Jason & The Scorchers - Find You

JUL 01 1989 · 12:00

Jason & The Scorchers - Find You (1989) Era: Late MTV Golden Age / Cowpunk Twilight (1989) - Final phase of the cowpunk movement's mainstream flirtation; post-EMI, major-label A&M era representing the genre's last bid for commercial crossover before alt-country supplanted it in the 1990s. A rare audiovisual primary source documenting Jason & the Scorchers at the height of their major-label ambitions and the apex of the cowpunk era. The video's quantitative fingerprint, fast cutting (2.04s ASL), warm color temperature (1.684), high contrast (60.69), and high motion (8.50), authentically encodes the band's celebrated live energy within a late-80s analog production context. As one of only two singles from the commercially unsuccessful Thunder and Fire, this clip is an underrepresented artifact in the broader alt-country and Americana archival canon. Context: Released in 1989 as a single from Thunder and Fire (A&M Records), 'Find You' arrived at the twilight of the cowpunk movement's brief mainstream moment. Jason & the Scorchers, formed in Nashville in 1981, had spent the decade pioneering a fusion of punk aggression and country roots that predated and helped catalyze the alt-country boom of the 1990s. By 1989, signed to A&M after being dropped by EMI, the band represented a last-gasp major-label effort to cross over. The album was a commercial disappointment and the band dissolved shortly after, yet critics including the New York Times praised their raw power. The video's warm, high-contrast, fast-cut aesthetic mirrors the band's identity as incendiary live performers caught between Nashville traditionalism and rock insurgency, too country for rock radio, too rock for country radio, as their own history attests. Director notes: The video accompanies 'Find You,' one of two singles released from the album Thunder and Fire (A&M Records, 1989), the other being 'When the Angels Cry.' The album was recorded fall/winter 1988–1989 to analog tape at Digital Studios, Nashville, Tennessee, and mixed at The Enterprise, Los Angeles. The band's A&M tenure was brief; they were dropped from the label shortly after the album's release. No production company, director, or video commissioner credit has been located in any public archive consulted.