Exclusive Video Premiere: ‘Chop,’ Vundabar

ABOVE: VUNDABAR. PHOTO COURTESY OF CAITLIN MCCANN.

Created with unabashed irony, Boston-based band Vundabar’s newest video, “Chop,” features outfits that were purchased with a budget of $25 and are simultaneously meant to convey glamor and decadence. These visuals expand upon the song’s original nature: at first “Chop” reflects the band’s Brit pop and rock influences (think Blur, The Fall, and Modest Mouse) with its catchy love song premise, but upon listening closely, the lyrics reveal the exact opposite.

“We tried to make the irony in the video and the song run parallel,” vocalist and guitarist Brandon Hagen says. “‘Chop’ sounds like a ’60s pop sort of love song, with lyrics that are the antithesis of that, and then the vibe of the video feels like the wrong band showed up to a video shoot [for] The xx.”

Appropriately, the video, which we’re plesed to premiere here, was filmed in one day, split between an abandoned house in Connecticut, upon the suggestion of the director (and band’s friend) George Burghall, and an unadorned studio space. Hagen, joined by Drew McDonald and Zacker Abramo, don thrift-store-bought black turtlenecks and gold chains, while slowly moving and essentially dancing with themselves.

“I wanted to shoot something funny, but with an underlying sense of tension and unease,” Hagen continues. Taken from Vundabar’s recently released sophomore album, Gawk, “Chop,” according to the singer, “originated with this harsh sludgy verse and then the happy-go-lucky pop sounding chorus. It’s a song that’s at odds with itself.”

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