Suicide Commandos are another inexplicably loved Minnesota band. I'm just realizing that this blog makes it seem like I don't really like Minnesota music. That is preposterous. I love it. But maybe just writing a love letter to a video is not that interesting? I don't know. Analysis of my feelings is definitely not a part of this blog because I'm a Minnesotan so we won't dwell on this.
Suicide Commandos are an old school 1970s punk band. They have an affinity for the music of the 1950s and are bad at their instruments. They are also not too concerned with things like "song structure" or "melody" or "quality music". Those things are not important. What is important, though, is making a pretty sweet early music video.
Burn It Down by Suicide Commandos:
I really like this video. It has a great, lo-fi energy that really connects with me.
It opens with a title card, which I love.
Cleverly, the title card starts on fire and then is all burned up.
Then, the song is introduced by a talking dog. In this case they use a dalmatian because of the fire theme.
Note: Talking dogs are extremely common in Minnesota.
Then, we get a series of people wearing firefighter hats who also introduce the song, or at least say the name of it. There's this woman who is very angry.
I included a picture of this next woman because I love how her shirt really doesn't match with the hat.
This guy looks really familiar. Is he an actor? Let me know if you can place him.
This guy seems a little out of it.
The comments for this video on YouTube are probably the only YouTube comments on any video ever that contain helpful information. According to these comments most of the people in the firefighter hats were local winos who were recruited for the video.
Then we get to see the band rocking out in front of a burning building.
These are not high tech special effects. The band is standing in front of a real building that is actually on fire and are recording this video. That's what passed for special effects in the old days. Apparently that building, which was Suicide Commandos' rehearsal space, was being demolished using fire (is that something cities do? Burn buildings down on purpose?) because it was condemned. The band wrote a song for the occasion and decided to film a video in front of the burning building. That is awesome. I think this might be the first case of a band writing a song specifically for a video, rather than the other way around. I don't see why more bands don't work this way. That's probably the only way Rob Zombie works.
Look at these dudes! I can't get over it.
The singer looks like a math teacher who creepily convinced some of his students to play in a band with him.
And sorry ladies, he's married.
Sorry the picture quality is so terrible, but he is wearing a wedding ring there if you look really hard and squint. He's a balding man with a beard wearing a button-up shirt and playing music in front of a burning building. I'd marry him if he wasn't taken. Minnesotans clearly understand that looks (for men) don't count.
By the end of the song and video the building is mostly burned down.
They add an ending title card as well to let you know who appeared in the video.
That's sweet. Plus you get to see the band's logo. I love that the title cards are off center as if they are literally holding cards in front of the camera. I assume that is what they are doing.
This video is pretty sweet. I'd like to think that if I knew when and where a building would be burning, or when a where a clock tower would be struck by lightning, that I would know what to do with that knowledge. I'm not sure. There's a saying that you can't know if the wind will come, but you need to make sure your sails are up to catch it. Or something to that effect. Maybe it's that you can't know if a wind will come unless you are standing behind a donkey.
Anyways, Suicide Commandos had their sails up and caught this fire. To burn it down.
-PTD
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