Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Moving Pictures Kings of Leon's 'Back Down South,' MONA Live! at Slane Castle [Fresh Vids]
Posted by Adam Gold on Tue, May 31, 2011 at 3:01 PM
How’s this for first world problems? It’s barely even 3 p.m. and already my abridged workweek has been fraught with frustration. Frustration at my computer’s failure to comply with multiple attempts at installing an outdated-Mac-friendly, current version of Adobe Flash — an endeavor that ended up requiring a half-dozen software searches, a Firefox upgrade and, ultimately, the intervention of Southcomm’s IT department.
And all this just so I could watch the latest Kings of Leon video, which premiered today on VEVO. Of course, just as my web woes got sorted out, the folks VEVO posted a simple, traditional, embeddable version of the video on YouTube. (See above.)
As you will see, the video for The Followill Bros.’ (and Co.) latest single “Back Down South” is aggressively literal, rounding up visions of various below-Mason-Dixon-Line pastimes cast in the saturated golden glow of a Wilford Brimley-driven Quaker Oatmeal commercial. (Or I could describe the clip’s glistening Dixieland aesthetic as having a sort of “Faulkner-meets-Valtrex-commercial” vibe, if you’re partial to more literate or contemporary references. Up to you.)
Anyway, watch as three minutes of convertibles on country roads, mud-soaked pick-up trucks, barnyard cine-scapes, shotgun shells, Main Street barbershops, un-ironically donned mesh caps, couples necking in Corvettes, weeping willow trees, horses and the beers for them, skin shown by skinny ladies and dip-flavored Summertime softball games all culminate in a come-around-sundown, backyard, fiddle-and-Followill jam — which then culminates in a Fall-of-Saigon-worthy backyard fireworks show that is, fittingly, fuckin’ BAD ASS. Hopefully that won’t lead to the band getting a phone call like this one.
Though I would’ve liked to see the chickens-with-tractor scene from Footloose recreated here, I can live without it — or with it just included below. Also, if you ask me, I’m surprised this song wasn’t released as a single earlier — it’s Sundown’s most obvious Top 40 contender. It would’ve even worked with this video.
In related KOL news, this weekend the band headlined Ireland’s famed natural amphitheater at Slane Castle (where U2’s Unforgettable Fire was recorded, and other historical stuff once happened). The band tapped Nashville rockers MONA — along with a circa-now lineup of Thin Lizzy, who U2 supported at the venue in 1981, FYI — to open. See a clip of MONA’s support slot below (and more like it here). They look like they’re having way more fun doing the whole international-stadium-rock thing than they were waiting tables at Urban Flats. Peep it.
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