Up High and Down Low with La Sera’s New Double Video

 

La Sera, the solo venture of Vivian Girls bassist Katy Goodman, offers a two-for-one deal with the release of “Real Boy”/ “Drive On,” a video within a video directed by Travis Peterson for two tracks off September’s Sees the Light. Part one is more Barnum & Bailey, part two is more blood and brutality.

“Real Boy” is whimsical and tropical, as Goodman—as a lovelorn trapeze artist!—admires her brawny but temperamental suitor. “Drive On” travels a few notches up the hierarchy of needs, as La Sera attempts, quite literally, to save face.

The schism occurs when the perils of working with a “real boy” come to a head as the male talent throws a tantrum after a bit of light, albeit emasculating, sadomasochism. He runs away rambling Russian invectives while a forlorn Goodman slides off her swing. The first few notes of “Drive On,” the troubled twin sister of “Real Boy,” begin and melodic bass lines gives way to threatening guitar riffs and reverberations.

A veiled figure makes off with Goodman as lyrics “You drove me to the edge, you told me we’d see each other again,” narrate the abduction. She wakes up tied to a gurney in a frighteningly clinical environment, suggesting she might not leave with everything she arrived with. The daring young woman submits to a bit of anesthesia as her kidnapper performs a face transplant for which she herself is the recipient.

Miraculously healed and scar-free, the face thief leaves the defeated heroine in bandages. Luckily for La Sera, the “two videos in one” offer is decidedly non-linear. Suddenly, she is floating through air with the greatest of ease—face firmly attached. We think it was all a dream, but Inception always makes us suspicious. Talk about saving face.