The Raconteurs are an indie wet dream. Jack White is in it. Brendan Benson is in it. Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler ( The Greenhornes ) are in it. How’s that for a perfect indie equation: someone you know (no indie-cred but safe and marketable!) someone you maybe know (some indie-cred!), and 2 people you don’t know (major indie-cred!). It’s like a license to print indie-money! The Raconteurs are so indie that they never even put out an EP, but it’s STILL better than their full length. That’s how fucking indie.
Not enough for you? How about a video directed by by Jim “long pause before I cut to the next scene” Jarmusch. He directed Ghost Dog, 200 Cigarettes, Broken Flowers and a whole bunch of other indie movies you say you like to look cool. See, at this point we have what can only be described as an indie perfect storm. Even a Spinâ„¢ cover story couldn’t sabotage this. You can’t stop it. Just surrender.
Anyway, the video itself is so indie that it is all inde-style and no plot. This is a problem. First, a raconteur is someone who tells an amusing story1. Hard to do that without a plot. Second, and most importantly, not having a plot is boring to sorority girls. If you haven’t noticed sorority girls control the fucking world. So let’s just pretend that the style is the plot. We have to please our sorority overlords, right? In that case, I think the plot of this video is “lo-fi”. If racism can be a plot, so can lo-fi. Lo-fi-ness is definitely a necessary and sufficient condition of indie-acity. Seriously, the Raconteurs are so lo-fi that their website is a DOS prompt, so it’s lo-fi or no-fi with them. So here’s the Delta-Delta-Delta-friendly plot:
The video starts with the main protagonist Grainy Film chilling in his fucked up old house by the train tracks. Grainy Film was particularly proud of his sweet new home, especially the Country Cows that were meandering about in the front. “These Country Cows are so fucking lo-fi!” thought Grainy Film. He was so enamored with his new home that he had invited his former roommates from fashion school, Top-Hat and Cowboy-Tie, over to enjoy some fine bourbon. By now, word about the burgeoning lo-fi scene by old-farm-home had begun to spread. From there things just started to escalate; people started showing up out of nowhere. Old Bathtub came over, as did Old Crib, who nobody had seen in years. Fuck, even Overexposed Film heard about the party and showed up, and when Overexposed Film shows up to your party you KNOW its going off.
And then, out of nowhere, that annoying asshole Strobe-Light-Style-Frame-Rate barged in. And what was a nice lo-fi throw-down that had everyone stoked turned into a major bummer because it felt like the DVD was skipping or the video had buffering trouble or something. Either way it was a downer. Even lone-light-bulb-hanging-eerily-from-the-ceiling couldn’t keep the party bumping, so everyone bailed.
My only gripe with this video is that they blatantly disregarded the original concept I gave them. Where the hell the hell is the wireless printing and weeding? It was supposed to be WI-FI, not LO-FI. I mean, there were weeds all over the front yard of that house. Jack, Brenden: you fucked up. But, if you want to pull a Kanye and remake the video, I’ll do it. I’ll bring the printer, but I don’t give it out for free.
Update: I just noticed Cliptip had previously come to a similar conclusion. So we’re all agreed: indie gold.
I would just like to say that those are the scariest cows I have every seen in my entire life. I can just imagine them trampling the person chasing them with the camera.
Two guests were not mentioned. You all know this couple. They are of course, Open-Shutter and Superimposing. They seem cool at first. You think you like them. They kind of know everyone but don’t seem friends with anyone else. They are that couple who are either madly in love with each other or would rather they other would be dead. So, they kick party off. They have a couple of glasses of bourbon and are cool to be around. But they get a couple more drinks in them and they become a little more annoying. But by the end of the party you hate these people and you just want the hell away from them. This is always the unanimous bale that always occurs at the end of every party. And poor Grainy-Film-Guy being left to clean up the mess and to wonder why he always invites them.
This song is offical on KROQ. How indi is that?
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article aconteurs - Steady as She Goes (directed by Jim Jarmusch) at Shots Ring Out, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.