Later this summer, Kiwi Jr., the indie rock band from Canada and not New Zealand, will release Chopper. Dan Boeckner, from Wolf Parade and Arcade Fire’s current touring lineup, produced the LP, and we’ve already posted the first single “Night Vision.” Today, the band has also shared the new single “Unspeakable Things,” which has a pretty fun video.
“Unspeakable Things” is a jaunty and synth-happy song, and it takes me right back to the mid-’00s blog-rock days. But the video has a whole other vibe. The idea of the video is that it’s Heat but with a bunch of Jason Vorheeses. The clip itself doesn’t quite deliver on that vision, but director Morgan Walters has fun playing around with the imagery, and it’s cool to see guys in suits with hockey masks. In a press release, band member Jeremy Gaudet has this to say:
People are always trying to sign into my email. What do they think they’re gonna find? The public appetite for dirty laundry is wild. Having moved the world online has not helped. Dan Boeckner had the idea to use the Moog sound for the hook, which was originally on guitar, and that sound brings the song into a sort of new-wave territory that was fun and different for us. We kept referencing the vibe of Michael Mann movies when recording the album, and then Morgan heard this and came up with the idea of making the video look like the movie Heat. Somehow TSN’s Jay Onrait, Jonah from Fucked Up, and comedians Tom Henry and Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll were convinced to cameo in it. We also were wearing these hockey masks filming all day next to a busy road getting a lot of car honks and didn’t realize until much later that we filmed on an actual Friday the 13th.
Check it out below.
Chopper is out 8/12 on Sup Pop.
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