With the video for his new single 500 Twenty Dollar Bills, Santa Cruz based songwriter Rory Lynch channels the charm and authenticity of the Cohen Brother’s classic O Brother, Where Art Thou? The song is an indie folk serenade fit for the saloon, complete with bar-side piano fills, campfire harmonica, and backwoods mandolin leads.
A farmer who has spent months at a time living in a tent, Rory is a method actor who embraces the lifestyle to match his art. Teaming up with the production team at Creative Minds, the beautifully shot video features Rory as the local bard for a merry band of drunk cowboys. Rory and cast play the part so well, complete with costume and personality that channels the period. It’s a fun video that brings us back to a time when song and celebration accompanied a stiff drink and a good smoke, the camaraderie of outlaw culture, the oasis the West provide for anyone trying to run from their troubles. Rory admits, if only he had 500 twenty dollar bills, he’d get it together. But alas, he clearly does not, so might as well enjoy what you have and the people around you.
Rory’s smooth deep croon harkens back to the first days of Country Folk, and fits nicely next to modern artists like Orville Peck and Sturgill Simpson. Overall it’s a wonderful production that most indie fans will enjoy, with major crossover potential.
Jiminil’s new video for his single Family Tree is a strong powerful video essay that could be translated in a lot of different ways depending on the personal experiences of the viewer. The video features a home bodied Jiminil in many different roles, sometimes in drag. The lyrics lead us to wonder if he is portraying the various characters eluded to in the song, like Mother, Daughter, and Father. It could also be an essay on identity crisis. The performances are vulnerable, believable, and incredibly personal. The dark 60s antique home decor feels like a prison, capturing the characters inside, caging them from the outside world.
The long camera frames and stoic gazes are creepy, with split personality camera cuts and an ascending tension that moves with the song and captures the chaos of classics like Hitchcock’s Psycho.
Family Tree is a dark folk ballad with a subtle influence of Scott Weiland and Stone Temple Pilots in the melody and vocal. The video perfectly captures the tension in Jiminil’s voice, and propels his vision and aesthetic.
Singer and songstress Gal Musette takes us on an oceanside pagan pilgrimage with the video for her new song Julia. The indie folk artist pieces together dark imagery that exists somewhere between Terrance Malick and Robert Eggers, featuring a montage of Gal on a scenic beach landscape in ceremonial costume, performing various acts of metaphorical prose. The cloudy beach looks cold and undesirable, but Gal’s character marches fearlessly into the water sometimes disappearing into the dark ocean. Like a character possessed, the video wonderfully projects the complicated world of Julia in all of her frantic glory.
Gal assembled a strong team to bring Julia to life, including Director Maria Garcia and Cinematographer Wes Cardino. There is one telling scene in the video where two Gal’s lay in beach graves on the beach. Is Julia really Gal’s mischievous alter ego? See for yourself.
Chrome textures pop over a black and white landscape in ORAI’s new video for his single Lyguma. Mostly featuring a long drawn out solo camera slow motion shot of the artist throwing a paper airplane, the video is a master class in cinematography and color (or lack thereof). The video team are true masters in lighting and frame speed to execute this kind of detail in a slow motion shot. The wide pan outro shot of the artist running towards a woman and child standing with their backs to the camera, Orai says a lot with just two long frame shots. Like any great art, you have to fill in the details, but the poetry of the moment is delivered in the short film that serves as the video.
The Wild Is Calling 