NV Music Video Premiere: WOOM, “Quetzalcoatl’s Ship”

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We made it through all of 2010 with our enthusiasm for Muu’s Way, the debut album from WOOM, undiminished, particularly the track “Quetzalcoatl’s Ship”, which John Norris, in a review of the album from last July, called a “charmer”, with its musical collage of Eben Portnoy’s hand claps, whistles, and wood blocks, and sweet-voiced Sara Magenheimer’s singing about a ship without a sail, that might be a coffin, shaped like a rectangle, or something like that, and of course the name of the great Aztec god thrown in for good measure.

It won over fans, it even had a Greg Saunier remix, but all along this eccentric and adorable track deserved a music video equally fractured and fun, and now it’s got one, compliments of Brooklyn-based artists Matthew Thurber and Rebecca Bird, longtime cohorts of Magenheimer. Here’s what Sara had to tell us about their backgrounds:
“Thurber mostly works in the comic book format, and his work can be seen at www.1800mice.com. Rebecca mostly paints and her work can be seen at www.rebeccabird.info. We have collaborated on a number of projects including the installation "Anti-Matter Alma Mater", the coloring book "Landy" and performances in the band Ambergris. We have made animation and videos together at various times since the early 2000s. Another animated short we made together was called "Star Farmer" and can be seen here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwd5yuLowjs.”

And you can start by checking out this exercise in bright and breezy animation – geometrics, squiggles, hands, morphing creatures, color – lots of color, and yes, pre-Colombian figures and a little ship shaped something like a coffin. It’s a Noisevox music video premiere: “Quetzalcoatl’s Ship” from WOOM.