Recorded remotely in lockdown by band members in their homes in Toronto and Montreal, and assembled and mixed by Moist guitarist and producer Mark Makoway, "Tarantino" is Moist's first new release since their 2014 album, Glory Under Dangerous Skies.
The song tells a story of a life of meaningless excess. Singer David Usher explains, "The first lockdown sent me on a Quentin Tarantino binge and the song came out of a dream sparked by those images where we have lost all sense of ourselves-where there are no limits on our consumption and all we want is more. We deconstruct and reconstruct ourselves to fill an unfillable void and we just eat ourselves alive, and somehow, we still can't wake up."
The accompanying visual, adapted from the National Film Board of Canada short Caterpillarplasty, is a grotesque sci-fi satire that lifts plastic surgery and trans-species body dysmorphia to another level. Re-edited for "Tarantino" by acclaimed director David Barlow-Krelina, the short film is a powerful and sardonic take on how society's unrelenting obsession with beauty has spiralled out of control. This video will get under your skin.
Usher discovered the short film while perusing the internet after "Tarantino" was completed: "When I saw the long version of Caterpillarplasty, it fit perfectly with the vision for the song 'Tarantino.' The endless desire to remodel and upgrade ourselves, hoping the remaking of our appearance will somehow solve our existential turmoil."
"When David Usher first got in touch with me about making a Moist music video using footage from Caterpillarplasty, we started making connections between the film and his work in AI and with digital humans. I had initially conceived of the film in a way that relied heavily on music to set the emotional tone of the piece, so it was a great pleasure for me to reimagine the timing and the flow to an entirely different vibe," said Barlow-Krelina.
Moist was founded in 1993 and its debut album, Silver, propelled the band to prominence with the uniquely powerful alt-rock anthems "Push," "Silver," and "Believe Me." Like Silver, Moist's follow-up records-Creature (1996) and Mercedes Five and Dime (1999)-went on to achieve multi-platinum sales (over 1.3 million albums worldwide) and yielded more chart-topping hits, including "Resurrection," "Tangerine," "Gasoline," "Breathe," and "Underground." Moist also made its mark internationally: touring extensively throughout the US, Europe and parts of Asia; appearing on the Top of the Pops in the UK and as musical guests on a pilot for a then-new show out of NYC called The Jon Stewart Show; and even being lampooned by Beavis and Butthead on MTV. The two-time JUNO Award winners also received numerous accolades for their music and their no-holds-barred approach to touring, and shared stages with international superstars such as Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Hole, Green Day, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, as well as virtually all their Canadian contemporaries.
Catch Moist live in November 2021 as part of the Saints and Sinners Tour, featuring alt-rock contemporaries The Tea Party, Headstones and Sloan. More details here.
STREAM "TARANTINO" HERE
Moist acknowledge and thank the National Film Board of Canada and David Barlow-Krelina for the exceptional use of Caterpillarplasty.
More about David Barlow-Krelina
Born in 1988 in Ottawa, David Barlow-Krelina graduated from Concordia University in film animation and computation arts. His first independent film, Bless You (2013), was an online hit and screened at the OIAF, The Animation Show of Shows, etc. David combines classical animation and modern CGI to tell experimental narratives. He particularly enjoys creating glimpses into new and unusual universes that function according to their own unique logic.
For more about David Barlow-Krelina, please visit:
instagram.com/davidbarlowkrelina
Caterpillarplasty
- Written and directed by David Barlow-Krelina
- Produced at the NFB by Jelena Popović. NFB Executive Producer: Michael Fukushima
- Fusing elements of Kafka and Kubrick, Caterpillarplasty is a prescient, grotesque sci-fi satire that lifts plastic surgery to another level.
Electronic Press Kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/caterpillarplasty
YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=OlseTkThRfY
Vimeo: vimeo.com/362160902
