In case you missed it, here's the Hyundai Super Bowl Ad featuring The Flaming Lips. It aired before kickoff on Sunday:
Say what you want about Wayne Coyne's recent fall from local grace, it's still cool to see he and the Lips make an appearance in the American mainstream. They're great ambassadors for Oklahoma City — even when they shut down the airport — and have helped change what some people think about this sleepy little town in the middle of a flyover state. I actually think that's a good thing. Would you rather be associated with some drugged out, colorful, creative weirdo who crawls around in bubbles or one of our Derplahoman lawmakers who live in an imaginary one? I vote drugged out, colorful creative weirdo.
If you need proof of how the Lips have changed people's perceptions about OKC, look no farther than musician Harper Simon. He's a hipster singer/songwriter from NY & LA and just happens to be Paul Simon's son. He filmed his new music video "Bonnie Brae" in and around Oklahoma City, and he did it voluntarily. Here's a little background on the video:
The dive bars and strip malls of Oklahoma City are captured during the golden hour in this nostalgic, sometimes hallucinatory video for Harper Simon’s latest single, “Bonnie Brae”, directed by George Salisbury. Most celebrated for his video and design work with the famed Oklahoma export The Flaming Lips, Salisbury took Simon (son of Paul) on a tour of the city at the heart of the States—complete with drag queens and disco balls—and shot it all through a dreamy, iridescent lens. “It seemed familiar, yet strangely unfamiliar,” said the New York-raised, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter of his adventures between the two coasts. “It’s not like what it would look like if you went around Hollywood and tried to shoot in bars. It’s an authentic, American look.”
For the video, however, Salisbury and Simon kept it quirky, intimate and local. “I thought the gritty vibe was really suited to the lyrics of the song, and maybe the whole album,” explains the musician. “But maybe I’m just at home in a dive bar.”
Here's the video.
Okay, let me try to be a pretentious music critic here:
The Song: I kind of liked it. It sounds like a non-depressed Elliot Smith fell in love with the Strokes, but not in a bad way. I may have to check out the album.
The Video: It was hipstery as f-uck. I think they donate a pair of shoes to children in Africa each time someone watches the thing. I grew a pair of skinny jeans just from the record store scene alone. Oddly enough, the same thing happened to Spencer when they showed all the drag queens. He then talked gibberish about "tickling my beard" and Bob Mills. That was a strange night.
Back to the video. Yes, the footage looks like it took a bath in an Instagram filter, but the Oklahoma City-guy in me enjoyed it. It seemed real and authentic, and avoided the cliché shots of the Stockyards, Bricktown or Rumble the Bison waving a Thunder flag. I thought those things were required for any video shot in Oklahoma City. I'd like to thank the director for proving me wrong.
Anyway, if you liked the Harper Simon track you can download it on his site. I was going to mention something about buying it, but it doesn't come out until March. You'll forget about it by then.
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