Video: Butch Bastard, ‘I Am Not a Man’

Kevin Bronson on February 15th, 2019

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First, the video for Butch Bastard’s “I Am Not a Man” is not really a music video. It’s a short film … a slice of life … a miserablist’s highlight reel. And directed by Jon Jon Augustavo (Macklemore, Nipsey Hussle), it’s a brilliantly understated tragicomedy.

Center stage is Ian Murray, once of the Sub Pop band Poor Moon, who forsook his native Seattle, adopted a bastardly music moniker and settled in Los Angeles, where he indulges in everything that causes transplants to Los Angeles to look bemused. The album he released last year, “I Am Not a Man,” is a rough-and-tumble inventory of everything with which a man must come to grips, and how that can make you laugh, cry and order extra honey mustard dressing. Butch Bastard is the answer to the question “Is there anybody else on earth making music remotely similar to Father John Misty?” (FJM himself cameos on the album.)

Murray returned to Seattle to make this “album video.” “Ian and I have known each other since before Seattle lost the Sonics… so making this was a no Brainer,” Augustavo says. “And I’m not totally sure how to classify the piece, as it’s a little bit of a lot of things. … Ultimately, the short quasi album video film is a showcase for not only his album but also an exploration of some version of heaven, hell and purgatory that is any and all of our experiences in life and creative endeavors.

“I believe we originally wanted to shoot this in L.A., but because of how expensive it is to shoot here… we did it where we both call home — BA Seattle (Before Amazon). Anyway the music is the real star, then Butch, then all the random people we leveraged to help us make this thing.”

Those random people include Nacho Picasso, Tanner Weber, Sye Holland, Amber Wolfe, Tucker Case, Kay Whitney and Bill Patton — all players in almost-surreal vignettes that find the artist working at a pizza shop, passing out in the back of a car, drinking milk and dancing with a stranger in a bar and taking a trip to the Valley.

It’s thick with symbolism — and has a flip-phone.

“Jon Jon approached me about doing something different and ambitious with this video project,” Murray says. “I jumped at the opportunity because I am so blown away by the work he has done with other artists. He seemed fatigued by traditional music videos and wanted to try something a bit more long-form and different, which I am all for.”

Done. Except for the happy ending.

||| Watch: The video for “I Am Not a Man”