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Premieres

Viet Cong's Video for "Continental Shelf" Is Creepily Awesome

When you see someone standing stock still, facing a wall, run as fast as you can.

Ever since The Blair Witch Project the image of someone facing away from the camera—possibly close to a wall, maybe wedged up against a corner—has become synonymous with SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG, SHIT'S ABOUT TO GO DOWN. Just the other week I saw a girl standing frozen, staring at a wall in a NYC subway tunnel. I got immediate goose bumps and had to run away. In this video for "Continental Shelf," from Calgary's Viet Cong, the backs of people's heads is just one of the many creepy-ass VHS-grainy visuals on display.

Annoncering

I mean, it opens with a woman spinning slowly in 70s silk, with a blackened face, palms upturned, spinning slowly like a mannequin in a window. (And we all know mannequins come to life once department stores close.) Very Carrie-meets-The Watcher in the Woods. Which is to say, by first frame you know you'll want to watch this all the way through.

"I wanted the video to feel like a reel of film that was purchased accidentally at a garage sale or found buried under someone's front porch," said Yoonha Park. the video's director. "It's meant to be an incomplete picture—like screen tests from a lost movie."

As for the song itself, Viet Cong (who claim two members of Women in their ranks), match each squally, distorted guitar lick, and stomped out beat, with a ragged, larynx-shredded Pixies-like pop nous, and this is the perfect union of sound and vision.

Viet Cong Tour Dates

11.18.14 - Total Refreshment Studios - London, UK

11.19.14 - Scala - London, UK *

11.20.14 - AB Club - Brussels, BE *

11.21.14 - Le Guess Who? Festival - Utrecht, NL

11.22.14 - La Mécanique Ondulatoire - Paris, FR

01.28.15 - Union Pool - Brooklyn, NY **

01.29.15 - Mercury Lounge - New York, NY

01.30.15 - Bar Le Ritz PDB - Montreal, QC ^

01.31.15 - The Garrison - Toronto, ON

02.05.15 - Deaf Institute - Manchester, UK

02.06.15 - Broadcast - Glasgow, UK

02.07.15 - Brudenell Social - Leeds, UK

02.08.15 - Green Door Store - Brighton, UK

Annoncering

02.10.15 - Paradiso - Amsterdam, NL

02.11.15 - West Germany - Berlin, DE

02.12.15 - Loppen - Copenhagen, DK

02.13.15 - Pokalen - Oslo, NO

02.15.15 - Hafenklang - Hamburg, DE

02.16.15 - Rotown - Rotterdam, NL

02.17.15 - De Kreun - Kortrijk, BE

* w/ Ought

** w/ Honey, PC Worship

^ w/ PC Worship, Unblonde

Viet Cong's LP is out on 20.1.15 via Jagjaguwar. Pre-order it here.

Kim Taylor Bennett likes being creeped out. She's on Twitter.