Lee Ranaldo has shared the video for ‘New Thing’, the second track to be unveiled from his upcoming album, Electric Trim.
Directed by Naomi Yang, a founding member of 1980s alternative rock band Galaxie 500 who has also worked on videos for Richard Youngs and Julia Holter among others, the video captures Ranaldo moving through New York City, offering a commentary on the use of smartphones and small screens around the world today.
"I’ve described ‘New Thing’ as ‘my song about the internet’," Ranaldo says, adding that it’s "about our thousands of ‘friends’ and the obsession with accumulating ‘likes’.
"When Naomi and I began discussing ideas for the video we knew we wanted to reference that subject matter but didn’t want to do so in any heavy-handed way. I told her I’d like to be a character of some sort rather than a ‘guy singing with guitar’ and she found ‘Buster’, as we dubbed the JVC 3100R ‘Television/Radio Pyramid Capsule Unit’ [we found] on eBay. You wouldn’t believe what a cool old useless piece of outdated technology like that sells for these days!"
Naomi Yang adds: "We didn’t have to do anything more than hit the streets of New York to find the familiar scenario of everyone out and about glued to their screens. And so Lee, although he was carrying around a cumbersome vintage screen, was not so out of place. Some people noticed him, many did not at all."
Electric Trim was recorded in New York City and Barcelona with the album seeing Ranaldo experimenting with electronic beats and samples alongside live players. Sharon Van Etten, Kid Millions (aka Man Forever) and Wilco’s Nels Cline all make guest appearances while Ranaldo’s live band The Dust also feature.
Electric Trim is out on September 15.
