of Montreal, an indie band based in Athens, Georgia, has launched a music video for “Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse”, directed by Matt and Mike Chapman founders of www.homestarrunner.com. The music video is presented as a pantomime stage play in which a figure clad in white engages with a variety of scenarios.
Click on the image below to play the video.
Heimdall is the guardian of the Norse gods, stationed at the Bifrost Bridge between Asgard (land of the gods) and Midgard (land of the mortals). Heimdall requires no sleep, can hear the grass grow, and blows the Gjallarhorn if danger approaches Asgard. Prometheus, in Greek mythology, is the Titan chiefly honored for stealing fire from the gods in the stalk of a fennel plant and giving it to mortals for their use. Zeus punished Prometheus by having Prometheus carried to Mount Caucasus, where an eagle would pick at his liver. Prometheus’ liver would grow back each day only to be pecked away again by the eagle at night. Thus the sun moving from left to right in the music video.
Polyvinyl Records is offering a free mp3 of the track, Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse, and launched the music video at YouTube. Heimedalsgate Like A Promethean Curse is the first track on Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
Credits
Kevin Barnes, founder and lead singer of the band, of Montreal, wrote the song at the end of 2004 while living in Oslo with his Norwegian wife Nina. As indicated in the lyrics, Barnes was struggling with culture shock and feelings of depression and isolation.
Lyrics for Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse
I’m in a crisis, I need help
Come on mood shift, shift back to good again
Come on be a friend
Nina Twin is trying to help, and I
Really hope that she succeeds
Though I picked the thorny path myself
I’m afraid, afraid of where it leads
Chemicals, don’t strangle my pen
Chemicals don’t make me sick again
I’m always so dubious of your intent
Like I can’t afford to replace what you’ve spent
Nina Twin is trying to help, and I
Really hope she gets me straight
‘Cause my own inner cosmology
Has become too dense to navigate
Chemicals, don’t flatten my mind
Chemicals, don’t mess me up this time
Know you bait me way more than you should
And it’s just like you to hurt me when I’m feeling good.