CoSigned garage rock outfit White Reaper has built a reputation this year with their unhinged sound. Their recently released album, White Reaper Does It Again, solidified the punks as a turbulent force of guitars and otherworldly keyboards. Now they’re giving a visual accompaniment to their brilliant madness with the music video for “Pills”.
“So basically Tony [Esposito] is an escapee of a mental institution and he’s gone too long without his pills,” the band explains of the video to Consequence of Sound. “He sustained head injuries, crashed a pool party, and dug a huge hole — all in a day’s work. The video was at first inspired by a few different horror movies but it turned out to be more like a mix of Encino Man / CKY2K than anything else.”
According to directors Cooper Burton and Eli Kleinsmith, the shooting was just as turbulent as the finished product, adding, “We all got a little sick making the video you’re about to see. Shooting provided an outlet for sadism; luckily, Tony, the lead singer, was a total masochist. We made him spit up bile, faceplant a plate of scrambled eggs (multiple times) — he even dug his own grave.”
While full of gruesome antics, the video balances it all out with campy fun. The band traverses with Esposito as he moves aimlessly through diners and fields of flowers, wearing bloody bandages the entire time. Throughout, the video also cuts to scenes of the band playing with pills coming out of their mouths and covering their instruments. It’s enough to make the likes of Sam Raimi and Wes Craven proud.
Watch it below.
The band will also be embarking on world tour starting this summer and continuing through the winter. They’ll kick things off in Calgary, traverse the UK, and finish things off in California. Consult their schedule below.
White Reaper 2015 Tour Dates:
08/20 – Calgary, Alberta @ Broken City
08/30 – York, UK @ The Duchess *
08/31 – Sheffield, UK @ Leadmill *
09/01 – Cardiff, UK @ The Globe *
09/02 – Bristol, UK @ The Fleece *
09/03 – Nottingham, UK @ Rescue Rooms
09/07 – Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2 *
09/09 – Glasgow, UK @ Oran Mor *
09/10 – Manchester, UK @ Academy 2 *
09/11 – London, UK @ Shepherd’s Bush Empire *
09/14 – London, UK @ Dalston Victoria
09/25 – Champaign, IL @ Pygmalion Music Festival
09/27 – Cincinnati, OH @ Midpoint Music Festival
10/15 – Ottawa, ON @ Algonquin Commons Theatre *
10/20 – Montreal, QC @ Virgin Mobile Corona Theatre *
10/21 – Quebec City, QC @ Le Cercle *
10/22 – Moncton, NB @ Tide & Boar Ballroom *
10/23 – Sackville, NB @ George’s Roadhouse *
10/24 – Halifax, NS @ Halifax Pop Explosion *
10/27 – St. Catharines, ON @ Isaac’s *
10/28 – Waterloo, ON @ Starlight Club *
10/29 – Waterloo, ON @ Starlight Club *
10/30 – London, ON @ The Wave *
11/10 – New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa ^
11/11 – Atlanta, GA @ The Drunken Unicorn ^
11/13 – Nashville, TN @ The Stone Fox ^
11/14 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle ^
11/15 – Richmond, VA @ The Camel ^
11/17 – Washington, DC @ DC9 ^
11/18 – Philadelphia, PA @ philaMOCA ^
11/20 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right ^
11/21 – Cambridge, MA @ The Middle East Upstairs ^
11/25 – Toronto, ON @ Smiling Buddha ^
11/28 – Chicago, IL @ The Beat Kitchen ^
11/29 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry ^
12/01 – Denver, CO @ Hi Dive ^
12/02 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court ^
12/04 – Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex ^
12/05 – Berkeley, CA @ 924 Gilman St. ^
12/06 – Santa Cruz, CA @ The Crepe Place ^
* w/ Alvvays
^ w/ together PANGEA
