“I don’t smoke weed because I’m already afraid of everything but I told my brother to get me stoned in his bedroom and scare me for this video,” singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers captioned an Instagram post of her hitting a bong at the beginning of her new music video.
While the 25-year-old artist from Los Angeles — who goes by traitor joe on Twitter and _fake_nudes_ on Instagram — usually opts for humour on social media, the lyrical themes in her music are unapologetically bleak.
“My new song about murder is on #NewMusicDaily,” Bridgers tweeted Wednesday with a link to her new single “Garden Song.”
The track, which has garnered critical acclaim since its release, is carried by haunting vignettes sung over decayed guitar picking.
“Someday I’m gonna live/ In your house up on the hill/ And when your skinhead neighbor goes missing/ I’ll plant a garden in the yard then,” she sings.
The video for the song apparently takes place in her brother Jackson’s bedroom, and depicts her ripping a bong before Jackson, who directed the video, surprises her with a cast of characters including some furry spooks and comedian Tig Notaro.
Bridgers is a frequent musical collaborator who’s a member of indie super-groups boygenius, with Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus, and Better Oblivion Community Center, with Connor Oberst.
Another dark humourist of the music scene released some of his own audio-visual artwork this week.
In his “Dragonball Durag” video, bassist and crooner Thundercat’s newly discovered head-garment imbues him with the power to be consistently rejected by women with no apparent damage to his mood or confidence.
“I feel kind of high/ Standing next to you,” the song begins as Thundercat liberally applies Vaseline to his lips with bejeweled fingertips.
Thundercat plays Vancouver’s Vogue Theatre on Friday, Feb. 28.
Hip-hop superstar and recent co-host of Netflix’s Rhythm and Flow, Chance the Rapper, told Pitchfork that eating weed is overrated.
“A big part of me smoking weed is to smoke it,” he said in the most recent episode of the ongoing Over/Under interview series. “So I like the act of growing weed, smoking weed, hanging out with friends having conversation over some weed — eating it feels selfish for some reason.”
Rapper-producer JPEGMAFIA sparks a fat cone at the beginning of his new video for “Bald,” which finds him in typical form quipping cleverly that the heavenly Father punished him with a receding hairline because he’s so talented.
“Hairline proof God needs balance,” he raps.
Also watch engrossing new visuals for Yves Tumor’s “Gospel For A New Century,” Grimes’s “Idoru” and King Krule’s “Cellular.” (You may choose to supplement with cannabis at your own discretion.)
Listen to some recent favourites in our monthly playlist:
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@nick_laba
