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June 18, 2009

New These Are Powers Video - "Easy Answers"

thumbnail icon: New These Are Powers Video - "Easy Answers"

The concept behind the Jacqueline Castel-directed video for "Easy Answers," the opening track on These Are Powers' All Aboard Future, is more interesting than the song itself:

The video [...] was jointly inspired by the annual Ghost Festival held every August in China and the Chinese folkloric tradition of burning joss paper after the death of a relative or loved one. Joss paper has long been burned ceremoniously as an offering to the dead, representing all of the worldly goods that spirits may desire in the afterlife, including intricately detailed miniature paper replicas of mansions, BMW convertibles, laptop computers, karaoke VCRs, and large denomination hell bank notes or ghost money ... [For] lost spirits who still roam the land of the living, small paper boats and lanterns are bought and released, which signifies giving direction to these restless ancestors.

The Brooklyn/Chicago post-new/no wave trio's interpretation of said tradition involves more camera pointing and mugging than the annual Chinese Ghost Festival.

All Aboard Future is out via Dead Oceans.

Posted at 11:22 AM by brandon in
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8 Comments

SAw them at Death By Audio on Friday! Best live show I've seen this year by far!! And I've seen Grizzly Bear...........

Real Estate was great too!!

Posted by: Cale at 06/18/09 11:30 AM  | Reply
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Was this an American Apparel commercial?

I threw up in my mouth a little bit when the singer said "and brought it with us."
her vocals are laughably awful

Posted by: Warpedcoasters profile link at 06/18/09 1:15 PM  | Reply
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love the new background $tereogum!

Posted by: coop at 06/18/09 2:15 PM  | Reply
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The singer's Eartha Kitt impression is pretty bad.

Posted by: Mike at 06/18/09 2:55 PM  | Reply
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ahah $tereogum. i get it. it's sad because i already hate this movie before it has even come out, it's trying too hard to exploit my indie sensibilities. zooey? mysterious skin (ugh) guy? sundance selection? THE SMITHS? REGINA SPEKTOR?? Ugh with a side of Gross.

anyway, advertisement doesn't really bother me. this music video is good but the song is not. The band looks really cool though, so there's that.

Posted by: Mandy profile link at 06/18/09 2:56 PM  | Reply
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someone got ahold of timbaland's sample library.

Posted by: robert at 06/18/09 4:16 PM  | Reply
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wait... this isn't the trailer for the new blair witch movie?

Posted by: the musicologist profile link at 06/18/09 11:06 PM  | Reply
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Neat video. Glad to see this band is finally getting some coverage. If the YYYs were still at all relevant, they might sound something like this.

Posted by: ematic profile link at 06/23/09 3:31 PM  | Reply
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