MAGNET Exclusive: Premiere Of Flummox’s “Siren Shock” Video

Flummox’s upcoming LP finds its emotional center in a certain sort of regional pride. But as singer/bassist Alyson Blake Dellinger notes, it’s not some “South-will-rise-again Confederate shit.” Dellinger was inspired by “Tennessee Three” state legislator Justin Jones and something he said during a 2023 gun-control protest he led on the House floor: “The South will rise anew.”

Claiming as its mascot the mighty opossum, the genre-fluid, prog-thrash quintet is a heavy-sounding band with some pretty hefty anti-establishment aspirations for Southern Progress, available April 11 on the Needlejuice imprint. The band’s third album was recorded by Jason Dietz (Amigo The Devil, Hank Williams III) at Nashville’s Twin Oak Studios, with vocals and overdubs added at Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner’s home studio near the city.

Flummox’s against-the-grain philosophy aside, Dellinger thinks “Siren Shock” may be one of the most accessible songs the band has ever done.

“Originally, we called it ‘Pleasure Shock,’ and it was just gonna be a sort of sleazy, queer sex song. Some of that element is still present in the finished song, but it’s no longer the overall theme,” says Dellinger, who identifies as a “they/she/it shape-shifting trans femme-boy/girl anomaly who kisses girls (mostly).” “After experiencing a less-than-stellar relationship during the time we were making these songs, I went back and rewrote the lyrics as more about being trapped in that situation and eventually clawing my way out in triumph. Musically, it’s basically our version of an old rock ’n’ roll song. It’s got a lot of old-school Deep Purple energy, in my opinion.”

The video for “Siren Shock” was recorded at a Murfreesboro, Tenn., staple, GO USA Fun Park. “We didn’t have too much planning going into the shoot outside of the idea of filming ourselves having fun at an amusement park,” says Dellinger. “Camden Perez—who shot and edited the video—came up with the idea of trying to win the opossum puppet, and that was basically the loose plot we clung to from there.”

We’re proud to premiere Flummox’s “Siren Shock” video.

—Hobart Rowland