It might be time to brush up on your Cyrillic script. Midnight Juggernauts have released their new single ‘ Ballad of the War Machine ‘ via a Soviet-era styled clip featuring a military pop group playing on a surreal state-run television programme.
Pranks like this live and die by their commitment to the gag, and Midnight Juggernauts have really run with it. For the past month, the has been uploading clips steeped in the USSR aesthetic. I don’t speak Russian and I generally use the Latin alphabet, so I don’t really know what’s going on in these videos, but the unfashionable mise-en-scène , tacky televisual effects and warm but saccharine analogue tones bring to mind a Western idea of government-sanctioned media in Soviet Russia.
This latest clip is a bit less cryptic about its creators (we received a press release about it, the song’s lyrics are in English and it’s clearly Midnight Juggernauts dancing in military uniform in the video) but still very weird. The band plays around with what looks like the contents of a cheap film studio’s costume and props department, all through a grainy VHS haze.
Of course, this is a music site, and there is a song here. ‘Ballad of the War Machine’ might feature the biggest Midnight Juggernauts chorus yet, yet the lyrics are intriguingly obtuse: “Godspeed, travel well/Lightning in a bottle cracks a spell/Godspeed, travel well/Fever through your body raising hell”. It’s the kind of ominous wordplay nonsense John Lennon used to come up with, and matches the track’s full-blown embrace of what was previously just a psychedelic pop influence.
“Ballad of the War Machine” is new, catchy, and thanks to a clever viral video campaign, fun as well. Expectations are now high for what will hopefully be a new Midnight Juggernauts album that’s just as ambitious and adventurous as this clip.
TOURING
with special guests YESYOU
Friday 19 April – The Zoo, Brisbane
Tickets available via ,
www.oztix.com.au
and Oztix outlets
Saturday 20 April – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Tickets available via 1300 GET TIX,
www.moshtix.com.au
and all Moshtix outlets
Wednesday 24 April – The Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Tickets available via ,
www.cornerhotel.com
and The Corner Box Office
WORDS BY Matt Nielson
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