ATK breaks through the late-night fuzz
with “Don’t Come Knockin’” music video

Recovered VHS footage of the Boston project’s lost TV appearance on
‘The Dick Griffin Goodtime Hour’ surfaces on Tuesday, March 14

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BOSTON, MASS. [March 14, 2023] – If the band is rocking, “Don’t Come Knockin’”. But just go try telling that to surly old Dick Griffin.

To celebrate the release of their newest single, JATK has unearthed long-lost archival performance footage for “Don’t Come Knockin’s” official music video. It’s pulled from a way-back live appearance on the unfortunately forgotten Dick Griffin Goodtime Hour, recorded at a time when late-night television hosts were snippy, the fashion screamed in kaleidoscopic colors, and super-catchy, riff-laden power-pop was probably just called something else entirely. Pulled off old dusty VHS tapes and uploaded to YouTube, JATK’s “Don’t Come Knockin’” video enters the digital age and debuts on the internet on Tuesday, March 14.

But first, a little backstory on the track: “Don’t Come Knockin’” was first officially released last year as a b-side and sister song to “Don’t Call,” a single that appeared on JATK’s acclaimed debut album Shut Up and Be the Light, and now the Boston band led by songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Matt Jatkola is set to deliver a new EP of companion tracks led by the reborn “Don’t Come Knockin’”. If Shut Up and Be the Light was JATK’s center core, this wave of upcoming releases – videos, EPs, merchandise – are the new planets and moons that orbit it.

And the first release with a gravitational pull is the “Don’t Come Knockin’” music video, where JATK recovered and rehabilitated some found footage of the band’s never-before-seen late-night TV appearance on The Dick Griffin Goodtime Hour. Performing live through a pure sign-of-the-times lens and decked out in yellow turtlenecks, sassy vests, and smiles galore, the result is one of the most fuzzy, glittery, and creative videos of the year, produced by Jatkola and directed by longtime collaborator JP DiSciscio. Shaun Clarke, another longtime JATK collaborator who directed the band’s previous “Conscious Wonder” video, served as director of photography. Art direction was led by Amber Primm, who designed, constructed, painted, and installed set pieces and doors (built DIY-style out of foam) and managed details all the way down to the position of Dick's coffee mug. Even the audio, captured using period-specific mics and overseen by Ross Matthei, adds an authentic aural flair, while the video was preserved through resurrected old TV cameras. Both approaches only serve to further blur the lines from where — and when — this footage actually came from.

JATK’s assembled team is not only excited that the “Don’t Come Knockin’” video is no longer lost to time, but are stoked to help shine a studio light on a song that’s one of Jatkola’s personal favorites and signal boost it to a crowd far greater than the assembled studio audience on that fateful night long ago. The track’s passion spills out of the static and bridges the analog age to the digital one.

“It's a song about not feeling like the other person is ‘for real’ in a relationship – that you're in a non-reciprocal situation, a one-sided deal, they're playing games while you're being sincere, that sort of thing,” Jatkola says. “Now you're fed up with their lack of fortitude and you're like, ‘If you're gonna knock, you'd better be there when I open the door!’ I find this dynamic way more in friendships than in romantic relationships, but it's meant to be taken any way the listener desires. It is fully inspired by old school ‘60s R&B production that you'd hear on a Temptations or Smokey Robinson record back in the day.”

The old-school vibes and retro feel complement the video quite nicely, and true to the era of its setting, the six-minute long clip is packed with historic television shout-outs and Easter eggs. The wardrobe, color scheme, and band performance echo The Animals’ 1964 proto-music video for "House of the Rising Sun"; the show's logo and name nods to CBS’ The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour from the late-’60s and early-‘70s; Griffin's desk is similar to Steve Allen and Johnny Carson's Tonight Show desks; and Dick's wardrobe and personality ties to Rupert Pupkin, Robert De Niro's character from The King of Comedy, while his over-the-top poses parodies ‘60s comedian Adam Keefe. There’s even a cereal parallel to one of Ed McMahon’s live Kellogg's Corn Flakes commercials for The Tonight Show, and in a spooky future flashback, the donuts seen on the guests’ chair foreshadow JATK’s Shut Up and Be the Light-era singles and album artwork. Eagle-eyed viewers are sure to spot plenty of other ties to the glory days of late-night TV kookiness.

“It all started because we really wanted to do a video with a live band performing, but also a very literal and of-a-certain-time visual concept,” Jatkola says. “The song is about knocking on a door, so let's put a bunch of doors up in a studio and just perform around them. It was inspired by The Doors' infamous performance of ‘Light My Fire’ on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1967. It’s The Doors surrounded by literal doors. It's kind of a corny, simple concept on the surface, but the set looks pretty great at the same time – all the colored doors hanging around and this late-’60s, early-’70s color scheme going on. This whole project is a big melting pot of references to shows from that era. We did our homework.”

What the “Don’t Come Knockin’” video also does is reinforce the notion that while technically a solo project, JATK has always been a collaborative affair where Jatkola enlists the aid and assistance of his musically creative friends.

“All of the people in this band worked on the album with me and/or have been some of my closest musical collaborators over the years, so it was really meaningful to have them all be a part of this,” Jatkola admits. “The common denominator is that we all played in my old band The Bynars at some point. Kiel Szivos plays bass in the JATK live band now. D. Orxata is a dear friend, bandmate in our duo FBGM, and can be heard on many JATK recordings. Mike Champ took a break from being a doctor living the good life up in Vermont to sit in on drums. It was a really nice reunion for all of us, but also a fine sampling of people who are a part of the JATK world.”

And as the dusty old VHS tape – available to purchase on Bandcamp, alongside other Dick Griffin merchandise like coffee mugs and pins – brings this lost footage to the digital age, and with no legal binding to whatever out-of-business television studio first broadcast The Dick Griffin Goodtime Hour all those years ago, JATK has crafted a line of merch celebrating the video’s re-release.

“We ended up creating an entire world for Dick Griffin to live in,” he adds. “ We figured why not get a bunch of mugs and sell them so people can own a little piece of this world. We also found some buttons made with the logo, and perhaps the pièce de résistance - we're dubbing VHS copies of our appearance on the show! You'll have the 6-minute, 16-second video you see on YouTube, but each copy will be a little different. Maybe there will be some extra JATK or Dick Griffin content on there. We're taping over already used cassettes, so who knows what you'll see!”

Knock if you will. Dick Griffin is very ready to answer once again.

JATK breaks through the late-night fuzz with “Don’t Come Knockin’” music video

“Don’t Come Knockin’” credits:

JATK short bio:

The music of JATK has been heard and featured on:

Media praise for JATK:

JATK breaks through the late-night fuzz with “Don’t Come Knockin’” music video

“Don’t Come Knockin’” credits:

JATK short bio:

The music of JATK has been heard and featured on:

Media praise for JATK:

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