by Colin Smith (@colinsaburo)
Chicago art-rock jesters Woongi have a particular knack for childhood nostalgia and surrealist humor. They wrote their second album earlier from this year, Rip’s Cuts (SOOPER Records), to sync up with early ‘90s film The Skateboard Kid. More recently, their latest music video for their song “Green M&M’s” combines a synth-driven melody with absurd computer animations — for instance, an elf playing a keyboard that lifts him up in the sky.
If you didn’t see a dancing fat Elvis and a cast of characters that would belong to an 2000’s Xbox game, the song would otherwise beckon you to enter a reflective mood. With its sweeping keyboards along with the main vocals washed through a vocoder, the musicians in Woongi have the ear for pop and melody-driven songwriting. But they also have the eye for a good gag.
Animated by Andy Lukstin — an Australian animator and who specializes in the sort of short absurdist YouTube videos fit for very deep dives on the internet — Woongi again walks that line between synth-pop and absurdist Tim & Eric humor with “Green M&M’s.”