Fred Armisen Crashes a Cult in J Mascis’ Hilarious ‘Every Morning’ Video
J Mascis‘ “Every Morning” sounds like it could have been written at a hippie commune, and now the dewy-eyed, psych-folk track has a music video that seems to build on that very premise. The hilarious Funny or Die clip – directed by Danny Jelinek – stars Mascis as Space Angel, the leader of a religious cult overrun by a corporate sleazeball played by Fred Armisen.
The perennially droll Dinosaur Jr. frontman mostly sits around the forest and strums his acoustic guitar, while his followers (including Shins singer-guitarist James Mercer) drink suspicious-looking Kool-Aid and tote around magic eggs. Armisen is a menacing presence throughout the video, lingering in the background of almost every scene. But he’s not a sniper – he’s a businessman, pushing out Mascis with his tech company CompuWave Systems (which boasts the slogan “Computers are the wave of the future”).
Armisen shows the cult members a chart with shocking facts about their current leader – including “His real name is Mark Boyle, and he was arrested in 1968 for selling knock-off concert T-shirts.” The clip ends with a dejected Mascis failing to smash an acoustic guitar, consoled only by a supremely psychedelic guitar solo.
Mascis’ latest solo LP, Tied to a Star, was released this month, and it features guest appearances from Cat Power‘s Chan Marshall, Ken Maiuri of Young@Heart Chorus, Black Heart Procession’s Pall Jenkins and Miracle Legion’s Mark Mulcahy.
“There’s not many other people on the record,” Mascis told Rolling Stone back in July. “So I’ll just tour by myself for it probably. I put out a record a couple of years ago like that. I got this guy Ken, a local guy, to play piano. And Pall from Black Heart Procession does a couple things. The last album had a lot of different people. This one I didn’t have that much.”
Mascis previously announced a string of North American and European tour dates for 2014. The first show is on September 24th in Hamden, Connecticut, and the guitarist has gigs scheduled until late December.