You might say Music City-by-way-of-Bowling Green rockers Cage the Elephant are living the dream, dominating in the world of rock ’n' roll on the strength of their Dan Auerbach-produced album Tell Me I'm Pretty, which has earned them their second
Grammy nomination.
But new visuals to accompany the record's slinky Stones-ian number "Cold Cold Cold" come from a much darker place. Above, see Cage's red-washed performance of the song from their Tuesday night appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. As frontman Matt Schultz stalks the stage in Mod style (no crowd surfing this time), you'll notice some eerie featureless masks projected behind the band.
Those make another appearance in a new music video for the song, directed by Schultz, which you can see below. In fine Kubrick-meets-Jodorowsky-meets-Devo fashion, the narrative follows a young man admitted to a foreboding, imposing psychiatric institution where things happen that he can't un-see.
"I think we're all very prone to subscribe to a safe, surface level pursuit of happiness, keeping our adversities out of sight out of mind, in a way," Schultz told Rolling Stone, who premiered the video. "We try to fix ourselves to fit into the social norm, and it is so easy to forget that in one way or another, the broken hearted are the beautiful ones."
Cage the Elephant heads out to Europe next week, followed by a string of festival appearances that swings through South America. The next local-ish date on their current itinerary is June 8 at Bonnaroo.
