huge thanks to Mark Richardson and the entire Pitchfork staff!
Video Premiere: Team Robespierre: "88th Precinct"
Team Robespierre have a rep for insane live shows, and that carries over not just to their video but also the story of its making. Directed by Allen Cordell (Dan Deacon, Future Islands, Jimmy Joe Roche), the clip for these synth-toting Brooklyn punks' "88th Precinct", from Everything's Perfect, uses crowd shots taken during a party at the Chicken Hut, a loft space in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant area. New York's finest came and shut the throwdown down after Team Robespierre finished their set, leaving billmates Japanther with no option but to sneak their performance sometime in the morning's increasingly not-so-wee hours.
The crowd do seem to be having a frenzied time the footage here from Team Robespierre's gig-- is that Deacon's trippy green skull in the house?-- but this offbeat, exuberant video does more than just document the band's live performances. Opening and closing with not quite fully explained scenes of caped figures running around on subway trains, the clip also shows the band spazzing out amid kaleidoscopic, swirling colors and images of totem-like animals. "Everyone get down", the band members shout, enthusiasm frothing over into cliché before the song suddenly turns into a droning acoustic guitar meditation at the outro. If Team Robespierre had been playing that part when the cops showed up, maybe Japanther's fans could've still been home by bedtime.
TEAM ROBESPIERRE TOURDATES:
Feb 1: OFFICIAL RELEASE PARTY, Death By Audio, Brooklyn
W/ VIVIAN GIRLS, NINJASONIK, GOLDEN ERROR
Feb 9: AS220, Providence, RI
w/ MAHI MAHI
Feb 12: BOWERY BALLROOM, New York, NY
w/ THE FOALS
Feb 15: WEIRD DINER, Bloomfield, CT
w/ VIDEO HIPPOS, BIG DIGITS
Feb 16: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, Princeton, NJ
w/ Aa
March 8: SECRET SQUIRREL, Athens, GA
w/ WHITE MICE
March 12-16: AT SxSW
March 26: MERCURY LOUNGE, New York, NY
w/ CRYSTAL CASTLES, HEALTH
March 29: SUNY PURCHASE, Purchase, NY
w/ PTERODACTYL
www.myspace.com/teamrobespierre