Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros have released the music video for "Life Is Hard," off their recent, self-titled album. The video features the band performing live at the Box Theater in New York City on Aug. 25, 2013.
In a post on the band's Facebook page today, lead singer Alex Ebert talked about the vision behind the video.
"Two major inspirations for this video exist," he wrote. "One was to, in a visually controlled, poignant, and real way, exhibit and record ourselves live - the performance is entirely live. The other was to respond to the pop music industry of the last 20 or more years, in which performance music videos are nearly always a suped-up, lip-synced karaoke, and a major contributor to that which is flimsy and feigned about pop music today."
ESMZ is primarily a live band. Their intimate, engaging concerts are the best medium for really experiencing the music. Ebert says that the albums, more or less, serve to "hold you over until we get to your neighborhood." This dynamic between the band and the audience fueled the idea for having a live-performance music video.
"It was a day of pure chaos," he noted. "And it is truly amazing that we were able to get the performance we did — I think it may be, so far, the best we have played this song."
The video begins with a shot of a Jade Castrino's dress and the sound of Ebert saying, "Life is hard." Then a young boy appears, dribbling an invisible basketball to the beat of the piano notes. The boy walks away, and a sweaty Ebert comes forward, wearing a white jacket and singing into a sequin-covered microphone.
The video pans out to the whole band performing the song then shows dizzy close-ups of each of the members. Images of audience members with stoic expressions flash across the screen from time to time.
Barefoot and wearing a white-lace dress, a black hat, a Scapular, a rosary and religious metals, Castrinos sings her verse. Horns and violins drive the final chorus, and the clip ends with Ebert abruptly turning around to walk away.
In his Facebook post, Ebert mentioned that the group recorded more than just "Life Is Hard" that day; so a few more songs from those recordings might eventually be released.
ESMZ is currently on tour in support of the album. From Oct. 17 to 20, they will host their circus-themed music festival, Big Top, in Los Angeles.
What did you think of the video and the idea behind it? Let us know in the comments section below!
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