30: Frontier Psychiatrist - The Avalanches

[Transcript generated with MacWhisper] It's fine. Ireland is going to be united once again after whatever the fuck are they doing

with the Black Friday Agreement. Good Friday Agreement, sorry.

Black Friday Agreement.

Agreement to get all your packages delivered on time. Thank God we got that, sorry guys.

That'll be a first.

The agreement to sell you is so too capitalist.

Hello and welcome to We Can't Rewind, We've Gone Too Far, a podcast where we discuss the worst

C-list and weirdest spoken music videos and uh... Dev, are you okay?

I need a hug, do you need therapy? I can give you a number.

Don't worry, it's purely psychosomatic.

We're on our way up, but we haven't said hello.

Oh, shit.

Hiya.

Hi, I'm Nealey.

Hi, I'm Dave.

Hi, I'm Neil.

Besides my need for therapy, today we'll be discussing the video for

Frontier Psychiatrist by the Australian band The Avalanches.

You know how we always say the link in the videos are in the show notes?

This is one you should watch before listening.

There is no real way to summarize a video, there's no plot.

Things just happen on screen that vaguely mimic the lyrics, we think.

It's definitely more of an atmosphere video than a plot video.

wine. The

Frontier Psychiatrist was released in the year 2000.

It was directed by Tom Kunst.

It was directed by Tom the cunt.

- I never noticed that when I read it.

- It was directed by Tommy cunt.

No, Kunst, I was gonna say Kunst, he must be German.

- No, he's American.

- Oh, is he?

- You don't call him Kunst.

- He might have like German ancestry, who knows?

It was directed by Tom Kunst and Mike McGuire.

It included a smorgasbord of visual references,

sampled tracks and also featured the Canadian comedy duo Wayne and Schuster. These two had

a sketch named "Frontier Psychiatrists". The video was released to critical acclaim,

winning a bunch of awards and a few wanky sounding quotes from people who know more

about music than us. But also, it was the beginning of the new millennium and that was

a very simple time. Everyone was distracted by the millennium bug and entertained by arguably

the best music decade in history.

I know, don't worry, we can discuss that at the end.

Snuck that in.

OK, everyone. So, Dave, do you want to sit on this lounge chair?

Yeah.

And tell us your initial thoughts.

Well, I think it all started when I was a teenager.

Yeah, I remember seeing this video a lot.

It's always stuck in my head.

It just popped randomly into my head the other day and like, we should do this on a podcast.

I've got a theory about this video, which is the spectrum of video.

You've got your literal interpretation of the song video and you've got your complete

an utter stream of nonsense video which has no relation to the song whatsoever and I'm thinking

this one's kind of halfway because it's trying to interpret it interpret the song but the song is

just a bunch of random samples that have no actual connection so this is what happens when you try to

turn that into video form it reminded me of something which I'm sorry I'm going to talk about

my child no sorry early 20s that's fine this is therapy after all so please do tell us about your

your childhood. This is a safe space. Oh God. Apart from the five just getting broadcast

in there. But don't worry about that. Safe space. My arse. The people who are going to

listen to us. Hi, Daisy. How are you? Love my sister. Hi. That one guy in Italy. There

was like one Italian guy according to the stats. Hi. Hi Steve. Ciao. Yeah. So what was

the journey I was part of a filmmaking network / society. Once we did a thing where we recorded

like a video set where we had a selection of songs and anyone who wanted to do something

saved one song and created a video for it and we just had a night where we were playing

those and getting drunk nowadays. It was quite fun. And several people created things including

our own Richard Mitty who created our intro and outro song. He created a video for that

as well. Also, whenever I watch this video, I just kind of keep reminding myself of the

videos that we watched there because they were kind of the same vibe of electro tunes

and visuals that work with them.

It's quite interesting and I don't hate it, but I'm not too sure what I think about it

because it's not traditional. It is sort of a genre of music I know nothing about and

don't really listen to. I couldn't really tell you anything. I couldn't even tell you

who is famous in that area, that genre. But yeah, initial thoughts. I'm not too sure.

I need to let it sit with me. I feel a little upset and I don't know why, but maybe that's

the therapy side of it. Everything that features, like all the people haven't done a count,

but I think there's over 30 people.

