Watch At the Drive In’s Eerie, Stop-Motion Video for ‘Hostage Stamps’
At the Drive In convey both paranoia and resiliency with “Hostage Stamps,” the third single from their upcoming LP, in • ter a • li • a. “Thirty days spent in the hole/ Raise yourself a nithing pole,” frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala wails over a frantic prog-punk assault.
In a statement, Zavala likened the song to “walking through the hallway in some war-torn ghetto and reading the writing on the wall.” Alluding to the song’s vivid, cryptic lyrics, he added, “When you hear things like, ‘Raise your nithing pole,’ I don’t think anyone will know what that is right away, but when you look it up, it’s this curse. We are going to be victorious. Here’s the fucking head on the stake in front of our army. We’re coming back. It’s reading the writing on the wall. It’s going and keeping your ear to the ground and listening to the heartbeat of young people.”
Directors Rob Shaw and Damon Locks tap into those themes with the song’s eerie video, which features a blend of stop-motion and digital animation. Throughout, robotic figures hold a man prisoner, as ominous messages (“Birds Listen to Day Words, While Rats Listen to Night Tremors”) flash on billboards throughout a city.
in • ter a • li • a, At the Drive In’s fourth LP and first in 17 years, is out May 5th. The quintet will support the album with a North American tour launching May 6th in their hometown, El Paso, Texas.