All Them Witches Post “Rats in Ruin” Video
If you’re the type who likes to chase down visual metaphor, you’re going to need more than the nine minutes of the song itself to wade through all the images present in the new video from Nashville trio All Them Witches. Directed by Drea de Matteo and the band’s own Robby Staebler — who in addition to drumming also handles the vast majority of their graphic art and visual presence; you’ll note his editing and color work here are on-theme for his/the band’s style — the clip is layered in narrative and duly emotional dystopianism. “Rats in Ruin,” and yes, there are rats, and plenty, plenty of ruin as well, on just about any level one might look for it; personal, global, environmental, etc.
The song, as it would, comes from their new album, Nothing as the Ideal (review here), which like every good record released in 2020 is a victim of circumstance in that the band who would otherwise I think be in Europe right now or just finished a tour there, can’t be on the road to support it. If “Rats in Ruin” is serving double-duty in promoting Nothing as the Ideal and giving the three-piece an outlet for the sit-on-your-hands restlessness they and so many others are experiencing over these last eight months, then it’s slow-motion freneticism only makes more sense. Coupled with the initially minimalist song itself — I keep relating it in my head to Nirvana‘s “Something in the Way” in how it channels a quiet sense of space — and its later melodic push, the video is a particularly immersive undertaking. It’ll make sense when you watch.
All Them Witches have some US dates booked for March — Columbus, Baltimore, Pittsburgh area, and so on — one assumes because optimism. I think those are rescheduled from this past summer. It’s kind of hard to keep track by now what’s happening that’s supposed to have already happened or whatever. If those happen, shit, I’ll drive to Baltimore at that point to see these guys. Or if they want to come do a socially distant outdoor gig in the parking lot across from my house, that’s cool too. I’ll get permits and everything. I wonder what their guarantee is at this point.
Anyhoozle, there are Euro dates next Fall that seem more likely, but only because it’s farther away. Who the hell knows anything about anything about what the world will be like by Fall 2021?
Enjoy the video:
All Them Witches, “Rats in Ruin” official video
From the album ‘Nothing as the Ideal,’ available now: http://newwst.com/atwnatiID
Written/Directed by Robby Staebler and Drea de Matteo
Filmed by Robby Staebler, Ginger Gonzales, Alabama Jennings
Edited and Colored by Robby Staebler
Film Processing/ scanning by Spectra Film Lab
ALL THEM WITCHES 2021 EUROPEAN TOUR
SEPTEMBER
27th UK – BRIGHTON, Chalk Venue Brighton
28th UK – NOTTINGHAM, The Bodega
29th UK – GLASGOW, Saint Luke’s & The Winged Ox
30th UK – LEEDS, Brudenell Social Club
OCTOBER
1st UK – LONDON, Electric Ballroom
2nd Netherlands – AMSTERDAM, Paradiso Amsterdam
3rd Belgium – ANTWERP, Trix
6th Spain – MADRID, COOL Conciertos
7th Spain – BARCELONA, Sala Razzmatazz 2
9th Switzerland – LANGENTHAL, OldCapitol
10th Italy – MILAN, Santeria Toscana 31
11th Switzerland – ZURICH, Mascotte Club Zürich
12th Germany – MUNICH, Backstage Werk
13th Czech – PRAGUE, MeetFactory
14th Poland – WARSAW, Progresja
15th Germany – BERLIN, Huxleys Neue Welt
17th Germany, COLOGNE, Die Kantine
19th Germany, HAMBURG, Uebel und Gefährlich
20th Denmark, COPENHAGEN, Pumpehuset
22nd Norway, OSLO, Vulkan Arena
24th Finland, HELSINKI, TAVASTIA-klubi
All Them Witches is:
Charles Michael Parks, Jr – bass, vocals
Ben McLeod – guitar, vocals
Robby Staebler – drums, vocals
All Them Witches, Nothing as the Ideal (2020)
All Them Witches on Thee Facebooks
Tags: All Them Witches, All Them Witches Nothing as the Ideal, Nashville, New West Records, Nothing as the Ideal, Tennessee
