Video Premiere: Challenger, “How Are My Thoughts Not My Own?”

April 22, 2013 6:10 pm

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Here’s a cool video from New York City band Challenger that will challenge your eyeballs, but presumably not your taste in music. “How Are My Thoughts Not My Own?” from the band’s debut album The World is Too Much for Me, begins as a wispy, folky vehicle for the singer’s sad longing, then kicks into a higher gear with a driving, 80’s-inspired beat and pleading harmonies. Think Bright Eyes’ Digital Ash In A Digital Urn if you need a reference point.

“‘How Are My Thoughts Not My Own’ kind of feels like a fever dream to me,” says band leader John Ross, “and the story the filmmakers Catherine Rehwinkel and Kyle Marler tell in their video captures that dreamlike quality really nicely.”