Always up to mischief, The Avalanches appear to have collaborated with an art collective for an amazing short film titled The Was, which sees tunes from the band’s new album Wildflower soundtrack a pastiche of sampled movies and television shows.
Posted to Vimeo and then shared on Reddit by the mysterious user prettywifi4afly with the title ‘The World of Wildflower’, The Was (below) appears to be a collaboration between The Avalanches and the Sydney-based art collective SODA_JERK.
Mixing actors with animations, The Was samples video from the likes of Seinfeld, Daria, Taxi Driver, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Beavis and Butt-Head, The Simpsons and The Big Lebowski. There are soooo many references, and they’re all soundtracked by Wildflower cuts like Subways, Frankie Sinatra, Colours and The Wozard of Iz.
While The Avalanches are yet to publicly announce their connection with The Was, the film’s opening titles mention film director Alan Smithee and artist Chris Hopkins, who designed the album art for Wildflower, which also manages to sneak its way into the film.
In her review of Wildflower, which has been streaming on Apple Music this week ahead of its official release on Friday, 8th July, Music Feeds reviewer Cyclone Wehner says the album “revels in the escapism of nostalgia” — and so does The Was.
Watch The Was in full below, and to grab a download of the film, head here. Stay tuned until the end to see the HUGE list of songs used and films/shows referenced.
UPDATE: The Was video has been taken down, but can be streamed and download here: thewas.xyz.
Watch: ‘The Was’ (SODA_JERK vs The Avalanches)
https://vimeo.com/173438485
