Artist:
GOOD OLD WAR
Label:
SARGENT HOUSE
Video:
“CONEY ISLAND”
Director:
Behn Fannin
Add Date:
October 27, 2008

Greetings cherished programmers – it’s Andy Gesner of HIP Video Promo, here to spread the word about a great new clip from an acoustic trio out of Philadelphia called Good Old War. “Coney Island”, their first single, stakes out the territory: a Dylanesque acoustic guitar riff, Simon and Garfunkel like harmonies, a campfire chorus worthy of Crosby, Stills & Nash, and lyrics steeped in ambivalence, romantic disappointment, and regret. Good Old War’s Only Way To Be Alone is the best kind of folk-rock record – one where the writing is every bit as direct, honest, accessible, and indelible as the melodies.

Earlier this month, Good Old War reached thousands of viewers through their energetic appearance with Anthony Green on Carson Daly’s talk show. But you don’t have to stay up late to catch them on the tube: their clip for “Coney Island” has been in regular rotation on mtvU since being voted the winner of mtvU Freshmen honors. It has also become a regular on FUSE’s Steven’s Untitled Rock Show. It’s a moody and quietly evocative clip – one perfectly suited to the reflective tone of the song. Three television monitors sit on the top of a moving vehicle; the director’s camera shoots straight at the screens. Each TV set broadcasts an image of a member of Good Old War playing and singing “Coney Island”. The car moves through the streets of the city, and, in a way, so do the musicians, but of course it ’s only their images making the tour. They’re singing to the streetlights and retail windows, but they’re trapped behind windows of their own – they can look out, but they can’t touch. It’s a rolling metaphor for alienation and remove, and it’s one suffused with nostalgia for unrecoverable feelings, and for a place and time that is lost to the narrator.

It is a bona fide pleasure to be working with Cathy Pellow, Marc Jetton and Sargent House Records to promote the stellar new Good Old War video. We’ll have a limited number of copies of Only Way To Be Alone available for on-air giveaways as well. If you need more info, call Andy Gesner at 732-613-1779 or e-mail us at info@HIPVideoPromo.com .