The Strokes Reunite For The New “Threat of Joy” Video
It’s their first time on-screen together in five years
If you've been feeling some void(z) in your life from a lack of The Strokes, well, hopefully, this summer has acted as a liquid Band-aid. Just about a month ago, they dropped their first song in three years, "OBLIVIUS," and followed up with a four-track EP, Future Present Past. Now, the band is unveiling yet another gem in the form of a music video for their song "Threat of Joy."
Directed by Warren Fu, who acted as The Strokes' art director and worked with Julian Casablancas on his solo projects, the video features an outlandish plot filled with kidnapping, deceit, seduction, and censorship. Fu also adds a meta element to it all, as he makes an appearance as the director of the music video that's being filmed within the music video. True to The Strokes form, that's not the most confusing element of the project, though.
There are mysterious men in suits—some with pig masks—who stand to make some sort of point about Wall Street and the government's hold over art and its relationship to commercialism. There's a fight for control over the seized footage, which carries through the entire video. (To think, if it were all shot digitally, they'd just be toting around a tiny SD card.) Then, when the men in pig masks find out that the footage is going to be sold to the "NEWS," it seems as if that was their whole plan all along. Perhaps it's all a commentary on the nature of found footage in this TMZ age, or perhaps it's about nothing at all. Either way, it's still fantastic. Watch it, below.