Does that include the ghosts? The ghosts or no?

Well I included the ghosts and the mariachi band as one. So you're probably, yeah, you're

probably talking close to 40 then.

But yeah, it features quite a lot of people who have their own segments, any in particular that jumped out of you.

I laughed a lot at the dangerous skit, that was quite funny.

And also the ghost, I don't know, it just made me very chewy, kind of like semi opaque ghosts.

And the lady occasionally lifting the sheet through this section, old lady there.

It's very funny. It doesn't make sense unless you see it guys, or anyone else listening,

you have to watch the video, because otherwise it does not make sense.

Yeah, for reference for people home, Neil's made a, I think it was Neil, made a list of

stuff that happens in the video. We've got germs with a horn, it's a ghost, granny, drummer,

therapist, man, turtle with some man's head, crazy coconut, cowboys, horse whipping, woman,

snake charmer, native American, DJ Skelly, Skeleton DJ, Benjamin Franklin. Where's Benjamin

Franklin in all this?

He's got a scroll at one point. I think I just, I just see, I just, it looked like one

of those Benjamin Franklin people.

a sailor man dressed like a baby rectangle woman golden eyes scale and flexible lady

when will blender drunk rate or mini orchestra monkey drummer magician clock cat Egyptian

dancer school teacher little girl big fucking bird dg in the sky marriage event. If you

listeners can picture this, everything Dave's just said, picture that on a stage, someone

black and white, what comes to mind and tell me your feelings and thoughts in your own

time. But we have an hour otherwise a church over time. I think I was wondering about the

The first couple of people that pop up, they're in black and white, but everything behind

them is sort of in colour. I'm wondering how they did that. I don't know if it's a digital

effect or if they've literally just painted them grey. I don't know.

I presume when they were editing they just marked other people and it just desaturated

it. Because eventually when everyone comes on stage they come back in colour, so it was

shot in colour. You know how if it's done a bit cheatly, when you do shitty green screen

Sometimes you can see the green aura.

You didn't don't quite see anything like this.

So presumably there was no green screen.

I was, uh, yeah, that's why at first I was like, have they painted them gray?

It would have been really good if they paid them gray, but I think you're right.

Cause I know in, um, what was that famous film?

Uh, but wizard of alls that one at the start of that, everything in the sets,

including the, uh, the actor, they were all painted in sort of monochrome colors,

like, um, makeup and the sets were all gray.

I thought it was just turned into black and white.

I'm sorry, shot in black and white.

This is the thing.

So it was shot in color.

So that was all shot on color film, but all the setting made

the look black and white.

So whenever Dorothy opened the door, that was actually like a color set.

So that was the sort of magical like transition between the two.

That's why it always looks so seamless.

Cool.

Yeah.

I can't remember where I've seen that, but yeah, you should, you should watch,

watch that, even just the start of it.

And it's quite, yeah, it's quite cool.

It's almost say the video is like, um, a pistic on American culture and

Americana style contexts.

Context is what's the verb.

I don't know.

I think it takes the piss out of itself, but everything in there is

American if you think about it.

And cowboys are very American.

Um, circuses are very American.

Sailors are very American.

Um, ghosts, notorious down in America.

Ghosts.

Yes.

Ghosts are okay.

Yeah.

Ghosts are only found in America.

I'm always hilarious because the, uh, Wayne and Schuster Canadian.

[Music]

What even would you call this genre of music for a dear psychiatrist?

sample smorgasbord.

Sorry, on Wikipedia they were called turntablism.

Turntablism, I've never heard that before.

It's very new.

Yeah, that's a new word.

Because I think everything in this song is sampled.

Like, I think Neil was saying he recognized one of the tunes.

I'm like, yeah, everything is sampled.

Well, here's the question.

There's stuff like this where everything is sampled.

Is that a legitimate form of artistic impression?

Yeah, of course.

I think so, personally.

Absolutely.

I think in this context, yes.

In other ones, it's debatable.

In what context it wouldn't be?

I think, well, the only thing I can kind of relate it to is images.

I can't remember the name of the artist or photographer, but they took people's

Instagram, their like their own Instagram images, including the caption and, you know,

pretty much a screenshot of their profile and then stuck it in a fancy gallery.

Made a fortune from that.

