There’s a new sheriff in town and his name is Ben Semeta. Whether it be a punk children’s party or a local convenience joint, Semeta is there to protect us against a manic drug-crazed clown in the Midriffs‘ latest music video for their song “White Washed.”
“I think the hardest thing was trying not to say ‘fuck’ around the kids,” Semeta joked about the role.
Allston Pudding is proud to premiere the video, directed by our own Andrew Gibson.
“There’s really an awesome thing going on with the punk/psych/garage scene in Boston right now, so it’s a pleasure to be able to contribute to it, and highlight some of the bands,” Gibson said on directing the video.
“I was pretty pumped for [Midriffs] to have Andrew do this,” Semeta added. “He’s fucking great at what he does.”
“White Washed” originally appeared as the Midriffs’ contribution to the local psych rock compilation House of the Rising Fuzz. The comp was put together by Semeta as well.
The collaboration between Tj Freda, the guitarist and vocalist for Midriffs, and Gibson came about when Freda first saw Gibson’s music video for “Stinker” by Nice Guys.
“Nothing local I had recently seen had been of that high quality production from a local band,” said Freda. “I think I watched it two times in a row because it was so awesome.”
“Tj hit me up after the nice guys [sic] video came out,” Gibson said. “Finally, this summer we got together and he showed me the track, it was right before the fuzz comp came out, so it seemed perfect. I really liked the song too.”
The video was filmed during a weekend in late August around various Lower Allston locations, as well as Thieves Grotto.
“We had a blast, the cast and crew were great, especially the cinematographer Tim Haber… he did an amazing job…and Nick Raygun blew my mind as the clown, I knew he would be perfect for it, but he exceeded expectations for sure,” Gibson stated.
“We dodged a lot of curveballs during the process,” Freda joked. “The police actually arrived during the last shot because they got a call [about] two people hitting a car with baseball bats.”
Watch the video below:
Check out the behind the scenes photos (By Tyler Boudreaux):
