Video Store - Everything looks better at night EP (2025) Hi-Res

Rotterdam’s Video Store celebrate their tenth anniversary this year, but it hasn’t exactly been a nonstop party. After a burst of activity in the early days, the band went quiet for seven long years between their 2018 split with Zero Zero Zero (on Shield Recordings) and this brand-new six-track EP.

The wait pays off. These 20-plus minutes deliver a kind of heartfelt, melody-forward punk-adjacent indie rock that you simply don’t hear much anymore—at least not at this level. Hardly surprising when you look at the lineup: guitarist/vocalist Aart (Face Tomorrow, Malkovich), guitarist/vocalist Harm (Backfire!, Modern Life Is War, No Turning Back, Razor Crusade, Reaching Forward, The Dead Cvlt), bassist/vocalist Julian (Sepiroth, The Dead Cvlt), and drummer Jeroen (KillTraitors, Miasmata). It’s basically an all-star team of the Dutch punk and indie underground.

Expect earnest, surging rock songs that keep you on a loose leash—letting you breathe, reflect, and then jump back in for the band’s big, communal call-and-response moments. Think the restless energy of the Our Band Could Be Your Life bands, stitched together with the emotional pull of Midwestern emo. Excellent stuff, truly. Video Store sound like a band returning not out of nostalgia, but because they clearly still have something to say.