The video was produced and edited by Felicia Douglass from the band. Felicia says, “Coat of Shellac is about wishful thinking. The desire to protect someone or something can make you weak, but in the moment it’s all you put your energy into.” She continues, “The lyric video is mostly made of a series of 8-bit gifs from video stills. I chose to use stripped down versions of the footage covered in transparent shapes and layers to mimic fluttering levels of vulnerability. The switch to live footage depicts the jittery anticipation leading to victory. The lyrics are meant to be delusional at times. It feels so good to fix something, even if it’s temporary. (As a dancer I used to put coats of shellac on my pointe shoes to increase their longevity, but I knew it was only a quick fix).”
New York’s favorite ‘nervous soul’ outfit, Ava Luna began in 2007 when Carlos Hernandez, then a music composition student, set out to combine the heartfelt soul of Sly Stone and Shuggie Otis with the raw intensity of bands like Wire and The Raincoats. After self-releasing several EPs, their debut LP Ice Level was released in 2012 to a groundswell of support, lauded by Spin as “ice-cool vintage ’80s no wave grooves and extra-lush three-part girl group harmonies,” and by Pitchfork as “glorious.”
Playing 100+ shows in support of Ice Level, the band solidified its current lineup – Carlos Hernandez, Becca Kauffman, Felicia Douglass, Ethan Bassford and Julian Fader – and signed to Western Vinyl. Sophomore LP Electric Balloon released in 2014, earned still more critical acclaim, notably from the Village Voice, Wax Poetics, Time Magazine, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, who praised it as “pulsating from one energy to another, suggesting art project and ritual.”
Back for more in 2015, Infinite House adds a surrealistic storytelling element to their established sound, bringing the members of Ava Luna from the far end of Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn to the woods of Mississippi; from the seat of the mundane, to the hexagonal labyrinths of Borges’s Library of Babel. Recorded by the band and mixed byDave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Sleater-Kinney), whose legendary touch firmly seals these sounds in the realm of the thaumaturgical, it is their most polished, complete recording to date. With trademark intensity, mirthful humor, and taut angularity firmly in place, the mysteries of Infinite House unravel slowly, even as the songs throw your ass from its seat.
Ava Luna recently premiered their first single from the album,“Billz”, which can be heard HERE courtesy of Pitchfork or streamed/shared through Soundcloud HERE.
Infinite House will be released in the UK on 4th May on Western Vinyl.
