The Early November “Hair”

The Early NovemberArtist:
THE EARLY NOVEMBER
Label:
DRIVE THRU RECORDS
Video:
“HAIR”
Director:
Scott Culver
Add Date:
July 13, 2006

 

Greetings fellow music fanatics! It’s Andy Gesner and the staff from HIP Video Promo coming to you with one of the most highly anticipated videos of the summer! We’ve been doing this long enough to know when we’ve got an explosive property on our hands. At the risk of sounding corny, a few videos simply seem to carry destiny with them. They usually arrive just when a young director and a young band put their heads together and achieve a visual signature and a seamless union between great single and a great set of images. The big networks have already fallen for “Hair” by The Early November – and once the new release The Mother, The Mechanic, and the Pathdrops in the second week of July, it’ll be all over the airwaves and the music video channels. It’s our great pleasure to be doing our part in helping our friends at Drive-Thru Records assist a band whose time has come.

In some ways, The Early November are a quintessential Drive-Thru act: raised on “in your face” pop-punk, intimately familiar with the contours of the post-hardcore musical underground, respectful of punk history but oozing urgency, attitude and infectious melody. But whenThe Room’s Too Cold, their debut, hit the shelves, it was obvious that their ambitions couldn’t be contained by any genre. Acoustic guitar, gorgeous string settings, and even tinkly music box framed Ace Enders’s winsome voice, and felt as important to the arrangements – if not more important – than the distorted six-string crunch. Later, Enders would experiment more with pastoral settings and acoustic instruments on his solo project I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody’s Business, but The Early November has always been closest to his heart. Fans of Enders’s compelling writing have anxiously awaited the promised follow-up to The Room’s Too Cold.

The wait is over, and The Early November couldn’t have rewarded the patience of their followers more generously. The Mother, The Mechanic, and the Path is a triple(!) album, and one with deep narrative complexity. The semi-autobiographical story told by Enders traces the life of a kid doomed to repeat the mistakes of his deadbeat parents. If that sounds somber, rest assured that there are enough moments of levity, joy, and genuine thoughtful insight to satisfy any summer radio-pop listener. “Hair”, the lead single, occasionally feels like it could be a jaunty Kinks number – and when it soars into its chorus or combusts into a wild trombone solo, it’s positively gleeful. But the lyrics are bittersweet: they straddle that line between happiness and resignation to fate that Enders always seems to be walking.

Scott Culver began his career as the in-house video director for Drive-Thru Records. But word of his astonishing talents and wild imagination has spread, and it lately seems like he’s worked with every smart punk band in America. Culver has put together clips for A Wilhelm Scream, Days Like These, Yellowcard, Lorene Drive, and Ludo, as well as Drive-Thru stalwarts Hellogoodbye, Halifax, and Hidden In Plain View. But he’s saved his best work for The Early November. His gorgeous, colorful, and complex video for “Hair” complements the ambivalent tone of the song perfectly – and he brings out the latent star quality in the scruffily engaging Enders. This is a clip that deserves heavy rotation.

The video begins in a typical 1950s-style suburban neighborhood. A central character, hair slicked back and dressed in the style of a thoroughly successful man, stalks the sidewalks, waving hello to passersby and proceeding to his cherry-red auto with the widest of smiles. But once he reaches his picture-postcard town, his attitude changes. It all seems too much, the walls of the façade begin to close in; and as he’s handed the key to the city, he breaks and runs. He’s confronted by the inevitability of solitude – and The Early November, standing in front of an ominous-looking on/off switch. Culver dramatizes this disillusionment with sensitivity and good humor, and great attention to detail: every shot in the clip is bold and visually engaging. And he’s managed some of the best-synchronized choreography you’ll ever see in an indie rock video, too.

Not only is this new Early November clip one of the most highly anticipated clips for viewers, but it is also one that all of us here at HIP have been anticipating all month! We are honored to be working with Kristine Ripley and Ana Bustilloz at Drive Thru Records once again on yet another one of their high profile bands. The Early November will be on tour all summer long, and we would be more than happy to set up interviews and IDs when they visit your market. You can also count on us to have copies on hand of The Mother, The Mechanic, and The Path for all your on-air giveaway needs. If you need more info, call Andy Gesner at 732-613-1779 or e-mail us at info@HIPVideoPromo.com. You can also visit www.DriveThruRecords.com orwww.TheEarlyNovember.net to find out more about The Early November.

Visit Drive Thru Records Visit The Early November
Visit Drive Thru Records Visit The Early November

 

For info on The Early November’s video “Something That Produces Results” click HERE