Update: The Ride Home emailed us an MP3 of "Girls" Monday afternoon. Listen to it here. Listen to it here.
The Ride Home is a nice cross between pop punk and whatever genre Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" belongs in. It's also easily the geekiest-looking band Rocks Off has ever seen. Seriously, shorts are supposed to at least hit your thigh.
Fashion crimes aside, the music they lay down is absolutely stellar. It's in-your-face aggressive, but also kind of warm and inclusive. We compare it to getting a tattoo while sitting in a papasan chair watching My Neighbor Totoro.
Their debut album is due out on Halloween, but the lead single "Girls" already has an incredible video out on the Web. Rocks Off sat down with director Charles Taylor Goubeaud to talk about it.
Rocks Off: What exactly are we seeing here? Geeks pining for an imaginary online girlfriend, or the attempt of a girl to increase her online popularity through an ever-changing image?
CTG: Initially the attempt was to have our ultimate female fan bring herself to change in order to impress our "hipster" band. I explained it to the band by saying, "Imagine the 'Create-a-Sim' mode in The SIMS, although the goal is to became an ultimate hipster."
From there it kinda turned into a social-networking bash (hence the Facebook and Lookbook graphics). It's kinda funny how people are taking it as the band impressing the gal, which to me is why music exists!
RO: Did House of Pies know you were filming a video there?
CTG: Well, on or off the record, House of Pies gave me the constant runaround about filming there. My set up for the Downtown Houston shoot consisted of nothing but a Canon digital camera. Our adorable waitress Olivia and our cook Pedro knew we were filming, so thanks to them for the support, I guess.
RO: The video contains some pretty impressive shots of morphing tattoos. How did you handle the special effects?
CTG: No money was spent for this shoot except for $20, which I used to get green painters' tape and green kids' finger-paint from Hobby Lobby. I was a one-man crew (except for my pals Bo and Ned Gayle, who stood back and shot the shit with me), and knew that the visual effects could be too extreme.
Making green markers with the tape, I just simply tracked the tattoos onto her body! Same effect Hollywood uses to replace the actors' faces onto stunt doubles
Be sure to keep a look out here for the release of The Ride Home's album next month.
