The Avalanches – Frontier Psychiatrist
2001 · Directed by Tom Kuntz & Mike Maguire
425K Likes
Best comments
1.“I've worked in a psych ward for 20 years, and that is the craziest thing I've ever seen.”
More comments
- 2.“*Walks into retirement home* 'Hey guys, who wants to be in a music video?'”
- 3.“When you put ecstasy in the nursing home's water supply...”
The story
The Avalanches built their debut album Since I Left You out of other people's records – somewhere between 900 and 3,500 samples, depending on who's counting. Frontier Psychiatrist shows the whole trick in four minutes. It stitches a Wayne and Shuster comedy sketch, an Enoch Light easy-listening record, a line from John Waters' Polyester and a mariachi band into one ridiculous little story.
Directors Tom Kuntz and Mike Maguire, two guys out of advertising, had a simple and insane idea: put every sample on a stage and have somebody perform it. About 50 cast members act out every word. Cowboys fire the gunshots. Oompah men in lederhosen play the horns. Ghosts in sheets sing backup, a monkey plays drums, a coconut lip-syncs, and somewhere in there is an old man's head on a turtle's body. Billboard compared it to John Waters directing an episode of Sesame Street, which is about as accurate as a review gets.
The single won an ARIA award in Australia and reached number 18 in the UK in 2001. The video got an MTV VMA nomination, finished runner-up at the Rushes Soho Shorts festival and later landed at number 19 on Pitchfork's list of the best videos of the 2000s. A song made of found sounds got a video made of found people.
