A Perfect Circle's latest doomsday meditation arrives today with their creepy-as-hell new video for "So Long, And Thanks for All the Fish." As jubilant characters in a retro black-and-white setting scatter about, enjoying the spoils of old-school suburbia, the scene comes into focus and it becomes apparent things are not so Leave It to Beaver as they seem. The first clue to the insanity that awaits comes when a prim-and-proper housewife attempts to pay for her groceries, and realizes the clerk is hanging from a rope.
As she shakes off the incident (in a seemingly pointed commentary about our ability to turn away from the horrors that fill everyday existence), the surreal nightmares pile on in a madcap adventure straight from the minds of director Kyle Cogan and APC frontman Maynard James Keenan, the latter offering up the simple, and chilling, comment on the video's concept: "Welcome to the new normal."
The madness continues with the introduction of flying dolphins (a nod to the satirical sci-fi series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy from which the track borrows its title), a murderous father casually burying his children in the front yard, and the neighborhood dominatrix whipping at the ass of an escaped submissive — as he beckons the housewife into a house where revelers copulate freely in the windows.
The five-minute clip culminates with a nuclear apocalyptic scene complete with faces melting from their skulls, atomic explosions and houses crumbling in radiation winds. The unsettling eeriness of it all comes to a swift halt, echoing the lyrical sentiment that time is money and we as humans have wasted ours.
The song is taken from A Perfect Circle's most recent album, Eat the Elephant. Released back in April, Revolver was granted a special inside look at the record's innovative custom prism through which a companion film can be viewed. Read more about that endeavor here and pick up the band's limited edition 7-inch featuring "So Long, And Thanks for All the Fish" with a B-side of the AC/DC cover "Dog Eat Dog" when it's released during Record Store Day's Black Friday festivities. See the 7-inch cover and A Perfect Circle's upcoming tour dates below.
A Perfect Circle tour dates:
11/09 Detroit, MI - Masonic Temple Theatre (WRIF Radio Show)
11/10 Madison, WI - Coliseum at Alliant Energy Center
11/11 Minneapolis, MN Armory (93X Radio Show)
11/13 Cedar Rapids, IA U.S. Cellular Center
11/14 Park City, KS Hartman Arena
11/17 Anaheim, CA The Theatre at Honda Center
11/18 Las Vegas, NV The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas – The Chelsea
11/20 Phoenix, AZ Comerica Theatre
12/02 Glasgow, Scotland Glasgow Academy
12/03 Manchester, UK Victoria Warehouse
12/05 London, UK Wembley Arena Pavilion
12/06 Paris, France Zenith Paris – La Villette
12/07 Antwerp, Belgium Lotto Arena
12/09 Amsterdam, Netherlands AFAS Live
12/10 Cologne, Germany Palladium
12/12 Copenhagen, Denmark Forum Copenhagen
12/13 Hamburg, Germany Sporthalle Hamburg
12/15 Kraków, Poland Tauron Arena Kraków
12/16 Vienna, Austria Wiener Stadhalle
12/18 Milan, Italy Mediolanum Forum
12/19 Rome, Italy Palalottomatica
In the mood for more surreal A Perfect Circle weirdness? Watch Maynard James Keenan and Billy Howerdel take us wig shopping in the video below:
