Deen gets daps from Matt Pinfield
I’m a little surprised it took Mastodon this long to shoot a video like this. After all, they’re from Atlanta, home of some of the best strip clubs in America. Now granted, I’ve never really been a big fan or patron of shake junts, but I’m fairly certain that you don’t hear a whole lotta sludge or progressive metal in those spots. You hear the usual suspects from 80s (you know, the stuff that fills shitty jukeboxes in bars that frat bros frequent) in a lotta the erm… white spots and a whole buncha 808s and triple snares at the umm… black spots, but not a whole lotta sludge metal. Let’s face it, sludge isn’t exactly the most twerk friendly genre.
But Mastodon didn’t let that debatable fact stop them from filling the video for “The Motherload” (apt title if you ask me) with… well, just watch the muthafucka. Again, these guys are from Atlanta, but I didn’t know they had it in them, especially since the video started with those boring 90s metal video tropes with the weird and abstract dusty looking crap. I’m just so damn happy. I’d like to think that Martin Luther King and Juicy J feel the same way too, but I should probably check with the black delegation before I go spouting off like that.
Shit man, this could mean we’re like a step or two away from hearing Future Grohl stuntin all over big ass metal riffs! Imagine Quavo, Young Thug and Peewee Longway borrowing themes from weird ass metal and creating concept mixtures based on shit like ‘Moby Dick’ and the role of Rasputin in the downfall of Czarist Russia. I mean, that shit is only about 3 steps away from equating fucking bitches to riding mongooses. I’m geeked as fuck man (*hits blunt*).
Putting all that weirdness aside, this video might be the most respectful instance of cultural appropriation I’ve seen in about 83 years. Inclusion tends to help a lot and so does shifting the focus to the subjects of interest, instead of just co-opting shit and acting as if you made something new. A whole buncha muthafuckas (we all know who they are) need to take note.
I tend to think that if shit is funny/fun and good enough, folks just enjoy the art and keep it moving. This is one of those instances. However, I’m fairly certain that there are already thinkpieces out there decrying this shit as I type. And that’s fine, since I don’t plan to read any of them. Why would I do that when I could just rewatch these beautiful women and listen to Once More ‘Round the Sun again?
