Aside from being three of my own personal most eagerly anticipated releases of 2011, Kurt Vile’s Smoke Ring for My Halo, Fleet Foxes’s Helplessness Blues, and Cass McCombs’s Wit’s End don’t have any overt stylistic connections—other than qualifying as the proverbial “good rock music,” that is. Vile’s sound reeks of the stoned, hazy dude next door who’s actually a virtuosic guitarist with an unconscious knack for melody; Fleet Foxes’s hauntingly gorgeous harmonies float along like a choir wandering through the woods; and McCombs’s cryptic confessionals chug to a sparse, Motown-esque groove. But based on the evocative videos accompanying the first tracks from their new records, an aesthetic spiritual kinship does emerge. Each video incorporates different blends of archival and/or shot-to-look-archival documentary footage that brings the nostalgic elements of the music to the forefront. The results are impressively cinematic. Witness for yourselves (and be sure to take my warning about the Cass McCombs video to heart):
Kurt Vile “Jesus Fever” (dir. Ricardo Rivera)
Kurt Vile
Fleet Foxes “Grown Ocean” (dir. Sean Pecknold)
Cass McCombs “County Line” (unofficial video ???)
WATCH IT RIGHT HERE [***WARNING: Though we’re talking about a music video here, this is a truly harrowing depiction of the hopeless pit of drug addiction that conveys a lifetime of sorrow in five minutes, so proceed with caution. For my money, it’s the very best of the bunch.***]
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