Whiskerman's hallucinatory art psyche rock illusion "Be Real" dances between purgatory and heaven (Official Video)

"It's just the death of my reality"

When it comes to Oakland blues art rock extravaganza Whiskerman you cannot separate the spectacle from their music whether you are talking about their stage show or their ambitiously creative and filmic music videos. Maybe their most epic to date, the video for the seven minute 9 second track Be Real is an expansive hallucinatory experience that matches the bands carnival side show mystique. Front man Graham Patzner adorned like a vixen from a 1940's German cabaret who has walked through hell and back amid dourly drawn strings sings, "It's just the death of my reality" as he enters a full tiny church in the middle of nowhere. Beautifully shot, hinging on Patzer's dangerous vibe, the movie and song move into strange places. The confrontation between Patzner's character and the Priest or Missionary feels like a revisit, like maybe they knew each other all too well or Patzer was cast out before. It feels like a battle between good and evil, the seen and unseen, the insider and outsider, between retribution and realization that casts dark reflections. As directed, shot and edited by Alexa Melo, it feels part Sergio Leone and part Salvador Dali asking what really is purgatory and what is really heaven?

The dream theater guitars, strings that float into beautifully rich ascensions but punctuated by dark depths dramatize the battle that, at some time in our lives, we all have yet the tender melodies (at times) have a lullaby tone. The song with Patzner's evocative melodies feel as beautifully sad as they feel derisive and caustic. Patzner (as actor) carries pain in his face all too well. The aural and visual allegory here might be interpreted in a hundred ways as could be the concept of reality and "being real" but in the end the journey of the song from the music and melody sucks you into the beautiful art here. 

In the end, Whiskerman's monstrous Be Real as "film" and soundtrack feels like an art rock, baroque pop, orchestral garden blues rock psychedelic surreal "thing", a hallucinatory collision of David Bowie and American Horror Story. 

Be Real is from Whiskerman's album "Kingdom Illusion" just released on March 6th (2020).

-Robb Donker Curtius








THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM- PRESS NOTES:

Whiskerman is a rock-and-roll overture to the great unraveling. Over the last 7 years the Oakland band has developed an underground reputation for tackling the sublime with their ambitious songwriting, thunderous stage show, and acute lyricism. They have since emerged as an engine of the Bay Area’s revitalized psychedelic and festival scenes. Frontman Graham Patzner, who will crow like a medicine show preacher and then coo you into the arms of his lovesick eternity, might be a spitfire protege of the underworld himself, though, through and through he will remind you that there is no rapture without artistry. On the surface this is splendid rock-and-roll, rooted in the classic, psych and glam rock tradition, but the pageantry and chaos of Whiskerman’s performances will leave you describing an experience more than a sound.

Whiskerman recently released their fourth studio album, Kingdom Illusion—a rock and roll vision quest that ushers the band’s elegiac psychedelia toward a louder, pushier, more colorful sound. Their past albums have been described as “ecstatic psychedelia, sturdily constructed pop-rock, pick-and-grin folk all together as a single picture.” (Flood Magazine)

Whiskerman's hallucinatory art psyche rock illusion "Be Real" dances between purgatory and heaven (Official Video)