Josie Cotton Releases Video for 'Blackout'

"If you've ever felt like plunging brain-deep into the real lost '80s, the new video for '(Let's Do the) Blackout' is your diving board," says infamous New Wave icon JOSIE COTTON about her brand new video for her classic song. The video premieres on MXDWN.com, who calls the track "a vibrant '80s hit that combines elements of new wave, surf rock, and pop. It's a reminder of the dark yet spunky nature of Cotton's addicting music." "Blackout" collects footage from the era when the song was originally released in 1982 and meshes them together for a vintage-adjacent celebration of the generation that spawned legwarmers, Jazzercise and slamdancing.

Once lost in the dustbin of history as they say, "Blackout" was dusted off recently when the rights to Josie's back catalog were reverted back to her from former label, Elektra Records. Through her own label Kitten Robot Records, she began releasing new music and reissuing her previous albums. "'Blackout' was originally the b-side to [my breakthrough single] 'Johnny, Are You Queer?' Turns out some songs are merciless attention whores," she laughs about the track. "But 'Blackout' was always a favorite of mine and now is going to get the attention it deserves. An anti-dance dance song that you can dance to... about a dance that probably doesn't exist but you desperately want it to."

Now included as the bonus track on the reissue of her debut album Convertible Music which was re-released this past August 2020, "(Let's Do The) Blackout" gyrates and grinds to that authentic propulsive new wave punk beat that pogoed across dance floors in the '80s. "This video is a time warp from another time warp," she jokes with MXDWN. "But after we finished putting together the video, I found myself missing an era that I never think about. I'm as guilty as anyone of thinking of the '80s as more innocent than relevant... with its androgynous fashion of no tomorrow, Go-Go boots from hell and the long abandoned hairspray gods. No one knew where it would all end... but for the foreshadowing," she adds ominously with a wink.

In the last year alone, Josie has released the singles "Ukrainian Cowboy"/ "Cold War Spy," a holiday track "Every Day Like Christmas," and re-released her albums Everything Is Oh Yeah!, Invasion of the B-Girls, From the Hip and her breakthrough debut album Convertible Music on which "Blackout" now has a happy home. Her most recent release Movie Disaster Music was released last month.

Watch the video here:

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