Nothing can stand in the way of six-piece indie rock collective Annuals -- not even a torrential downpour. So was the case this past April, when the band -- frontman Adam Baker, guitarist Kenny Florence, multi-instrumentalist Zack Oden, bassist Nick Radford, drummer Mike Robinson, and pianist/keyboardist Anna Spence -- descended on the alleyway behind director Peter Sand's Brooklyn studio to film their conceptual new video for Be He Me's "Carry Around," on what happened to be the rainiest day in New York City in over 100 years. After watching the video, a catchy snippet of the southerners engaging in a maze-like game of croquet within an intricate and intimate secret garden of sorts, we here at SPIN.com scratched our heads with a few questions, and luckily, the lovely Anna Spence came to our rescue.

"It was made especially for us!" Spence enthusiastically told SPIN.com, referring to the elaborate, imaginative garden playing field and all it's bells and whistles. "Since the big city loves to screw with us, it poured the entire time we were shooting it and the wonderful ingenious people making the set worked in the freezing cold rain for days so that it would be ready for us." "The tiny details they included were amazing," Spence continued. "There are so many cool little things that you can't even particularly see too well in the video. We felt like such rock stars just rolling up and having all of this creativity and hard work done up just right... just for us!"

The result: a cinematic slice of a Victorian era garden tea party and accompanying croquet game, replete with apt garb, plays out while the band's spacey, synth tune fluxes under Baker's quick-tongued verses, and driving unaffected piano bounces on the sing-along chorus. But how did the band and crew behind such a creative undertaking stay dry in the record-breaking storm? Well, according to Spence, a few crewmembers fell victim to unhinged tarps, but the pianist confirms she "walked around with an umbrella at all times possible." 

Now Watch This:
Annuals - "Carry Around"

On the Web:
Annuals at MySpace
annualsmusic.com

Talk: Annuals: seasoned or amateur croquet players?

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