The Lentils
Featured off of LA by way of Brattleboro band The Lentils’ new album 11 New Flavors Of Oblivion And Why The Shining Ones Don’t Want You To Know About Them available now from Death Records—we present the world premiere for the Shannon Pollak video for “Loaves of Oblivion”. Behold the following how to video where we all get to learn “Proper Guitar Care and Maintenance Tips” courtesy of the band’s own Luke Csehak where unorthodox methodologies involving vegetables, condiments, wigs, hairbrushes & more get involved where video guitar hacks are meshed together with something of a DIY cooking show where food & tunes meet together in a cult episode of odd occurrences that somehow involved the occult.
One thing is strikingly certain from the visuals for “Loaves of Oblivion” is that The Lentils’ Luke Csehak is deserving of having their own series on whatever is the cool new cooking channel/network. Sporting a chic green wig, a Gibson butter-finger 1968 model that has seen better days accompanied by a cornucopia of eggplant, broccoli, carrots & more. Feeding the guitar said veggies, Csehak then starts on the strings by liberally applying a slathering of vegan mayo before turning over the Gibson for some positive affirmations while the acoustic instrument digests, revealing a blond wig on the back side that is then brushed by Luke via a pink hairbrush. Putting the Gibson to bed for a good rest, The Lentils’ big hand-clapping single starts up with a sentimental moment of snuggles shared between the the instrument & instrumentalist in a beautiful display of musicianship bonding. Things get weird as dry ice steams up, and a plethora of baguettes appear all over the bedroom & kitchen as Luke’s mom texts about a cryptic expression of “everyday there is more bread”. The vintage rhythm piano rocker rides forward as our hero enjoys some cereal before being kidnapped by an eccentric karate master and taken to an empty lot where the artist is entertained by novelty gags & samurai sword bread slicing behaviors as things get even stranger where the mentor meditates and becomes a flame to match the chorus reiterations that seek the perfect burn. Csehak instigates an impromptu parking light jam sesh where the vampirical “sound guy” [brilliantly performed by Luke’s partner & director Shannon Pollak] hops on the switches & knobs and offers up the hilarious moniker chastising of, What kind of stupid hippy name is The Lentils anyway? Then things tap into the alternate dimensions as an eccentric round of Ouija between Shannon, Luke & the mysterious karate king played by Brett Pollak [Shannon’s father] brings everything full circle as all the vegetables consumed by the Gibson are strewn about the lot as we return back to Luke’s regularly scheduled program—”Proper Guitar Care and Maintenance Tips”:
Luke from The Lentils’ introduced “Loaves of Oblivion” with the following exclusive behind-the-scenes insights:
I wrote “The Loaves of sweet Oblivion” for my dead hedgehog named Hercules. He was the strongest hedgehog in all the world and when he died all the tambourines clotted and the gamblers all scattered and it was just me and Hercules. And when he let out his last breath it hit me hard, like a half ton of silk. Because of my superstitious nature, I decided on a nice star for him to live on, with nice star people that said they would feed him from the loaves of sweet oblivion.
To make the video I started off by falling in love. It began as a joke between lovers but then it actually got made because love is funny like that. Her name is Shannon Pollak and she plays the sound guy. Her dad Brett plays the karate instructor and he actually was one in the eighties. I had never met him before the shoot so that was actually a nice way to get to know him. James Rodenhouse shot it but Shannon really made it happen.
The Lentils’ album 11 New Flavors Of Oblivion And Why The Shining Ones Don’t Want You To Know About Them is available now courtesy of Death Records.
