Watch: Videos from Queen Kwong, Taleen Kali and CARRÉ

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Queen Kwong, with Johnny Knoxville (Photo by Karin Catt)

Catching up with some killer video releases: Enjoy these from Queen Kwong, Taleen Kali and CARRÉ …

QUEEN KWONG, “Sad Man”

After releasing a slew of strong visuals for music from her powerful album “Couples Only,” Queen Kwong (full name Carré Kwong Callaway) delivers the knockout punch in director Joe Cardamone’s video “Sad Man,” starring Johnny Knoxville. The smoldering tune, the singer-songwriter says, is an ode to all “the f*ckboys, the narcissists, the band dudes who think they’re all that” in the music industry. Cardamone’s video is inspired by Harvey Keitel’s role the 2009 film “Bad Lieutenant.” Callaway says, “I knew it would take a really special guy to perform in this video, someone who wasn’t afraid of really embracing what the song represents. Even though the ‘Sad Man’ video couldn’t be more different than ‘Jackass,’ I knew Knoxville was the one for it. He’s clearly fearless and has a sense of humor … We danced around, cried and then we went to a church and prayed. Knox was so open to trying everything. It was amazing to work with someone who could have easily been a diva but instead gave 100% of himself to the role, learning all the words and embracing the discomfort. His performance was so powerful that when he started crying, I started crying.”

TALEEN KALI, “Only Lovers Left Alive”

Blood is spilled in the video for Taleen Kali’s “Only Lovers Left Alive,” a blast of shimmering neo-shoegaze and the second single from her album “Flower of Life,” coming digitally and on vinyl next March 3. Director Joe Rubinstein’s Halloween-ready video nods to Jim Jarmusch’s vampire flick of the same title, and nobody — not Kali or her band or even guest guitarist and song producer Jeff Schroeder (Smashing Pumpkins) — is spared. As for the song (the follow-up to this spring’s title track), Kali says, “We joked in the studio about how this song has two moods: leather jacket punk and jangle cardigan vibes, rolled into one. I love all the instruments in the track that embody this tension; we have Jeff’s 12-string guitar vs. his solo guitar, Miles Marsico’s synths doubled up with the same guitar line and Royce Hsu’s surfy bass with Rhys Hastings holding it down on the drums.” Taleen Kali plays the late show Oct. 8 at the Moroccan Lounge, joined by Sun Colony and Fime.

CARRÉ, “Brothers”

CARRÉ, the group of Los Angeles-based Frenchmen who debuted with an EP in 2020, walk the line between industrial and experimental psych-rock, and their new single “Brothers” is a trek you’ll want to take with them. The trio — Keveen Baudouin, Jules de Gasperis and Julien Boyé — found in Jerry Scott Lopez a visual artist with a surrealist bent to match the intensity of CARRÉ’s music. “We try to treat music like painting or pictures, with a very present imagery in mind at all times,” Baudouin, says. “I never want to be too literal with anything in lyrics and leave space for the listener to make sense of it on [their] own.” Lopez’s stop-motion animation takes “Brothers,” the first in a series of songs the trio is releasing leading up to a full-length, to a new level.