Ra Ra Riot Share "Water" Video Co-Directed by Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij
Photo by Shervin Lainez
Ra Ra Riot recently announced Need Your Light, their follow-up to 2013′s Beta Love. The new LP arrives February 19 via Barsuk. Today, they’ve shared a visual for “Water”, their collaboration with Vampire Weekend‘s Rostam Batmanglij.
Directed by Batmanglij and Josh Goleman, the video stars lead singer Wes Miles as a hiker who makes an incredibly long (and presumably exhausting) trek from the California desert into Los Angeles, eventually winding up at the beach.
Additionally, the band have announced a spring tour behind Need Your Light; find the full itinerary below.
Here’s what the band had to say about the video on Tumblr:
Hi! Last month we bounced over to LA for a couple of days to make a music video with our good (and supremely talented) friends Rostam [Batmanglij] and Josh [Goleman]. We set out for Joshua Tree at around 3:30 in the morning, with our boxes of Joe, rollerblades, and analgesic anamorphic lenses in tow, and by 5pm we were wrapping beneath the Santa Monica pier. There were a bunch of stops in between that I don’t particularly recall but apparently (spoiler alert) included wind farms, street hockey, and a guy in a tunnel with a tambourine. I think I ate a burrito at some point.
This video fits right into our whole (unintentional) MO for making this record – working with old friends for whom we have a ton of respect and, perhaps even more importantly, trust. Plus, Rostam had a hand in writing, recording, and producing the song (“Water”), and so it makes sense that he was involved with both the concept and execution of the video. Hopefully the result is a testament to the burrito fun we had making it.
Ra Ra Riot:
03-02 Albany, NY – The Hollow
03-03 Boston, MA – Paradise
03-04 New York, NY – Webster Hall
03-05 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
03-06 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
03-08 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
03-10 Savannah, GA – Savannah Stopover Festival
03-11 Atlanta, GA – Aisle 5
03-12 Birmingham, AL – Saturn
03-13 Nashville, TN – Exit In
03-15 Houston, TX – Walter’s Downtown
03-16-18 Austin, TX- SXSW
03-21 Phoenix, AZ – Valley Bar
03-22 San Diego, CA – The Irenic
03-24 Los Angeles, CA – Teragram Ballroom
03-25 Santa Barbara, CA – Soho Restaurant & Music Club
03-27 San Francisco, CA – The Independent
03-30 Seattle, WA – Neumos
03-31 Vancouver, British Columbia – The Biltmore Cabaret
04-01 Portland, OR – Revolution Hall
04-03 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge
04-04 Denver, CO – Bluebird Theatre
04-06 Kansas City, MO – The Riot Room
04-07 Minneapolis, MN – Triple Rock Social Club
04-08 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
04-11 Columbus, OH – A&R Music Bar
04-12 Millvale, PA – Mr. Small’s Theatre
04-14 Toronto, Ontario – Lee’s Palace
04-15 Montréal, Québec – Bar Le Ritz
04-16 Geneva, NY – The Cracker Factor
Watch Rostam Batmanglij with Vampire Weekend on Pitchfork.tv’s “Over/Under”:
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