Video: Starcrawler – “Hollywood Ending”

Directed by Gilbert Trejo. Single out now on Rough Trade.

A new non-album single produced by Ryan Adams sounds a lot more polished than their earlier stuff. Is that a good thing? Or is their producer’s outspoken love of Creed rubbing off on them? A little of both perhaps.

Arrow de Wilde says, “This song to me shows a loss of innocence and the dramatic yet sometimes bitter ‘Hollywood ending’ to a first love. Everyone has to go through different Hollywood endings in their own lives, whether they’re good or bad. Sometimes it’s The Wizard Of Oz and you wake up from a crazy nightmare dream and you’re fine, or sometimes it’s Carnival of Souls where you’ve been dead all along.”

That’s some heavy wisdom from a 19 year old.

Director Gilbert Trejo says of the video: “Arrow and I almost started sowing the seeds for this video when we first met…one of the first things we bonded over was our shared love for old Hollywood… not ‘old Hollywood’ like Golden age 1940’s Cary Grant and movie stars Hollywood, but old Hollywood like, our parents’ generations and Weetzie Bat’s version… washed out hotels, and restaurants like TOI on sunset. We bonded over freeways and 1920’s apartments covered in Christmas lights. The Hollywood we both got dragged around felt magical at a young age. Freaks like my aunt Vicky, and Arrow’s uncle Jimmy (who stars as the spirit of Hollywood in the video)… John Doe and Exene’s Hollywood meets Tommy Lee and Bobby Brown’s. When we got the go ahead to make the Hollywood Ending video, we knew exactly what type of imagery we wanted to convey. We got to bring our own favorite disappearing neighborhood back to life.”

The real star of the video, though, is guitarist Henri Cash’s Nudie suits.

Starcrawler: web, twitter, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

Video: Starcrawler – “Chicken Woman”

Directed by Gilbert Trejo. From Starcrawler, out now on Rough Trade Records.

The kids in Starcrawler still seem like a bunch of delinquent teenagers, and therein lies their charm. Who knows what they’re like in real life, but they clearly get a kick out of dabbling in the macabre.

Arrow de Wilde told Vulture that “Chicken Woman” is about “a Chinatown fixture who pushes her poultry in a shopping cart to the nearby slaughterhouse.”

The video, however, is a fun little homage to Charles Manson and how to have a good time on a desert ranch. Tar, feathers, chains, cages, dolls, and knives all play important roles.

Be careful out there when you’re picking up hitchhikers, gang!

Starcrawler: web, twitter, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.

Video: Starcrawler – “Ants”

It’s rare for anybody to be able to get away with imitating Iggy Pop and not look like a complete doofus. Arrow de Wilde pulls it off pretty well in this video, directed by her mom Autumn. If you read liner notes and photo credits, you probably recognize the name Autumn de Wilde from her work with Elliott Smith, Fiona Apple, Spoon, et al.

The video is a blast. Two minutes of post-adolescent mayhem. Arrow de Wilde has said, “We like to pretend like it’s a metaphor for standing out, but it’s kind of just about ants.”

Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis says, “If you thought rock and roll was moribund, had lost its sense of fun and performance and primal power – it just means you haven’t seen Starcrawler yet.” It’s his job to say stuff like that, but I can see where he’s coming from.

Starcrawler is recording their debut album with Ryan Adams, which is kind of a bummer, because he’ll probably try to make them sound like Creed or Corey Hart. Oh well. This single, produced by Steven McDonald of Redd Kross, sounds good though, and it’s getting released on “blood-spattered” seven-inch vinyl later this month. Gnarly.

Starcrawler: twitter, fb, amazon, wiki.