The Sandwitches, “Heaviest Head in the West”

The imagery in this music video, by Ada Bligaard Søby, is washed-out 16mm. However, since what we are looking at is not a retro family album, but scenes of the world's city, New York City, even film with smiles takes on an ominous air. Soundtracked by the Sandwitches' arid rock-and-roll and a narration of an interview with someone who is talking about hookers, cocaine, and economic collapse, the piece as a whole takes on the desperate feeling of late Cold War Germany. Shots of vinyl-sided rowhouses in East Williamsburg translate easily into barren Eastern European slums; bustling Manhattan – even with clear shots of the subway and other identifiers – somehow seem like they were taken in the early '80s, when another one of Wall Street's mistakes was pushing Americans into poverty. Even parts of the video starring the band themselves, playing in a dark club or in the woods, seem like unearthed films of serious punks like Kleenex, if perhaps slowed down 8000%.

You can get Mrs. Jones Cookies by the Sandwitches here.