Ex Hex's "Don't Wanna Lose" Video Is All Lips & Legs

BY LIZ

There's a new Ex Hex video out today and it's a remake of Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, which is a movie I watched once in like 2007 and have no memory of and should probably revisit. The video's for "Don't Wanna Lose" and it's directed by Lara Gallagher who also did the "Hot and Cold" video that I love so much, plus that beautiful Mikal Cronin video starring Mary Timony as a sad-eyed maid in Portland. Big spoiler: Timony's not sad-eyed at all in "Don't Wanna Lose" - she's having the most fun! Just yesterday I had a moment of being super-thankful for Ex Hex for letting me know that my 40s might be the best fun yet (I turned 37 a few weeks ago, gotta think ahead), and then I realized that Ex Hex are like the opposite of that goddamn joyless This Is 40 movie. So waking up today to a video where they're roller-skating and doing choreographed dances and wearing punk makeup and generally being hot beautiful goofs was totally reassuring. Not that I needed to be reassured, but that's what Ex Hex does for you: takes the good vibes and intensifies them until your heart and head just burst into cool blue flames that burn forever. Here they are, being fashion heroes:

My fave part of "Don't Wanna Lose" is when they're at the photoshoot and Laura Harris whispers to Timony to get rid of her gum, and Timony makes her adorable "Oh no, my gum!" face. Mary Timony is a great actor; she really killed it in this little beautiful short film from 15 years ago. Also: perfect pink jeans, Laura Harris.

Hot-Pink Neon Climbing Up the Walls, and ASTRAL Music: My Perfect Week of Ex Hex

BY LIZ

A couple days ago, The Hairpin posted an interview I did with Mary Timony. It was a super-fun gig for me; Mary talked about being obsessed with Casey Kasem in sixth grade and going to see Rites of Spring and Culture Club and pouring paint in her hair and teaching  girls to play "Dig a Pony" on guitar. The part about being obsessed with one of her English teachers in high school is maybe my favorite moment, and all in all it was a very giggly and wonderful phone convo. And if you want to come over and listen to the MP3 of the interview I'll totally let you, for a cover charge of eight million dollars.

In case you didn't know: Ex Hex's debut album Rips came out last week, and it's out of this world. When you listen to Rips in the car, ideally when the sun's just going down, it makes any night sound like it's a Friday and you're 17 and about to have a quintessentially exciting Friday-night-when-you're-17 sort of experience. Like it's summertime and you just finished your shift at a job that involves standing in very close proximity to frying food for hours on end, and the grease somehow altered the texture of your hair in an interesting yet disgusting way, and you go home and wash your hair with a shampoo that's scented with strawberry or coconuts and get all ready to go, and then your best friends come pick you up and you're off. Every second of Rips has all the hot happy energy of that anticipation: it sounds like the radio playing when you’re driving home from your hair-ruining job, the radio playing in the shower when you’re washing your hair, the radio playing when you’re getting your jeans and your lipstick on, the radio playing when you and your bros are on your way to the party or the woods or the show or whatever. It’s all those beautiful radios, all at the same time.

Apart from the interview, my big Ex Hex news is I saw them play on Sunday and it was the most fun show in the world. A couple years ago my pal Laura Fisher and I made this joke about starting a band called The Wellwishers, with the name referencing the fact that we're each exceptionally concerned about the wellbeing of the people who make the music we love. The part of my heart that plays drums for The Wellwishers was so elated by Ex Hex on Sunday night: I legit can't think of any other band I've ever seen have a better time onstage than those guys. Here's some pix I took at the show:

Watching Mary Timony Eat All Different Foods in the Video for "Hot and Cold" by Ex Hex is Total Heaven

BY LIZ

Mary Timony's new-ish band Ex Hex just premiered the video for their song "Hot and Cold" and it's everything I could ever want from a rock video: Mary Timony, cake, cookies, pizza, Ian Svenonius being handsome/boring, a jello mold that looks like a sea monster, a lion, pineapples, cherries, flowers. The basic premise is Mary's out on a date with Ian and it's not going so swell (he's the "cold" in this equation), but then the other Ex Hex babes show up and save Mary and suddenly it's a party. Here's a bunch of gorgeous screenshots; for additional heavy thoughts on loving Mary Timony you should read my book I Wanna Be Your Man, from our new little series of Beatles zines. There's cake in that too.

