LA recovering punk Zac Carper has a FIDLAR message for those about to intervention him, conveniently written on a toilet paper roll, Third Eye Blind is still trying to make music and has shoebox full of tour photos and a lovable loser song to prove it, while a Brazilian art-rock crew from Rio called Baleia come out of nowhere with a rumination on lady time, and more, in the 29th week of Best Lyric Vids of the Week.
FIDLAR – ‘Leave Me Alone’
A twisted slap of a pop-punk snarl that is essentially lead singer Zac Carper telling everyone he loves and cares about to fuck off as he’s so consumed by his own addictions and self-loathing downward spiral that he can’t see the forest for the trees. An endless roll of toilet paper could have been an eye-rolling gimmick, but considering that he wrote this track as a means of therapy, it’s quite perfect:
Sara Bareilles – ‘She Used to Be Mine’
Chasing broadway dreams, piano starlet Sara Bareilles offers up a tease off the narrative she put together for the stage — a play about a down and out waitress who opens a proverbial door or two with her secret baking abilities, and is faced with a tough choice between the past and the future. Pretty straight-forward shot here, as scenes from the play sweep in and out and Bareilles clunks away the sentiments on a grand piano, verse and chorus offered up in credit-rolling prayer. Not my cup of tea, but certainly won’t be winning Tony awards the the fistful:
City and Colour – ‘If I Should Go Before You’
Likewise with its “Lover Come Back” predecessor, Dallas Green dispatches from the realms of Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright heartache, bringing back the faux-Super 8 reel, save for this time viewer is taken on a Batman camera angle trip through a couple’s candle-lit home and presumably hometown hangs. An empty dining room table never felt so alone:
Third Eye Blind – ‘Exiles’
It’s been a long time since Stephan Jenkins sold the remaining bits of his soul to the pop machine, but you can never condemn a man for keeping on the keep on pushin’ on. Thus here you are fans that continue to support him, a thumb-drive full of their most recent tour photos put through an iPhoto play reel set to a recycled twee-spun melody of “Jumper,” about forever being a lovable loser of sorts:
Baleia – ‘Volta’
Apparently critic darlings in their home Brazil turf, this art-rock set from Rio exploded with a debut called Quebra Azul, that had rumblings of “possibly, one of the most significant works our generation has ever produced.” First exposure here shows a thunderous noir ballad in the key of a live instrument Kid A, with latin string flare and zero separation between face and camera, a night-vision lens keeping the ominous narrative palpating, which seems to be about a demon-kneading philosophy about time, and its impermanence:
