Video Premiere: Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion, “Chairman Meow”

Google “Chairman Meow” and you’re going to see a slew of websites, images and merchandise featuring cats of various serious demeanors stylized like the late founder of the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Republic of China itself. YouTube will yield similar results. But tag either search with “Sarah Lee Guthrie” and/or “Johnny Irion” and you’ll find something of a (mostly) less feline nature.

As we mentioned in our May review, the production influence of Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy is all over this track but the feel-good and bouncy rhythms lend themselves well to music video. Cats abound – cartoon, clay puppets, stuffed animals – and the clip shows Guthrie and Irion frolicking and singing and generally just having a good time.

“We love how the video came out,” say Sarah and Johnny. “We were thinking a cross between R.E.M.’s ‘Shiny Happy People’ and some kind of Japanese Anime and that’s pretty much what we got. Thanks to directors Jim Tozzi and Matt Richards.”