Artist:
A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS
Label:
MUTE
Video:
“KEEP SLIPPING AWAY”
Director:
Brendan Bellomo
Add Date:
February 16, 2010

Howdy fellow music lovers, it’s Andy Gesner and the staff from HIP Video Promo, back with the second clip from a band that’s now recognized as the foremost psych-rock band in the American underground. We all know that A Place To Bury Strangers frontman Oliver Ackermann can bring the fury like few contemporary musicians can. We know that he’s a formidable presence in concert — one in complete command of his berserk, noise-drenched, attention-grabbing guitar tone. We know he’s a master of d.i.y. iconography: his band’s trippy, lo-fi projection show has been imitated by countless acts. But did we know that Oliver Ackermann is a pretty believable leading man? In the clip for “Keep Slipping Away”, the band’s latest single, Ackermann plays a mad scientist (admittedly not much of a stretch for anybody involved in A Place To Bury Strangers!) too preoccupied with his knobs, wires, and gadgets to take proper care of his primary relationship.

We won’t speculate about the video’s resemblance to Ackermann’s real life. But if he hasn’t been seen much at home lately, he’s got a good excuse: his band has been in constant demand all over the world. In recent weeks, they’ve taken the sonic maelstrom across Europe; next month, they’ll be making a stop in Australia. After that, they’ll be mounting another cross-country North American tour with the like-minded Big Pink. Meanwhile, positive notice about Exploding Head, the band’s ambitious sophomore release, continues to pour in: in a rave review, mainstream publication AM New Yorkembraced the album’s “weapons-grade guitar feedback” and “destruction elevated to the level of sonic sacrament.” Spin Magazine recently called “Keep Slipping Away” “as tightly wound, shadowy, and sugary as any Cure single in decades”. For a band best known for its sheer sonic attack, the latest single is surprisingly subtle. It still hits with piledriver force — but its melody is downright catchy. Nobody will ever mistake the ferocious A Place To Bury Strangers for a pop band, but don’t be surprised if you find yourself whistling this one in the shower.

Given the band’s technical proficiency and affinity for imaginative signal processing, it was inevitable that they’d make a sci-fi clip. The “Keep Slipping Away” video finds Ackermann hard at work in a laboratory in a Brooklyn apartment; during one sequence, he appears with a Frankenstein-like metal-cone hat affixed to his head! Wires run from the frontman’s cranium into machines, and it’s not easy to tell whether he’s transmitting information or receiving it. All of this plays on Ackermann’s well-known sideline as a manufacturer of some of the most hellacious guitar pedals and audio equipment ever created. In the clip, his workspace is, quite literally, wall to wall effects; he throws switches and presses buttons, and applies solder to the motherboards of infernal little devices. But it’s not a guitar tone he’s working to refine here — instead, he’s capturing footage of his winsome girlfriend and manually manipulating it to alter her moods. He’s oblivious to the romantic overtures of his flesh-and-blood romantic partner; when he’s sucked into a machine of his own making, he’s ecstatic, and she’s disgusted. All flashing lights, electric buzzes, and quick cuts, the “Keep Slipping Away” video is an absolute hoot, and proof positive that the loudest band in New York also has one of the best senses of humor.

We are always psyched to have the chance to work with Mute and their terrific artists. 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.Mute.com to find out more about A Place To Bury Strangers.

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For info about A Place To Bury Strangers’ previous video, “In Your Heart” click HERE