“Hot stuff! I can’t get enough!” Even in the current heat wave, some Memphians survive the summer by simply owning it. And now, as we bake under the blazing sun, we’ll all be singing that deliciously catchy line from the new single by Model Zero. I choose this heat! Yet the hot stuff that the band sings of may also reside on the dance floor, in a disco ball, or even in a little crystal.
Just what that little crystal is doing to us is unclear, but there’s some kind of transcendence happening — as seen in the video, when the Model Zero lads-about-town find their night of pool displaced to a land of wizardry. Perhaps they were transported there by some esoteric piece of quartz in their vintage drum machine?
Singer/guitarist/sythesist Frank McLallen offers this bit of insight into the sheer grooviness of the new single and video: “‘Little Crystal’ is a break in the surrounding gloom,” he writes. “It’s a sense of hope and travel, love and magic. We’ve already spent the first album recording our anger, fear, pain and distrust. It’s time for Little Crystal take our hands again so we can dip in that hot, hot stuff.”
For her part, video director Laura Jean Hocking was delighted to have the Little Crystal take her hand. “Model Zero is one of my favorite Memphis bands,” she notes in a statement. “I had wanted to do a video for them for some time, and the plan finally came together. The concept I brought to ‘Little Crystal’ meshed perfectly with a visual theme they had in mind, based on art director Sara Moseley’s ‘Candy Cult’ motif.
“In the ‘magic band’ section, the inspiration for director of photography Chad Barton’s camera moves and lens choices came from the original promo clip for The Rolling Stones’ ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ and Parquet Courts’ ‘Homo Sapien’ video. I wanted the magic band to be pure escapism, wild and colorful, a portal into a world where you can dance the darkness of the world away.”
Watch for more Model Zero coverage in this week’s Memphis Flyer music feature, out on June 29th.