Alestorm have released a new video for “Big Ship Little Ship,” which is one of the bonus tracks from their latest album, Curse of the Crystal Coconut, which came out on May 29. The song was also previously released as a 7” single included with the wooden box set for the album.

Starting out with strings playing what can only be considered a stereotypical pirate melody before coming in with the metal riffs, Alestorm aren’t covering any new ground on this song. That doesn’t matter, because they decided to cash all in on low-effort comedy, and many would agree that’s the charm of the band. The lyrics begin with “Living in a car, isn’t very yarr…” and also include the line “Living on a boat / would float my boat.”

The video is home-made and shows the band doing their best to act out the lyrics with the locations and props they had available while adhering to social distancing. Notable props include a toy shark head, an inflatable raft, a giant hurdy gurdy, and a cardboard box. That’s all fine for a music video made for a bonus track by the individual band members. It’s a fun glimpse at the musicians being more removed from their pirate personas than usual.

Alestorm commented on the video in a press release, “Oh wow! We’ve all been stuck at home and incredibly bored since the release of our latest album ‘Curse of the Crystal Coconut’, so we thought we’d make a fun little ‘home video’ for y’all, to celebrate the digital release of our two bonus tracks ‘Big Ship Little Ship’ and ‘Bassline Junkie’. We even got the wonderful Patty Gurdy involved, since this song features a massive hurdy gurdy melody that she played on the record. Watch us do our normal everyday home activities, such as crossdressing, shouting obscenities at buildings, and hanging out in children’s playgrounds!”

The low budget definitely contrasts strongly with some of the other videos made for the album. “Treasure Chest Party Quest” featured a large cast of actors and extras, the singer’s head on a baby’s body, eye-catching outfits, and other marks of a professional production. “Fannybaws” features Peter Dinklage as a legendary pirate and a full pirate-themed set, and “Shit Boat (No Fans)” has an animated NSFW video featuring a whole load of illustrated insults. The video is similarly homemade like “Big Ship Little Ship” for “Pirate Metal Drinking Crew”, simply showing the band playing the song in the studio.

Photo credit: Sharon Alagna