Premiere: Deepakalypse's "Dim Sum" Soaks Up the Summer Sun

Recommended If You Like: Mungo Jerry, Frank Turner, Car Seat Headrest, Elvis Costello, Alvvays

but I will never forget your tasty face out of my mind

There’s a certain lazy, hazy, easy-breezy style of music that captures the warm, happy lull of the middle of summer. Songs like Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime,” Oasis’ “Married with Children” and The Beatles’ “Octopus’ Garden” cover vastly different topics of varying weights, but these songs all carry a light-weightedness in their music that translates perfectly to lying on a beach under the hot summer sun. If that’s your thing, then you’re in for quite the treat.

Well, perhaps an entree. Deepakalypse’s “Dim Sum” is a free-wheeling summer singalong. The “Dim Sum” lyric video, which Atwood Magazine is premiering today, embodies the song’s troubadour simplicity: The budget one-shot video features a man sleeping, his head rested against a rocky seashore and shielded from the sun by a black hat. The lyrics flash onto the screen, in what appears to be a Typewriter – but may very well be Courier New – bold font. “Dim Sum” doesn’t try to anything flashy, but it transports us, much like a burning log video, to a happy place.

And oddly enough, as far as music videos go, this one is profoundly satisfying.

still from Deepakalypse's "Dim Sum" music video — still from Deepakalypse’s “Dim Sum” music video

“Dim Sum” is the perfect introduction to Deepakalypse. The Los Angeles-based artist embraces the weird, fitting genre of folk-punk, which ought to be an oxymoron, but somehow it isn’t. His music is relaxed, yet surprisingly deep; easy-going, yet troubled. Listen closely, and you’ll find “Dim Sum” to be an emotionally-fueled ballad from a man who spills his whole thought-stream out in song:

I was scared of love
‘Cause I been scarred by love before
I’ve been hurt by love for sure
But all I know is that I want more
All I know is that I need yours

Contradictory thoughts and emotions mar Deepakalypse’s humble entrance, but as he talks himself through everything, it all eventually makes sense. The only love song on Deepakalypse’s debut album finds the songwriter struggling with the heavy concept, unsure of how to approach it, unclear of what he’s looking for, but certain that it’s important and worthy of intense conversation.

I’ve been so numb
And I was so dumb to you
Can I buy some for you?
Oh waiter, dim sum for two!

‘Cause in the summer, summertime
In the south of the states is fine
You and me are in my ride

“Dim Sum” is sweet and innocent: What it lacks in profundity it makes up for in authenticity. “Let’s get lost in downtown LA,” Deepakalypse implores his love interest in a melody befitting Ringo Starr’s vocals. No frills to be found here – just an unnervingly earworm hook from a sincere man.

If you enjoy “Dim Sum” for what it is, then it just might become your go-to summer song. Off Deepakalypse’s newly-released debut album Floating on a Sphere (July 8^th on Everloving Records), “Dim Sum” is the quintessence of hum-drum summertime laze with a splash of sobering, forlorn reality mixed in. Dive into Deepakalypse’s “Dim Sum” lyric video and float away on the splashing, lapping waves, the smooth, colorful seashore rocks, and that hot summer, summertime sun. It’s a dream you won’t want to wake from.