Video: The King Khan & BBQ Show: "Why Don't You Lie?"
Montreal's King Khan and Mark Sultan raise a lot of questions. Like, What Is?!, the title of Khan's Pitchfork-recommended slab of garage-rock with 10-piece r&b backing band the Shrines. Like, What's for Dinner?, the title of Khan and Sultan's full-length released last year. Like, "Why Don't You Lie?", the new video from that record. Like, which one is BBQ again? (That's Sultan, whose new Sultanic Verses has already prompted a cover by Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox.) Wait, what's that dude's pseudonym again? (Atlas Sound. No more questions.)
Switzerland's Oliver Rihs, who directs the "Why Don't You Lie?" video, also recently helmed the film Shwarze Shafe, scored by Khan and featuring appearances by Greg Ashley, Black Lips, and others. Like that movie, this clip is mostly black-and-white, with just a splash of psychedelic color. The King Khan and BBQ Show belt out their doo-wop-informed rock'n'roll ballad in what looks to be a subway tunnel. Ah, but they're in Germany, "land of the cold hearts," and a metaphorical wall forms between the two. The video is funny and charming, right up to its closing non sequitur: Viva Cuba!
[from What's for Dinner?; out now on In the Red]