Artist:
AEROPLANE PAGEANT
Label:
STORMY ICE RECORDS
Video:
“STARS STILL PRETTY”
Director:
Brian Kelly
Add Date:
September 14, 2009
Hey friends, it’s Andy Gesner and the HIP Video Promo staff, proud as always to fly the flag for a genuinely unusual act. “Everything about their music is one hundred per cent unique”, raves Absolutepunk.net. They’re talking about Aeroplane Pageant, and they’re not exaggerating. The New York combo makes music that is highly conceptual and invariably challenging – yet their songs are also wildly catchy, bold, and bracing, reminiscent of MGMT at their most ambitious. They’re capturing a widespread audience without sacrificing any of their intellectual conceits; in NYC and beyond, they’re answering a craving for genuinely heady rock music. Their quotability has endeared them to journalists of all kinds – they’ve already been featured in Newsday, and they’ve been the talk of the smarter local weblogs since their debut. Respected writer Rick Moody is on their mailing list. They recently played an enthusiastically-received set at the Bowery Ballroom, Manhattan’s premiere stage for independent acts. The underground has been put on notice: Aeroplane Pageant’s time has arrived.
Even The Kids Don’t Believe Me, the latest set from Aeroplane Pageant, is a collection of probing, thoughtful, thematically-linked tracks; each one appointed with the kind of detail associated with short stories. The album’s sound is mesmerizing, the musicianship is often stunning, and the writing is sharp, observant, whimsical, and (when the sentiment requires it to be) even quite critical. But the first thing you’ll notice – because it’s the first thing everybody notices about AP – is frontman Brian Kelly’s hot-wire voice. It’s a jolt of electricity, lightning flashing across a black sky; it’s instantly recognizable and an immediate sonic signature for the band. Once you hear Kelly sing, you’ll never mistake an Aeroplane Pageant song for anything else.
Kelly’s evocative performance on “Stars Still Pretty”, the lead single, is a highlight of Even The Kids Don’t Believe Me. He expresses passion and ambivalence, sorrow and wonder, excitement and an eerie kind of calm; his storytelling is allusive and impressionistic, but still profoundly communicative. Little wonder, then, that MP3 websites are picking up on the song quickly – earlier this month, AOL’s Spinner made “Stars Still Pretty” their song of the day. And when it was time to debut the track’s promotional clip, Aeroplane Pageant had their coming out on Magnet Magazine’s website.
You’d expect a bizarre clip from a band as uncompromising as AP, and the “Stars Still Pretty” video doesn’t disappoint. Directed by Brian Kelly and superbly edited by Nisi Jacobs, it depicts a card game between some ornery (and frankly unbelievable) characters, and the desperate attempts of their overseer to keep the revelry in check. How, though, can you discipline a gang of animals? Because a few attendees have human bodies and porcine heads; they’ve got all the abilities of homo sapiens but the dispositions of pigs. They’re ferocious card-players, too, pugnacious and active, and be forewarned: they’ve come armed. In subtitles, we learn that the supervisor is worried about his job – pleading for his livelihood, he begs the participants to behave. We aren’t told whether or not he gets fired, but we are given a glimpse into a surreal, disturbing, and even occasionally illuminating party.
We’re very excited to be working directly with Brian Kelly and Kevin Vale from the band! If you need more info, call Andy Gesner at 732-613-1779 or e-mail us at info@HIPVideoPromo.com.
