If all had gone according to plan, Nevermen would be sleeping in Amsterdam right now. The “leaderless trio,” as they described themselves to Rolling Stone, is composed of TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, rapper Adam “Dosene” Drucker and Faith No More’s frontman, Mike Patton. According to Pitchfork, they had to cancer their European tour due to an “illness in the Nevermen family.” So sadly, the three are not slumbering in the Netherlands at the moment.
Today, however, was not a complete loss for the band, as they released a music video for their song “Mr. Mistake” off of Nevermen’s self-titled album that came out Jan. 29. Though the group was formed in 2008, Nevermen is their first full-length project. Previously, “Mr. Mistake” was released as single along with the songs, “Tough Towns” and “Hate On.”
Being an eclectic group, it’s no surprise that their music is hard to pin down into one genre. While much of the album is experimental rap and hip hop, “Mr. Mistake” is much more akin to a Tune-Yards song than the aforementioned with it’s layered/falsetto/punchy vocals. The music video, premiered by Juxtapoz Magazine, is an animated film featuring a stoic “Madeline Lost in Paris” character that soars through a turbulent nightmare of a black sea and repeated consumption by large animals. It ends on a cheery note, however, as trees sprout from the ground, which symbolizes hope. I think.
The animation, which matches Nevermen’s staccato repetition of the word “death,” was created by Sarina Nihei, a Japanese artists that lives in the UK. Previously, Nihei won the grand prize at the Ottawa International Animation Festival for her short film, “Small People with Hats.” This marks the first music video by Nevermen, which is very exciting, and probably way better than Europe.
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