We haven’t heard from Marissa Nadler since her “Mexican Summer” video. Definitely a beautiful song, but that’s sort of the wrong season for her, so this Greg Eggebeen-directed clip for Songs III: Bird on the Water’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Famous Blue Raincoat” arrives at the right time: early October breezes, Halloween not far away. It’s also the start of the school year, so might as well bring up “Famous Blue Raincoat”’s use of amphibrachs, a trisyllabic metrical foot consisting of a long syllable between two short syllables, employed in Latin/Greek poetry (and Dr. Seuss), etc. Note the first verse, class, or ignore all of that and instead pay attention to the haunting split-screen. Happy holidays.

A video worth watching more than twice. (Also, you can maybe hear the rise/fall more succinctly in Cohen’s version.)

Songs III: Bird on the Water is out via Kemado. Marissa’s started a blog. She’s also playing some shows:

10/24 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg #
10/26 – Northampton, MA @ Pearl Street Clubroom $
11/21 – Boston, MA @ Brainwaves Festival

# w/ Dungen and TK Webb
$ w/ Dungen and Headdress