That in that context, it's a bit, it's a bit wrong, but in music, I don't know, it feels

a little bit more forgiving.

Wouldn't it the direct comparison to this kind of music be more akin to collages as

opposed to straight out?

Yeah, because it's kind of a combination rather than just one thing.

My personal opinion is that art is really nothing new.

Like everything absolutely is stolen from somewhere.

Sometimes it's a bit more blatant.

I have an issue with people like Damien Hirst who directly steals stuff and makes a lot

move money on it while claiming superiority and originality and

authenticity and blah blah blah. I'm really sorry I'm gonna geek out for a second.

So there was a case maybe a decade ago, maybe a bit earlier than that, a high school kid

if I'm correct, who used the image of Damien Hirst's diamond skull for some

collars that he did. I don't know if he did for school or forever but it wasn't

like a big thing and Damien Hirst found out and sued the kid because they used

the alike of his image. And there was the whole thing with a lot of artists coming out

and saying Damien Hirt is a fucking cunt. And Damien Hirt is a fucking cunt. I completely

agree with that.

aeil - For a bit of context for Phil Stines, among us is Damien Hirt, does he go around

necking other people's artwork?

I understand fully that art is very personal and people don't...

I mean, there's different tastes and different things that you like, that's fair enough.

And I don't hate postmodern art and don't hate contemporary art. Like, I can see why a single

square on a white wall is art. I can understand context. In his case, his ideas, they were a few

original, like just the ideas themselves are just not very, like what exactly he's showing with that,

like the golden skull, golden sorry, diamond, it was a skull of someone, some dead guy,

he caught it in diamonds and he was like "look at this, it's the something of death or whatever"

but it's just the golden skull that he made however many thousands of millions on it. And also,

the reason, and that's, don't quote me on this, because I don't have the actual references,

but from what they read is true.

The reason why he's at sales for as much as he does

is because he's like a visual art dealer person,

buys them all for that much.

Basically, it's money laundering, in a sense.

Right.

He like artificially increases the price of his own art.

It's like I've seen a lot of that kind of chat

with the whole NFT thing that's going on,

where a lot of people are literally just taking

like photos of other people's art and selling it as a NFT

and saying, oh, this is a one of one of a kind thing, even though it's a thing you can

copy and paste. But there is an idea for NFT that it's not inherently bad because it allows

for artists to directly sell their art without any need for extra commissions and getting

control. But, you know, I did have a massive joy of all the NFT dude bros getting fucking

scammed. Fuck, it was hilarious. And in theory, it's a good idea. But I don't think the theory

has worked out because humans have ruined it like they do everything. Humans always

run for everyone don't they? Neil do you have any opinion on Damien Hirst and NFTs?

Do you mean Hirst? No, I kind of like his stuff. Really? Really? Yeah, you know it's a bit out

there, it's a bit mad, which you know it's good to be different but um. No it's not. NFTs I feel

like I need to understand them but I just don't understand the, just don't get the point of it.

Yeah nobody does. It seems I am more, I mean I've only sort of briefly read into the

environmental impact on it, which doesn't really make sense the way things are currently.

So no, this is a bit confusing, though I have three board apes.

Angus You're going to retire.

Angus I'm joking. I don't have any. I'll be stupid.

Angus Just because I'm a nerd, I've looked into

the NFT shit. I think the most offensive thing about them is just a lot of the art is just shit.

If people were selling the actual good art, and I think there are people selling good art with it,

but there's literally ones where they sort of generate with the AI variations,

like say the board ape thing it's like it's like we've generated variations of the same

same thing it's not really unique then you've just fucking like tweaked the parameters is that our

maybe maybe not probably not definitely not worth shells of money no we should do an nft of the the

ghost choir each one of these ghosts is completely unique even though it's all just the same person

This is such nonsense of a video, it's pure joy to watch. The music is fun and while you

can't quite tell if the band had fun filming it, mostly because you don't know which of

all of these in the band. The directors definitely had film making shit up. The video is joy

to the eye and it has been nice to watch a video on YouTube that it's not a potato scone

quality. Scone scone quality.

