PREMIERE: The Blind Shake Will Fight You, Too, in Animated “I Shot All the Birds” Video

If you’re going to name a song “I Shot All the Birds,” and if you’re gonna put that song out via Memphis DIY label Goner, you’d damn well better make that song mean. And that’s exactly what Minneapolis surf-punk group The Blind Shake do, shoving guitar buckshot into the verses and firing it off with a boom in between.

The monosyllabic mono-monikered trio (Dave, Jim, Mike) have recorded with noise legend Michael Yonkers and Drive Like Jehu / Hot Snakes / Rocket From the Crypt swami John Reis, and both of those influences burn through in “I Shot All the Birds.” Mike’s baritone guitar, in particular, sounds like it’s ringing its way through hard earth, open and throaty and boring the hole around which Jim’s guitar shakes while Dave’s drums pounding out a slow, steady rhythm. It’s a song that doesn’t necessarily go anywhere, but it sure as hell doesn’t stay still, either.

The stylish video, which we’re premiering this morning, is similarly peripatetic as it follows a Pettibon-esque crow who speeds through the desert in a convertible with a cigarette dangling from his beak. He drives fast, and he carries a gun, and there’s a particularly sexy fox waiting for him, and sometimes you don’t know what you’re driving toward until you get there.

“I Shot All the Birds” is taken from last week’s Goner release Celebrate Your Worth. You can pick up a copy here or at one of the band’s upcoming shows, which are listed below, too.

The Blind Shake tour dates