Here's Mary at the start of the video, with her rad orange nails and martini. What do you think's in the goblets? I want it to be Coke. I want Timony to be a weird little fourth-grader drinking soda from her parents' wine glasses and pretending to be grown-up and sophisticated. "Fourth-grade Mary Timony" is something to think about.

And here's Ian and his glorious hair and scowl. Right now I've got a crush on a guy with serious Ian Svenonius vibes; it's working out relatively well.

Aforementioned sea-monster-ish jello mold. I don't understand what it's made of, but I appreciate that there appear to be green pimento-stuffed olives suspended inside. That's so gross/inspired.

And the beautiful cakes. Candy on top of cake is one of the best looks.

What is she eating? Where'd she get that flower crown? I mostly don't believe in flower crowns, but I fully support Mary in her flower-crown-wearing here.

Mary's shy dancing. It's funny her posture's so bad cuz MARY TIMONY IS NO SLOUCH

43 Things We Love About Mary Timony, In Celebration of Mary Timony's 43rd Birthday

PICTURE BY JEN, WORDS BY JEN & LIZ

1. She makes music that is exactly what I want to hear always at all times.

2. She's a witch magician musician whose songs are spells.

3. She's a Libra.

4. She's got a new band called Ex Hex and their song "Hot/Cold" is a beauty, with serious "Sweet Jane" vibes.

5. One time in Boston in like 2002 she gave me this shirt that she made, because I was nice to her at one of her shows.

6. Another time in Boston in like 2002 or something, Laura Fisher and Marla and Marissa and I went to a thing at the Coolidge Corner Theater where they were showing little puppet-animated movies by Ladislaw Starewicz and Mary Timony did a live score for all of them. It was so neat and fun and the part I remember most vividly is there was a scene where a beautiful girl-puppet went to a ball with a bunch of monster-puppets, and Mary switched the score from her weird Timony-y music to a sample of "You Dropped a Bomb On Me" by the Gap Band. Now every time I hear that song I think of Mary Timony and puppets, and it delights me.

7. Her mind. Her GENIUS MIND.

8. Her hands/fingers working guitar magic

9. She's perfect at doing that Pete Townshend windmill thing when she plays guitar. For some reason there are zero Internet pictures of this happening, but she does it, I swear. I've seen her do it a zillion times.

10. When I saw her play shows after The Golden Dove came out, she used to always do this awesome choreographed dance thing at the end of "Dr. Cat." I can't find any videos of "Dr. Cat" live, because the Internet is apparently mostly useless. But it's always good to watch the "Dr. Cat" video and enjoy the dance routine at the end of that. I like how she's giving a lecture at the beginning, and I like her pajamas and how she sort of looks like Nancy Botwin.

11. The way she hops out of the frame after the first chorus in the video for "Electric Band" is both whimsical and divine. Plus I like how she's superlazy at baseball. FYI, "Electric Band" is directed by the same women who directed Mary in the video for "Peace of Mind" by Mikal Cronin, which I'm still crying over a little.

12. Speaking of "Electric Band," did you know that Mary Timony can make it rain...in your mind? True.

(image courtesy of Laura Fisher)

Thing of the Week: Mary Timony, Video Star; Water

LIZ'S THING OF THE WEEK: Mary Timony, Video Star

Have you seen the video for "Peace of Mind" by Mikal Cronin? It stars Mary Timony and is beautiful and heartbreaking, but also heart-mending. I watched it when it premiered the other morning and was like, "Ooh, Mary Timony! Mary Timony being a maid, in a motel somewhere in Portland. Mary Timony in a baby-blue maid's uniform being soulful and sad, and then there's also peppermint candies and swimming, and a cool powerful necklace." It seemed predictably lovely and not all that extraordinary, and I loved it but didn't care that much. But then I watched it a second time a little later in the day and it hit me in a different way and I got teary-eyed and loved it a lot, a lot. 

