Video: White Denim, ‘Ha Ha Ha Ha (Yeah)’

Jordan Kleinman on March 31st, 2016

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White Denim (Photos by Drew Anthony Smith via Downtown Records) — White Denim (Photo by Drew Anthony Smith via Downtown Records)

White Denim’s new music video for “Ha Ha Ha Ha (Yeah)” shines with positivity and good times. Opening by foreshadowing things to come for the protagonist — a shot from the waist-down of a couple slow-dancing on an empty floor: “You new to here?” / “Fresh off a one-way Greyhound” / “Can you really honky tonk?” / “Ha, ha, ha, ha … yeah.” Like a deleted scene from “Urban Cowboy,” our hero (played by Joey Kipp) wanders the streets of his new town and flashes some dance moves as singer-guitarist James Petralli sings “be yourself, and try to have a good time.” That he does, in front of a street vendor, in a store and in the bar, before drawing a crowd and taking on a mechanical bull. The DREAMTIGER-directed vignette has him growing from stiff to strut in just four minutes.

The song is from White Denim’s sixth album, “Stiff,” out last Friday. It signals a return to a more Southern rock-oriented sound, like their albums “Fits” and “Corsicana Lemonade.” To catch up listeners unfamiliar with the band’s lineup, with the departure of Austin Jenkins and Josh Block (to develop and play with soul man Leon Bridges), White Denim lost a bit of its jazzy flair, making “Stiff” the work mostly of Petralli and bassist Steve Terebecki.

||| Watch: The video for “Ha Ha Ha Ha (Yeah)”