting a VHS in the VCR while waiting for their Gameboy to charge. Eventually, VHS became outdated, then obsolete, and Gameboys grew corny with each passing grade. But today, nostalgia is en vogue. And with CDs, cassettes and vinyl — previously dead mediums — Durry saw an opportunity to cleverly thank their most eagle-eyed fans.
Officially, 12 tracks round out the album. However, inquisitive owners of a physical copy of This Movie Sucks may have discovered a “secret” hidden track. “Dead Media,” the record’s unofficial but actual final track, is locked behind the groove of the 12th song, “Slug Bug.” On vinyl, you have to physically pick up the needle and place it just right to hear "Dead Media."
If you get a little closer to the back cover's illustration you'll find a VHS with a scribbled out label. That’s the most blatant hint that there's something missing on this album. The other clue is the song's release date, which happens to be the date stamp on the TV screen on the album's front cover.
From the specially-designed (and FedEx-printed) movie posters for each song on the album, to deliberately sneaky vinyl pressings, the duo's attention to detail and dedication to the bit made their rollout seem like it had a whole film crew behind it. Durry’s DIY ethos is evident across every aspect of the album and its marketing. But to see the project really come alive, catch Durry when they’re in your area.
