REPO MAN /// DOPE BODY
2014 · 6m · USA
Directed by Theo Anthony
Genres: experimental, musical
A music video for Baltimore noise-rock band Dope Body released by Drag City Records, co-written by Andrew Laumann and incorporating VHS footage sourced from Danny Lorden.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Anthony's earliest Vimeo-era work shows him already committed to found and degraded material as a formal vocabulary — VHS noise for noise-rock is so obvious you wonder why more directors don't do it, but Anthony makes it feel inevitable.
Theo Anthony plus Dope Body plus VHS — the ingredients are right, but VHS-aestheticized noise-rock videos were a saturated subgenre by 2014. Curiosity-watch at best.
Theo Anthony before Theo Anthony — VHS-sourced footage as textural match for noise-rock density, a cousin to Trash Humpers but tighter and weirder. The medium IS the message about degraded signal.