This is an incredibly random song and video. I did find it almost nightmarish but honestly

it wasn't too bad. I found it interesting that the track was made using lots of source

samples from other tracks. I know nothing about music apart from just the finished product

So it was it was quite cool to see how it was kind of mashed together, which actually

made me appreciate it a bit more because it's a very cleverly constructed piece in that

regard. The video, I think, is quite solid and pretty damn entertaining. So I think they

did a pretty good job. I think this would be a cracking song to put on, not the video,

just, you know, background music with friends over just to kind of watch the reaction.

What, with the video or just the song?

Well, I think, you know, I would like to think people would go like, what the fuck is this?

And then you'd be like, Oh, do you want to see the video?

Yeah, yeah. Only gets weird.

Exactly.

I've always really enjoyed this video on thinking about it a bit further. I think it's quite

a good interpretation of what the style of music is. Like, there's not particularly a

plot that we can really solidly pick out, but it's just, it's fun to watch. And it clearly

has a lot of production value for what it is. I think my favourite part, I've got it's

hard to pick, is that the monkey is chasing the bird around. A person in a monkey suit

there's a person in a bird suit and they're running around and they're chasing each other

around during a little sort of breakdown in the song. And then after a few seconds of

them chasing them around, they sort of come together and then they just start dancing

with each other. It's hard not to be slightly delighted by that. Worst part, it's not really

bad, but I think it's the only bit that doesn't really fit the style of everything else is

when the DJ guy comes down. I feel like he's dressed like a character from the TV version

of hitchhikers gate to the galaxy, which I'm a big fan of, but it seems like it's the only

part that doesn't kind of fit in the theme of the rest of the video for me. Does this

video have a theme? I mean, I've just noticed there's a snake charmer. I've never noticed

him for,

it's got everything. I'm telling you best bit. Um, the talking head turtle man. Um,

I just can't get over the fact that he just looks so concerned. Like he doesn't know he's

he's a turtle. But also I think the entire vibe of this, I don't know if he's ever played

Jet Set Radio or Jet Set Radio Future.

I've hairdropped, I've not played it.

Yeah, the soundtrack is pretty similar with, you know, scratchy techno, whatever beats,

not that this is techno, but the song reminded me of that. Well, the worst is kind of like,

I don't know, it's more of a critical opinion. I think the song has grown on me, but this

isn't really my cup of tea. I don't hate it. I just probably wouldn't choose to ever listen

to it. I think if I heard it come on on a like a random playlist I would probably skip

it before giving it a chance. So my favorite part is the ghost chorus.

The chorus choir. Ghost choir. Yes. What was I thinking last night when I was putting this?

Could be either. I think you can, I think you can legit say it's a chorus of ghosts.

Can you? I think so. I may be wrong. English is hard. English is hard. Potatoes. The ghost

choir brought me joy for some reason. I have no explanation why. It just, it was fun to

just made me happy. So they kind of bob around with their sheets on their heads. And I'm not sure

there was something to hate specifically for me. There was so many visuals and if you're not a fan

of one of them, the next one that was going to pop in any second now, you're probably going to enjoy.

And if you don't like this type of video, I'm not sure what kind of type of video you like,

because I'll be doing just everything in one. Amalgamation of every video ever created.

It's a smorgasbord of every single video that existed.

A very big, big, big smorgasbordy eye for me.

Same.

Love the word smorgasbord.

What is a smorgasbord?

It's a board with like cheese on it.

Right, okay.

No, like everything.

I think it's like fish and cheese and you both.

As an onion, we both work the kyos.

Yeah, I think it's like it's a random spread of food.

Yeah.

You would, uh, you would, you would know it as the term party food, a very big

party food I from you sort of get them.

Um, I don't know where you get them actually.

Smorgasbord shop.

That's the one.

Yes.

Yes.

Um, yeah, I will give this an eye.

Just normal.

I know not no, it's ability to it.

Well, yeah, I would, I mean, it'll probably grow on me.

I'll maybe listen to, um, to other stuff, see other music videos just to see how

they get on, but yeah, it's an eye for me.

It's worth checking out and, um, it is quite good fun.

Take a look at the show notes for links for today's video links, Instagram, et

cetera.

Also email us at gontofarcast@gmail.com.

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So please send them our way.

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Say goodbye everyone.

Bye.

Bye all.

Bye!

Sorry, there's been calls all night, so we're like "Bye!"

Byeee!

We're not paying to Zoom!

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