Last month, former Fleet Foxes drummer Josh Tillman announced his second Father John Misty album, I Love You, Honeybear. The follow-up to 2012's Fear Fun, the effort is due out Feb. 10 via Sub Pop. Tillman performed a cut from the album, "Bored in the USA," along with a 22-piece string orchestra section on The Late Show With David Letterman, and now he's released another cut from the album, titled "Chateau Lobby #4 (in C For Two Virgins)," accompanied by a trippy video that he directed and his filmmaker wife Emma shot on an iPad.
The intimate clip features footage of their recent wedding anniversary. Tillman blends romance and humor for the sweeping folk rock track with lines like, "I want to take you in the kitchen / Lift up your wedding dress someone was probably murdered in."
In an open letter/press release, Tillman says the original concept for the video had been for him to preside over a kitten wedding. However, the idea was scrapped when he realized how expensive it would be to hire on "kitten wranglers" and also because "the song actually means a great deal" to him.
Check out the video and Tillman's open letter/press release below. Let us know what you think in the comments section!
A few months ago, I had an idea for a music video. I was going to rent a wedding chapel, get a dozen kittens and stage a kitten wedding, over which I would preside and intercut with performance footage of me lip-syncing the song which you're hearing today, "Chateau Lobby #4 (in C for Two Virgins)."
Sounds great, right? It may have even gone viral because kittens. If a video goes viral, that means you're reaching a wider audience, and you might even get on a chart. If you get on a chart that means you're streaming more records, and the more records you're streaming the more money you supposedly have for hiring kitten wranglers.
Aside from the fact that kitten wranglers are considerably more expensive than you may realize and that said-kitten wranglers all informed me there was no way we were going to be able get the outfits I had mocked up onto said-kittens, there was another extenuating factor involved in the decision to abort this music video concept and ruin the slim likelihood that I might ever get to see the Huffington Post entertainment headline 'EX-FLEET FOXES DRUMMER WEDS CATS.'
That reason is that the song actually means a great a deal to me.
It's got the #4 on it because this iteration Chateau Lobby was the 4th attempt at arranging and producing the song that did not turn out perversely sentimental. Sentimentality brutalizes emotion. Much like ironic music videos.
I don't care all that much if you like the music video or not. The label isn't crazy about it. Management isn't crazy about it. I have been informed I'm basically kissing an MTV "Woodie" award goodbye forever. I made it on an iPad on my wedding anniversary with the one I love. We ate pancakes.
I love you,
Josh
