(Photo Credit: Richard Rankin)
Indie/art rock troupe Curious Grace & Black Rabbit’s 2018 LP, #WorldOnFire, was—as I wrote in my review—“a splendidly multifarious and entrancing tour-de-force from start to finish.” Filled with engrossingly quirky musical ideas atop biting social commentary, it’s a must-hear for anyone looking for boundless depth and freshness in modern music. It’s no surprise, then, that the new, self-described “pop-apocalypse music video for indie prog rock lovers” for one of the record’s standout selections, “Make It Rain,” is just as visually striking as the music it represents.
Directed by Swedish artist Mattias Gordon (who also did the artwork for the album), the video showcases “an animated band of six traveling from lush green corn fields into dusty storms of fire and drought” in the midst of total devastation. The sextet adds:
Life is trippy, right? Disturbing one minute and weirdly fun, beautiful or glorious the next. Yeah, there’s global warming, raging fires, and crazy, exasperating politics. But there are also state fairs, deep-fried finger foods, snails, Rubik’s Cubes—remember them?—and John Wayne. We like that. We say grab hold and enjoy the ride. The latest Curious Grace & Black Rabbit music video is like power vitamins wrapped in a shimmering cloud of cotton candy. "Make It Rain" imagines a world where not one but three cat-like Brett Kavanaughs smirk from a jumbotron; a buzzing bee wings golden through a tall green crop of corn; and a little girl with one shoe, a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt, and big brown eyes gazes forlornly beneath an orange umbrella as she wanders a drought-stricken wasteland. It’s provocative, quirky, and surreal in a clever, pop culture kind of way, like a Saturday afternoon cartoon apocalypse.
Indeed, every frame of the video is a delightfully twisted and imaginative take on token American imagery and ideals, with a sort of cut and paste pop-up book peculiarity that evokes artists like Terry Gilliam. It warrants several deep viewings, which, because the song itself is so appealing in that Magical Mystery Tour kind of way, is quite an easy task.
Take a look at “Make It Rain” below and see if Curious Grace & Black Rabbit don’t ignite something colorful and captivating in your universe, too. If you’re in the Chicago area, you can catch the group at two upcoming performances:
3/23 – Rockin’ the Elbow Room
4/12 – Chicago New Music Showcase @ Silvie’s Lounge
