Video: Dead Meadow: "What Needs Must Be"
Think twice before bringing the herb on your hunting trip and telling mom it's oregano. Especially when your hunting lodge is haunted, as supposedly is the setting for Dead Meadow's latest video. The clip for "What Needs Must Be", from the Washington, DC stoner-rockers forthcoming fifth album, Old Growth, looks nature in the eye and freaks itself out. There are some kaleidoscopic visual effects, some images of the trio playing in front of a stack of amps, and a woman in white who runs through the woods and dives into a pool. People in masks eat at a fancy restaurant, and a bunch more go outdoors to get off on the groove. All the while, Dead Meadow burn through a hazy, rugged midtempo rocker, with echoes of Crazy Horse, Dinosaur Jr., and the Bevis Frond. On a resigned, bittersweet chorus, singer/guitarist Jason Simon's voice scratches out of the murk, a nasal, Kurt Cobain-tinged plaint. Guitar solo!
[from Old Growth; due 02/05/08 in the U.S. and 03/02/08 in the UK/Europe on Matador]