Vivian Girls have released video for “Sludge,” the latest from their new album, Memory, their first in 8 years. The video, which was directed by Alex Ross Perry (Her Smell, Listen Up Philip), was shot on Hi8 in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley.
Of the video, Perry says “I just counted: there are four different photos of Vivian Girls in the look book I made for Her Smell. So if you had told me when I was first seeing them at Death By Audio (or was it Union Pool?) in 2008 (or was it late 2007?) that over a decade later, we’d be collaborating on a music video, I would have been alarmed at the specificity of this prophecy.”
The notion was to invent a video for “Sludge” that honored The Valley, toying with suburban nothingness and alienation, honoring filming locations from E.T. that are still emanating traces of decades-old magic.
To explore the dichotomy of light and dark, mortal and immortal, self and self. Of then and now…”
In celebration of Memory, the band has also announced a fall tour that includes shows on the east coast, west coast and in the midwest, as well as reissues of their acclaimed first two albums—Vivian Girls (2008) and Everything Goes Wrong (2009). Originally released by In the Red, these classic records have been tragically out-of-print for many years, but are both now available for the first time on 180-Gram colored vinyl. Vivian Girls, the band’s self-titled debut album (which Pitchfork dubbed “Best New Music” upon its release in 2008), has also been re-mastered by Heba Kadry at Timeless Mastering.
Memory and both of the re-issues are available for pre-order now and out on 9/20.