PREMIERE: Alex Ebert Defies Everything in “King Killer” Video

The “I vs I” single gets a bizarre video full of sumo suits and nylon stocking masks.
PREMIERE: Alex Ebert Defies Everything in “King Killer” Video

The “I vs I” single gets a bizarre video full of sumo suits and nylon stocking masks.

Words: Kim March

photo courtesy of the artist

April 29, 2020

Alex Ebert’s musical trajectory has taken many distinct forms over the past few decades, from the electroclash of Ima Robot to the hippie period-piece rock of Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, to his more ambient film soundtracks for A Most Violent Year and All Is Lost. This January he served us another zag in the form of his latest solo release, I vs I, which incorporated elements of rap, deep house, and reggae, the first of which he communicated most fluently on the trap single “King Killer.”

Today, Ebert’s sharing a bizarre, action-packed video for the track, opting to illustrate the lyrics with a clip of his blown-way-up head absorbing ray gun rays from young renegades. There’s also plenty of sumo suits and Ebert clones donning nylon stockings over their faces. “Defiance has its wisdom, even in its most belligerent forms,” Ebert explains. “I am occupying such form here, in defiance not only of our president and other assorted ‘geniuses,’ but in defiance of myself—as I know myself to be the greatest of them all—and, so, must not spare myself, either. King Killer, am I.” No word on the sumo suits.

Watch the video below. I vs I is out now on Community Music.