North Carolina indie rockers Wednesday have shared their video for new single Bath County, from their forthcoming Rat Saw God album.
Discussing the song's origins, vocalist/band leader Karly Hartzman says, "This is a song I wrote on a porch in Bath County, Virginia when me and [lead guitarist] Jake [Lenderman] were visiting Jake's mom's hometown. It includes some imagery I saw on that trip as well as a description of a guy we saw overdosed in a parking lot early one morning on our way to Dollywood."
The song follows on from the January release of the album's lead-off single, Chosen To Deserve.
A statement talking up Rat Saw God, the band's fifth album, scheduled for an April 7 release via Dead Oceans, reads: "rat saw god is an album about riding a bike down a suburban stretch in greensboro while listening to my bloody valentine for the first time on an ipod nano, past a creek that runs through the neighborhood riddled with broken glass bottles and condoms, a front yard filled with broken and rusted car parts, a lonely and dilapidated house reclaimed by kudzu.
"four lokos and rodeo clowns and a kid who burns down a corn field. roadside monuments, church marquees, poppers and vodka in a plastic water bottle, the shit you get away with at jewish summer camp, strange sentimental family heirlooms at the thrift stores. the way the south hums alive all night in the summers and into fall, the sound of high school football games, the halo effect from the lights polluting the darkness. it’s not really bright enough to see in front of you, but in that stretch of inky void – somehow – you see everything."
Hartzman describes the video for Bath County as a homage to PJ Harvey's video for 1993 single Man-Size.
"I’ve never seen someone emit as much confidence as she does in that video," the singer explains. "I wanted to pretend for a minute I possessed that attitude but it was harder than it looks! Endless respect for Peej."
Watch the video below:
Wednesday will play their first UK shows in June, calling at Manchester's YES Basement (June 5), The Lexington in London (June 6, already sold out) and Rough Trade in Bristol (June 7).
