Sunday Sesh: Music Videos? In 2018?
When was the last time you watched a music video? No, I don’t mean the way you hate-watch the videos in 365’s long-running Breakdown series. What I’d really like to know is when you last intentionally watched a music video produced by a band you enjoy? Can’t remember? Then might I suggest you break that dry spell with the creepy new single from grimy sludgelords Bathe?
Before we get to the new video, allow me to jog your memory. Bathe, if you don’t recall, is a gross-out, down-tuned abomination of sludge and noise with an affinity for dead birds and inverted crosses. When I first came across them, I was enamored with their almost haphazard malevolence and swamp-dwelling alligator folk aggression. Thankfully, those same qualities that allured me remain at the fore on new single “I Got a Good Night’s Sleep, but My Friend is Dead”; the dissonant sludge riffs are still backed by marauding, tactile percussion, and the malicious growls are still caked in six inches of noisy blood and grime. It’s the kind of track that makes you feel dirty.
And the new video for it is even worse (read: better).
Melding live footage with found footage and stock footage, Bathe and GRIME Photography have managed to capture the sinister essence of the band. Cut between shots of the band performing live, spewing maledictions from a pulpit swathed in feedback and smoke, are unsettling images of a man digging what appears to be a grave in the dark. And birds. So many birds. And a guy in a devil mask.
To be honest, I don’t have any idea what the meta-story is here, but I feel like I need a shower. And to watch my back in case I’m being followed by birds. Hitchcock achieved.
So, are you spooped too? Did you wish it actually showed a murder? Not enough steel? What videos have you been watching? Sound off in the comments below.
By the by, there are still a few dates left to catch Bathe live. Do it. And tell me how many dead birds you saw.
