Recently reunited lo-fi faves Vivian Girls have released a new song and accompanying video titled “Sludge.” It’s the latest single from the band’s forthcoming album Memory and finds the group exploring a slower, woozier rhythm than previous singles “Sick” and “Something to Do.” Alex Ross Perry directed the VHS-grade visual and said in a statement that Vivian Girls were a primary inspiration for his April film Her Smell, which stars Elizabeth Moss as a punk singer:
I just counted: there are four different photos of Vivian Girls in the look book I made for Her Smell. So if you had told me when I was first seeing them at Death By Audio (or was it Union Pool?) in 2008 (or was it late 2007?) that over a decade later, we’d be collaborating on a music video, I would have been alarmed at the specificity of this prophecy. The notion was to invent a video for “Sludge” that honored The Valley, toying with suburban nothingness and alienation, honoring filming locations from E.T. that are still emanating traces of decades-old magic. To explore the dichotomy of light and dark, mortal and immortal, self and self. Of then and now..
Vivian Girls’ album Memory is due September 20 via Polydor. The band is touring the U.S. behind the album in October and November; find those dates here.
Watch the “Sludge” video below.
