I realize now, I can't get you back.
Hello, all. I'm back from my horrendous vacation, which I will outline in a later post(s), because today, I am here to tell you about a wonderful new music video that debuted just yesterday.
I've pushed you too far away.
Yes, I said, "music video." As a fan of both music and cinematography, the music video format is one of my favorite facets of multimedia. But in recent years, it's become a lost art; like most things that were great in pop culture in the generations of yore, the music video has become a way to receive publicity and make money for the record companies. Treatments that were once full of fantastic plots and deep-seated meanings have gone out the window for ones that consist fully of the artist playing the song at a raging party with booze and babes. I, personally, am a fan of videos whose treatments fit with the song.
You're too strong to be led on.
For me to even listen to a band, their lyrics have to touch me on a personal level in some way, which is why Kill Hannah is one of my favorites. Why, you ask? I've said this many times before, and I'll say it again: Mat Devine always has a way of singing exactly what is in my head at any given moment. HE KNOWS MY PAIN. That being said, I recently went through a big ordeal with my former best friend, in which we had a huge falling out, and as I type this now, we haven't spoken on friendly-ish terms since last July. Previously that month, I had seen my first Kill Hannah show. I was a casual fan; I liked their high-energy, electronica-infused anthemic instrumentation, and Mat's voice is one of the most interesting and infectious I've heard in a long time. But after the show, I wanted more. Shelby (my sister) has been a Kill Hannah fan for years, so she had a few of their records - I immediately snarked them and added them to my iTunes.
And now I know the face that will haunt me forever.
"Wake Up the Sleepers" caught my attention quickly; but the song "Promise Me," featured at the last spot on the record, didn't seem to fit. The classic dual guitar system and splintering synth fade away, which leaves Mat's eerie vocals, lamenting in the most sincere way about lost love; the difference being, the love lost was forced away. The lonely piano resonates in the background, and Mat's voice, coupled with Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba's, sounds almost ethereal, but haunting at the same time.
What have I done?
The video mirrors the whole feeling of the song. It begins with Mat, completely in love with a girl. The relationship ends badly, and throughout the video, Mat drags his heart (in the form of a beautifully crafted church organ) by a rope through the streets of Chicago. The acting scenes interlace with the organ-towing, intermixed with shots of the beautiful skyline. The coloring is real and unenhanced, and as I watched the video for the first time, I wondered how I could look at a real, blue summer sky, and still feel so incredibly depressed.
What have I done?
The sequential plot ends with the destruction of the organ in the abandoned southside coal fields.
Just please, please promise me, somewhere, dark and deep in your heart, you'll keep a tiny place for me, where no one new can reach.
Overall, the video's simplistic and beautifully done treatment is reminiscent of the band's earliest days of video making. The song and film fit so well together, it's as if one could not exist without the other. Such emotion is portrayed in every little detail. However, I do have one criticism: Kill Hannah is a band made up of five tremendous musicians, all of whom are not Mat Devine. Though the song is dependent solely on Mat's vocals, I feel the rest of his mates should be included somehow.
Just promise me, somewhere, dark and deep in your heart, you'll keep a tiny place for me, where no one else can reach.
To end my praise of the song, band, and video, here is the letter Mat wrote for the premier of the video:
"Promise Me is the most honest, deeply personal song we have ever released. Stylistically, it doesn’t fit anywhere on the album, so we put on LAST. It has no drumbeat, no guitar, no bass, and no bombastic 'radio-friendly' chorus. It’s sparse and eerie and sad.
It was the LAST track anyone at the label ever thought could be a 'single'. The fans, though, have REFUSED to let it go unnoticed. In the months since Wake Up the Sleepers was released, we’ve received more heartfelt feedback, worldwide, about Promise Me than ANY other song on the record.
Many people who only know Kill Hannah from songs like Lips Like Morphine or Kennedy may not realize that the band formed in a college dormroom over a decade ago. At that time, all we had was a tiny core of weird fans, and access to the gear in the Film Dept at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Before we were ever concerned with the politics of record labels, radio or touring, we were recording 10-minute shoegazer-y sound 'pieces' and cutting them to grainy, independent art films on Super8. Not only do we look back on those days with a lot of pride, but after 7 years of relentless international touring, we found ourselves NEEDING to get back to that simpler, uncorrupted state of mind:
Promise Me became the perfect excuse.
There was only one problem: The label refused to fund a video. 'It doesn’t make sense…commercially.'
We hung up the phone and called in every favor we possibly could. We assembled a large crew of Chicago’s most talented, pyromaniac friends to donate their time - And over the course of 48 hours we marched all over the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city…without permits.
So, in the end, not only is this my favorite Kill Hannah video for my favorite Kill Hannah song, but it has also become a SYMBOL - for how, without any help from the 'music industry', good people can get together and pull off a wild achievement.
Thank you to all in Chicago who got involved; Those who got cut and bruised and burned, for the sake of friendship…
AND, most of all, THANK YOU to the fans…For reminding us WHO WE ARE, and for refusing to let us take the most predictable path."
So, without further ado, here is the video.
Promise Me.
CELEBRITY SUBMISSION POST
3 years ago
