Video: The Paranoyds, ‘Lizzie’

on
0
The Paranoyds (Photo by Derek Perlman)

Going on three years since the release of their debut album, the Paranoyds are going to outer space, because … well … we’re not sure, maybe the rents are cheaper than in L.A.?

The L.A. quartet — Laila Hashemi, Lexi Funston, Staz Lindes and David Ruiz — is exactly what any self-respecting garage band should be: loud, brash and topical. The headline that accompanies their new single, “Lizzie,” is that rocker Jack White (for whom they are opening on tour this fall) has beamed the Paranoyds aboard his Third Man Records. The label will release the foursome’s second album, “Talk Talk Talk,” on Sept. 9, almost three years to the day after their debut. Joo Joo Ashworth produced.

As for “Lizzie,” it vaguely concerns an interplanetary crush, with some important undertones. “She’s cute, she’s passionate, she’s dedicated to her art, but there’s this one thing,” Funston says. “She’s a walking contradiction. How does she consistently act in roles, where she plays a truth-seeker, a down-to-earth, relatable woman who’s usually trying to escape some sort of oppressive event or oppressive relationship and then in real life be completely bound to a religion with foundations that are essentially a science fiction novel?”

JJ Stratford directs the video, which looks like an 1980s-style production that mines 1950s camp. “When we were recording ‘Lizzie,’ we knew we wanted it to sound like what people in the early ’80s might have thought the not-so-distant future could look like,” the band says. “I think we might have said something like ‘Terminator’ and ‘Alien’ to our director, JJ. She was able to spin those references and create an oddly delightful, intergalactic world, with an American Bandstand-type performance on a spaceship, which ends in our band being abducted by a ‘5G’ goddess.”

Adds Stratford: “I really wanted to work with the Paranoyds, because they have a Devo vibe that’s mutated into something so modern and wonderful. It’s what this world needs. There’s even a few Easter eggs in the video that point to our De-evolution.”

||| Watch: The video for “Lizzie”

||| Live: The Paranoyds perform at Desert Daze at Lake Perris, Sept. 30-Oct. 2. Info.

||| Previously: Live at the Echo, “Hotel Celebrity,” “Pet Cemetery,” “Memory Foam,” live at the Bootleg, “Face First,” “Girlfriend Degree,” “Hungry Sam”