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Music

Holy Fuck's Video for "Neon Dad" Reimagines David and Goliath in the Age of Celebrity

The latest from the Toronto noise rock madcaps follow a wide-eyed David through LA in the wake of his newfound fame.

Along with being one of the most underrated records of the year, Holy Fuck's Congrats has offered up some of the year's coolest music videos. The latest, for single "Neon Dad," is no exception.

Directed by Scott Cudmore, the video reimagines the tale of David and Goliath in the modern world, following a wide-eyed David through Los Angeles in the wake of his newfound fame. It starts out sweetly enough—he meets a cute girl, trips in a park with new friends, films a video—but then, as these things go, his tale takes a darker turn. It's a compelling bit of film whose surreal, hazy aesthetic mirrors the feel of the song (it also dips into decidedly more violent Congrats track "House of Mirrors" for a stretch).

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Here's what Holy Fuck's Brian Borcherdt had to say about the song and the video:

"Neon Dad was written mostly during a rehearsal in Sydney Australia during Laneway festival 2011. It was a rare moment where we went for something mid tempo and melodic. Was it a pop song? a future B-side? It pushed the boundaries of our comfort zone. So we pushed back against it, juxtaposing our noisier aesthetic with something uplifting and cathartic. The end result wouldn't have been possible without the collaboration of a few of our friends. It was recorded with Loel Campbell on drums, during a live session at the Banff Centre for the Arts with Shawn Everett engineering. Carmen Elle of the band Diana layered in some perfectly icy vocals, recorded in our basement studio in Toronto. Finally Dave Newfeld gave us this mix, turning this song inside out and exposing it's psychedelic guts. It still scares us but we like it.

Scott Cudmore made the video. Only he can explain it's meaning. But to us it feels like a lesson on how Goliaths are more than just biblical giants. These ogres are everywhere, even inside us."

Watch the video premiere of Holy Fuck's "Neon Dad" and check out their upcoming tour dates below.

Holy Fuck on tour:
Dec 16th - Hamilton, Ontario - The Casbah
Dec 17th - Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace
Jan 20th - Calgary AB - Big Winter Classic Festival
Jan 21st - Saskatoon, SK - Amigo's

Andrea Domanick is Noisey's West Coast Editor. Follow her on Twitter