Exclusive Video Premiere: ‘X,’ Xray Eyeballs

“X,” the first single from Brooklyn-based Xray Eyeballs’ sophomore effort, Splendor Squalor, throbs with urgency that veers into violence.

Directed by performance artist and filmmaker Micki Pellerano, the music video for “X” conceives of a world where vengeance follows injustice. The video opens with red-lipsticked, chainmail-clad bassist Carly Rabalais warmly caressing a gun, and as the images bleed into yellowed, abstracted close-ups of Rabelais and guitarist/keyboardist Lizzah Lohse, the video then diverges.

The bass palpitates as spacey synths interweave, and a splicing of scenes-footage from World War II and the Civil Rights movement, photographs of J.F.K. and Malcolm X, and flags—U.S., Confederate, and Nazi—are rendered in stark black, white, and red, overlaid with a continually moving target. Guitarist O.J. San Felipe and keyboardist Thomas Kotilya appear as goofily-outfitted cops that, to be fair, are maybe more Reno 911!  than representatives of the Establishment.

SPLENDOR SQUALOR IS OUT MARCH 27 ON KANINE RECORDS. FOR MORE ON XRAY EYEBALLS, VISIT THEIR WEBSITE.