The Blow has released quite a few albums at this point in time, but the latest Paper Television represents a significant turning point for the project. Khaela Maricich has added the talents of Jona Bechtolt of YACHT fame to make the formerly solo endeavor a duo. Long-time fans need not worry as the sound continues on the tepid romantic trajectory of yore with a bit more bouncy rhythm and simple synth beats. In the end it comes off as lovelorn pop that holds love as an idol not because the canon of pop music says it must be so, but because this is actually the emotion fueling Maricich’s fire. As such, what would be overly sweet in other hands is just right and what would normally be contrived is actually clever and witty. Intention does matter; thankfully the Blow’s intentions are sound. If you’re the girl who loves the boy who won’t love you back and you’d like to convince yourself that it’s okay to put your heart back on the line by dancing to some bouncy indie beats, the Blow is for you.
On the video for Parentheses the Blow recognized some of the building blocks of their sound and offer up some hot Karaoke action. Hooliganship provide the requisite cheesy, 16-bit Karaoke machine style graphics that are sure to make you want to grab a beer, get in front of a crowd, and be stupid.
Digging a bit deeper, the video throws out some metaphysical craze, so bare with me here. The Blow of the real physical world are doing Karaoke where the visuals are an animated version of the Blow that seem to be stranded on a desert island. The animated Blow are hanging out, drinking, eating fish, but then get stranded on a new desert island where they then discover an older version of themselves doing karaoke to the island crowd. This older, animated Blow is doing karaoke where the visuals are the real physical Blow (from the beginning of the video) doing karaoke to the older animated Blow doing karaoke to the real physical Blow and on and on like that. To top off the metaphysical bent we realize this whole sequence of events was occurring as a MySpace/YouTube video1 being watched by the animated Blow which of course is being watched by you (probably via MySpace/YouTube). As I said: metaphysical craze. Still with me? If not, the point is that the video is simplistic and appealing, almost annoying, but ultimately witty and clever, which perfectly mirrors the Blow themselves.
Aside from videos for the Blow, Hooliganship are up to all sorts of music/video/animation related tomfoolery which you should go check out immediately at their technicolor-fabulous website.
The Blow - Parentheses, directed by Hooliganship
Via SRO (iPod compatible: 46.8 MB)
- It seems that music video directors are starting to realize where their videos are being seen after all.
So how many metaphysical worlds is this? Does it make it four worlds or is there a world created each time we go into the other world?