Video premiere: The Blank Tapes, ‘Pure Evil’

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The Blank Tapes (Photo by Hailey Howard)

Matt Adams continued his musical vision quest as the Blank Tapes by releasing two long EPs of music in 2019, “Super Bloom” in May and “Look Into the Light” in October. They are refinements of the singer-songwriter’s kaleidoscopic take on 1960s psychedelic pop, rich in melody and textures and perfect for whatever scent the wind is carrying.

“Pure Evil,” which features longtime band member Veronica Bianqui on backing vocals, imagines that wind as a desert breeze, stirred up by some spaghetti Western flavor. The song is about a devil of a woman — “Don’t spend the night with her / She’s like Lucifer / You’ll need a crucifix / ’Cause she’s 666,” he sings — and there’s not one but two of them in the video.

Filmed by CJ Brion in Joshua Tree, where Adams now lives, the video stars Sarah Orton and Kiana (styled by Cash Honey). Adams, making his way slowly through the desert, accepts a gift and wanders away to make his own discovery at the end. It could be real, it could be a hallucination. In the desert, one never knows.

The video arrives as the Blank Tapes announce a West Coast tour that ends with two local dates in February.

||| Watch: the video for “Pure Evil”

||| Live: The Blank Tapes play Feb. 20 at Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown (info) and Feb. 21 at the Long Beach Art Theatre.

||| Also: Stream “Look Into the Light” and “Super Bloom”