Fool’s Life is from Dr. Dog’s third album Easy Beat, released a year ago, and then rereleased right now. Why? The time is right for the strike, my friends. You see, there are a few truths about music that must be adhered to. The first is that mainstream music will mostly suck, even when it doesn’t. The second is that “Alternative” music will try to combat the mainstream, but, by most measures, will suck just as much. Alternative (currently being remodeled as “indie”) music survives on trends and fads just like mainstream music. I’m not sure where we’re at right now. We’re still coming down from the pop-punk to screamo-to “Green day wore eyeliner so now we do” goth-punk to the recent mish-mash lull before the next big wave hits. I don’t know what it will look like, but I’m pretty sure it will have something to do with boys jumping. Now, in between the mainstream and the alternative is where all the action is really at. These purgatoried folks are always there, they just get more attention given to them whenever the mainstream or, especially the alternative, hit a dip between boy-bands and mall-punks. When the big guys in the room stop yelling, we get to hear the whispers of the little folks. Usually these whispers end up sounding like Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and/or Brian Wilson.
Dr. Dog have been P-forked as being a Beatles rip-off, others have thrown in a Brian Wilson reference or two. Yes, those influences are there, definitely. But any more so than any other band not too busy ripping off their scene’s own sound in an incestuous rampage? Not really. The moral: settle down. Can you get through the track “Oh no” without an image of a fat Brian Wilson hovering into your mind? No. But that’s okay. A bit of fat, Hover-Wilson can be a good thing. Trust me.
The video for the track Fool’s Life is a cheeky clip involving warnings, safety, and low-budget gorilla masks. Basically Planet of the Apes all over again. In terms of production, the video looks like Dr. Dog sounds, so that’s something. It all fits what the band represents, really: retro, sloppy, tongue-in-cheek, and most importantly, a genuine exuberance for what they are doing.
Fool’s life debuts tonight on MTV’s music-videos-as-an-art-form-life-support system. Perhaps they will reveal who directed this thing.
Daaaammnn Dr. Zaius!!
This shit is 10 kinds of crazy, from the Chimpanz-A’s to the ChimpanZee’s. Those masks freak me out, I can see the nightmares coming from miles away. You’ve really made a Monkey out of Me….
I always wanted to be a movie. Not like an actor in a movie but the character in the movie. Then cool stuff always happens to you. And I could end every thing BAM!
I like this a lot. I particularly like that the green-shirt-kid/monkey has his tongue sticking out because that’s so kid-like. And his prehensile curlicue tail is cute. And speaking of this video, Jimmi you need to tune-up your car.
The video is edited from a 1963 film on bicycle safety. Watch it at the Prelinger Archives:
http://www.archive.org/details/OneGotFa1963
This is quite a curious matter. A couple years ago, I made a video pitch to the Shins edited from that same safety film, “One Got Fat”. The Shins didn’t go for it, but I liked it so much I’ve kept it on my site (www.winchandpulley.com). Now this video surfaces. Quite curious indeed. It’s not really that big of a deal, but as it turns out I share some mutual friends with Dr. Dog. I can’t help but think that there was some sort of “cross-pollination”.
In any event, here’s my version:
The Shins - Fighting in a Sack