In December 1948, a body washed up on the South Australian shore. This discovery lead to an international attempt to identify the man who’s only unique feature was a scrap of paper with the words “tamám shud” scribbled upon it.
In December 1948, a body washed up on the South Australian shore. This discovery lead to an international attempt to identify the man who’s only unique feature was a scrap of paper with the words “tamám shud” scribbled upon it. Now, almost 70 years later, that story lives on in a song by the RVA band Get in the Car as well as a new video shot by local ‘post-cognitive photographer‘ Casey Canady.
Get in the Car started in late 2015 but has made a busy year out of 2016. With three singles and a self-titled EP, the band – featuring Amanda Cleland on bass and vocals, Phil Ford on guitar, Kim Marino on drums and Paul Webb on vocals and keys – has got a number of releases to get stuck in your brain-box.
“We’re not terribly structured,” said Cleland in an interview with RVAMag. “We want to get together, write music, play shows and not think too hard on it.”
While planning might not be a priority, the music is. And it seems to have attracted the talents of Canady who approached the band after an initial meeting at WRIR (where Cleland and Ford volunteer as DJs). Before long he was shooting their shows regularly, and when the photographer wanted to take his experimental “post-cognitive” method to moving pictures, he reached out to the band to see if they wanted to collaborate.
The final product is a stark, sometimes abrasive, but mighty intriguing 4+ mins of solid surreal post-punk.
“The concept is pretty simple, albeit time consuming,” explained Canady about his unique visual process. He takes a number of burst shots with his camera, edits the group in different ways, then blends them into one image which often emulates motion despite being a still. The process of making a video was similar, though this was his first time trying it.
While there was some significant planning on Canady’s part, he admitted the entire process was a bit more of an experiment and things didn’t always go as planned.
“The drum scenes weren’t supposed to look like swirling x-rays,” he said. “But due to some limitations and my inexperience with green screens and reflective surfaces, that’s what ended up working. Experiments are important to me and there are plenty of ideas that haven’t seen the light of day because they didn’t ‘wow’ me.”
The the end result might have been a surprise for all involved, but he still hunkered down and hammered out an impressive video. The project premiered earlier this week as part of Strange Matter’s Local Music Video Happy Hour. This was the first event of its kind there, but keep an eye out for more in the future.
You can catch Get in the Car at a few gigs this weekend – Tonight they’ll be opening for Your Heart Breaks when who will be live scoring a stop motion animated film by Torrey Pines and Clyde Petersen at Black Iris. And onFriday, they’ll be at Gallery 5 with Antiphons, Various Eggs, and Julie Storey.
