It’s fast approaching five years since Sunset Honor Unit served us the warm slice of sunny beachside pop that was their debut single “Drift.” Since then, the band has experimented restlessly with their sound, weaving together strands of lush psychedelia with a cosmic array of artsy folk, fuzzy rock, and rollicking alt country. Led by dueling songwriters Drew Kirby (Mothers, CDSM) and Jake Chisenhall (Delorean Gray), Sunset Honor Unit has consistently displayed a knack for vibrant hooks and adventurous compositions, highlighting the joyous chemistry that bonds the two musicians.

That playful camaraderie and shared love of pop escapism was evident on their first full length, 2023’s Desire Paths. It was an album brimming with ideas and possibility, stretching its kaleidoscopic tentacles into everything from moody bossa nova to punchy surf rock. That mix of jubilation and ambition carried through naturally to the band’s live shows, culminating in a month-long residency at Argosy affectionately called Parlor Nights. Those free-spirited performances paired Sunset Honor Unit with some of the region’s finest songwriters, leading to collaborations with the likes of Tony Aparo and Klark Sound of Improvement Movement, Nashville’s Ritzy D (Yip Deciever, Of Montreal), and Floral Portrait.

Parlor Nights also showcased the group’s unique flair for visual storytelling and tone-setting. Merging nostalgic kitsch with a kind of artful DIY sensibility, the shows often turned raucous and gleefully spontaneous. More than anything, it revealed a band that was comfortable in it chameleonic skin and more than willing to take things the extra mile.

Now, as the band prepares for the release of their sophomore full length In the House of the Highest Dead Ends on Oct. 2, they have pushed their creative ambitions to even greater heights. Following in the footsteps of the dizzying one-shot video for lead single “Let the Wild Ones Free,” Sunset Honor Unit are back with the rabble-rousing bout of blood and mirth that is “Blue Lights.”

The track is a Kirby-penned outlaw country rock stroller interlaced with jaunty barroom piano and stabs of noisy guitar. The wandering verses allow plenty of room to build the narrative with the rowdy chorus serving as a kind of purgative release valve. Kirby sings it all with a sort of acidic scorn which isn’t a surprise given the impetus behind the song.

“‘Blue Lights’ is a completely true story of some trouble with the law I got into as a young man and the psychological after-effects of those encounters,” Kirby divulges. “It took a long time to be able to write about it, much less make fun of it, but it is essentially a means of reclaiming the narrative of my life after being ‘branded,’ but in a playful, diss-track kind of way. I haven’t suffered half the endangerment of more marginalized populations in our country, and I would never claim to be among the truly persecuted, but my experiences instilled in my young self the feeling of being outcast and looked down upon and I internalized it for years. Now that I’m older, I see it for what it is—symptoms of police overreach in the day-to-day lives of American people, citizens and non-citizens alike. But again, it’s a fun song—it feels really good to have grown enough to fight back on the idea of being a scoundrel. It’s wild to think of the emotional weight of carrying that burden and how it affected my young psyche. No more! Who ever actually feels safe around blue lights anyways?”

Directed by Kirby and shot and edited by David Tabor, the video opens with a classic prison break motif before splintering into a wild sequence that is perhaps best described as part slapstick comedy and part dark revenge fantasy. In it, Kirby and Chisenhall play a pair of escaped convicts desperately trying to outrun and outwit the law hot on their heels. Taking it cinematic cues from Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou, old westerns, and the madcap violence of Tarantino, the clip is chock-full of cartoon gags and winking nods. Still, you can’t help but notice a glimmer of malice lurking below the surface, leading inexorably to the final bloody standoff and a cathartic bonfire dance.

Watch/listen above.

Sunset Honor Unit will celebrate the release of In the House of the Highest Dead Ends on Sat., Oct. 3 at the EARL alongside Flat Tired, Spencer Thomas, and Feltie. Doors open at 8 p.m. Admission is $15. 21+ to enter.

More Info
Bandcamp: shuatl.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @sunsethonorunit
Instagram: @sunsethonorunit
Soundcloud: @shuatl