10/10/2017

Three amazing songs and videos : Losing all sense by Grizzly Bear, Propagation by Com Truise and New York by St. Vincent.






Watch Grizzly Bear’s spectacularly weird new video.
When they quietly went on hiatus after touring their critically-devoured fourth album Shields back in 2013, no one really knew if they would hear from Grizzly Bear again. Formed as the solo project of Brooklyn-based musician Ed Droste back in 2002, the band expanded to comprise guitarist and vocalist Daniel Rossen (of Department of Eagles), bassist Chris Taylor, and drummer Christopher Bear. Over the course of four full-length records – each as vivid and vital as the next – Grizzly Bear’s brand of carefully-crafted, harmony-driven indie rock melded nuance, musicianship, and heart like few others.

Droste and co. have just released one of the albums of the year, Painted Ruins, and it’s the sound of a band who have returned positively invigorated. Even for an act whose music has often betrayed an uncanny devotion to small detail, it’s a masterclass in intent-drenched songwriting, brimming with exquisite tonal flourishes, experimental pop tangents, and a huge mood of import and solidarity. From the sweeping four-part harmonies and sonic wanderlust of lead singles “Three Rings” and “Mourning Sound” to the virtuosic art-rock finesse of the likes of “Aquarian” and “Four Cypresses”, Painted Ruins is also easily the band’s most collaborative album to date.




Why was ‘Losing All Sense’ chosen as the new single? And tell me about its accompanying visuals.

Ed Droste: There’s a lot of factors behind why singles get picked, and I’m not always the one who chooses it per se. I just go with the flow. But ‘Losing All Sense’ felt like an upbeat, fun thing to release. The video is even more of a dichotomy – it’s like David Lynch meets the The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills meets Heathers or something. It’s kind of campy and dark and surreal. I’m so excited for it to come out. It’s starring my friend Busy Philipps, another friend Freckle who’s an actress and a prominent genderfluid figure, and others. And it’s directed by a good old friend of ours, Cody Critcheloe from the band Ssion. He did an amazing job on a video for Robyn a year or so ago, and he’s an amazing musician, artist, and director. It’s a real trip. It’s a jaunty song with a surreal, campy video with sad lyrics. It’s three vibes all mixed together.

Dazed


Replicant lady finds classic way out of unhappy relationship with owner in "Propagation"
Replicant lady finds classic way out of unhappy relationship with owner in "Propagation"
 

 
Propagation is the latest from Com Truise, with an excellent video to go with it by Will Joines & Karrie Crouse, shot by Zoë White and starring Trieste Kelly Dunn and Stephen O'Reilly. It has that ideal 2010s look: the technological landscape of the 1950s with the emotional atmosphere of the 1980s and a select reading of everything in between, and nothing before or after. Well-trodden ground, sure, but the footsteps are perfect. From the new LP, Iteration.
 
 
 
Alex Da Corte Directs a Luminous Video for St. Vincent’s Ode to New York.


 

I want a swan as a pet now, thanks to St. Vincent’s new music video for her single, “New York,” which honestly makes me well up every time I hear it. Chances are you’ve seen the candy-colored, surreal clip, which dropped earlier today; savvy viewers might have also realized that the work is actually an Alex Da Corte production.
Like Da Corte’s own installations, the three-minute video exists in a whole other world of hyper-artificiality, with colors all electric and everyday objects made uncanny. St. Vincent, aka Annie Clark, reclines on a purple set with the aforementioned swan; sings into a burning bushel of greens; and dries her nails while smoking. Famous New York City public artworks fittingly make cameos: we see Clark reading the newspaper on Forrest Myers’ “The Wall” in Soho, and slowly turning Bernard Rosenthal’s “Alamo,” or the Astor Place Cube.
Da Corte explained the visuals in a short statement: “I think Annie’s New York is the New York of my dreams — one that is blurry and fractured, dreamy and flat,” he said. “It is the Toontown to my Hollywood. It is beautiful but slightly out of reach.”
His bright vision is an unexpected complement to St. Vincent’s lament, which begins with the aching and extremely relatable line, “New York isn’t New York without you, love,” before delving into more heartbreak.