PREMIERE: Mumblr gets down after hours in Han Dynasty for the “Ole” video

Mumblr | photo by Rachel Del Sordo for WXPN

Philly basement rockers Mumblr just released their latest LP, The Never Ending Get Down, on Fleeting Youth Records – and even though they play a lot of shows in support of it, the dudes in the band still hold down day jobs, which can sometimes be kind of awesomely fun. Take the gig that singer-guitarist Nick Morrison and drummer Scott Stitzer have at popular Old City dining destination Han Dynasty. Owner Han Chiang is super supportive of Mumblr, to the point where he loaned the band a van for their first tour to SXSW, and gave the band access to the restaurant after hours to shoot a music video for “Ole” from the new album.

“His only stipulation,” Morrison tells us, “was that we had to shoot a scene where the actors were dancing on the bar in a Coyote Ugly type fashion. Which we happily obliged to.”

The video, which we’re pumped to premiere for you below, was shot between midnight and 9 a.m. by the director, Sean Brown, and a small crew. Morrison says the band always wanted to incorporated dance into their videos, and felt “the brooding, tense nature of the song would make for an interesting narrative.” Katy Ament dances lead, with Stitzer acting as her partner, and the choreography in collaboration with the dancers and Morrison. The process was free-form and interpretive, with the actors working under a single guideline: no touching. Morrison says it was a means of visualizing the song’s themes of sexual tension.

“The song is about hypersexuality as well as the tension and excitement that occurs right before having sex,” he explains. “Ole, referring to a matador and the bull, is the power dynamic between the person in control and the subordinate one and how it constantly changes, exemplified by the two performers in the video. The ‘Spanish Fly’ [in the lyrical hook] refers to the aphrodisiac and plays on the irony of ingesting genuine Spanish Fly, which is very deadly. It can make your skin blister, destroy your genitalia and poison your body. In the end it is your sex drive that ultimately kills you.”  

Mumblr just played Clark Park Festival in West Philadelphia, has a gig at Eris Temple Arts tomorrow with Anomie and more and heads down to DC for a show this weekend at Handsome Cock. They’re back in Philly on Tuesday, July 5th at Goldilocks Gallery with Pill Friends, and August 7th at The Pharmacy with Spill and See Through Dresses. Mumblr also celebrated the release of The Never Ending Get Down  earlier this month by headlining a rager of a show at PhilaMOCA. Check out photos from the gig below, care of our photographer Rachel Del Sordo.