Cass McCombs avait déjà fait chanter Karen Black alias Connie White chez Altman sur Dreams Come True Girl que Girls avait repris. Karen Black est décédée cet été et Cass McCombs lui rend un vibrant hommage avec un nouveau duo et un titre éclatant enregistré en décembre 2012, Brighter!.
Le clip réalisé par Stephen Eckelberry (Mister Black) mêle images des films de Karen avec celles des répétitions de cette chanson bouleversante, il précise à Pitchfork :
« Cass McCombs emailed me in late November 2013 and asked if I would create a music video for Brighter! – the song he recorded with Karen in December 2012 – using classic clips from her movies. It struck me as an opportunity to explore a theme that interests me – the relationship of film and memory. We watch a movie and the images from that movie become part of our memory stream.
My own memories of Karen are intertwined with memories of her in films – it gets messier for me since I directed several movies she was in – which memory is stronger; Karen during the making the film or what ended up on screen? An image came to me: Cass himself becoming a screen for the projection of images of Karen – as if his memories of her were playing themselves out over his body.
I found a clip I had shot with my iPhone when Cass was over at our house rehearsing the song with Karen, and I combined that with clips of her movies, some iconic, some more obscure, and I weaved in footage of fire, sparkes, burning… The song does seem to deal with hell, or is it the hell of fame? »
Cass McCombs sera en concert le 24/01 à Bordeaux au festival Bordeaux Rocks, le 25/01 à Rouen au 106 et le 26/01 au MoFo Festival à Paris. L’excellent dernier album de Cass McCombs, Big wheel and other est disponible partout.
Cass McCombs – Brighter! avec Karen Black
Cass McCombs – Brighter!
Cass McCombs – Dreams Come True Girl (feat. Karen Black)
Cass McCombs – Big Wheel
Le Prince Miiaou – Beloved Knife (3/6)
Le Prince Miiaou – JFK (4/6)