There are so many perfect details. Like, Sprite is a really good choice for a depression soft drink. And of course she would be eating that terrible burrito for lunch. And I love Mary's post-swim shrug, and her hair and her slip, and I love that she cleans up her temper-tantrum mess before she leaves - responsibility is my jam and so punk-rock. And I want that locket, but I also want her to have it. And I don't know anything about Mikal Cronin but that song has really creeped in and this morning I woke up with it in my head: nice achy-hopeful melody, such dreamy violin.

The little girl is so great too. She really got to me. Someone should make a whole movie or novel or story about her and what she's doing in that motel room all alone.

BTW, there's this short film from 2000 that Mary Timony stars in and it's also perfect and wonderful. Mary plays a soulful and sad singer/guitar player who works in a copy shop and loves karaoke, and there's a really adorable scene involving donuts. It's called Dream Machine and you can watch it here.

JEN'S THING OF THE WEEK: Water

1. That's the wikipedia image for water. It's one of my favorite images.
2. I've been sick most of this week, and thus drinking lots of water. And tea. I love water, I drink it all the time like a human should, but whenever I'm sick and I really have to I find it hard to do. Hydrating is fundamental.
3. I started reading Rachel Carson's The Sea Around Us this week, which is so beautiful. I started crying reading about the creation of the moon and the ocean. Water, the moon, Mars are all so emotional for me.
4. I started spraying magnesium oil on my legs sometimes in hopes that it helps me sleep better. Magnesium is found in the ocean. Apparently most of us are deficient in it. Somehow, magnesium helps you sleep. I don't know if it works for me.
5. Maybe the first being to walk around on land was a sea-scorpion type deal. A scorpion crab guy, who went between the sea and the land.  When I was reading about this possible sea scorpion I felt so proud to be a water sign.
6. We are all water, duh.

Kurt Cobain Lives in Mary Timony's Valley of One Thousand Perfumes and He Likes It

BY LIZ

I've been thinking about Kurt Cobain a lot lately and decided I'm going to write a bunch of little posts about relating to him in a positive/energizing/edifying way. It started with my "13 Nirvana Songs That Make Me Feel Happy & Free & Full of Light" list and it'll end when I figure out "what Kurt Cobain means to me" or when I get sick of writing about Kurt Cobain -- whichever comes first. This one's about Mary Timony and her song "The Valley of One Thousand Perfumes."

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On Friday I was running and listening to my iPod on shuffle and "The Valley of One Thousand Perfumes" came on. It's on Mary Timony's first solo record Mountains and it goes like this:



Because I like to make things up, I made up a thing about how "The Valley of One Thousand Perfumes" was written by my 16-year-old self soon after Kurt Cobain's death. There are lots of lyrics you can easily twist into being about Kurt Cobain, like:

-"But you are sadder than the setting sun, and more beautiful than anyone"

-"Today our music doesn't have enough style, we're gonna to the country from a suicide"

-"Don't you know much you mean to me? It makes me wanna kill myself"

-"All I ever wanted was to talk to you/It's all I really still want to do"

Mary Timony's the songwriter I most relate to, out of all the songwriters I have ever loved. She builds make-believe worlds with her songs and I love this interview where she talks about how that world-building is "attractive to me because you can imagine being in this place that's far away from reality and thus far away from the pain of everyday life":



I love the idea of purposeful escapism, escapism as self-preservation. There's no world-building in Kurt Cobain's lyrics: he's just entirely stuck and sunk into this world, and the pain of that is what drives most of his songs. The only escape in his lyrics is death and dying ("Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld so I can sigh eternally," "Look on the bright side, suicide," etc etc etc etc etc), but it seems like there was some escape for him in actually playing music. So many of my favorite Kurt moments are the ones when he seems completely lost in messing around with his guitar, like that "Scentless Apprentice" video I wrote about and can't stop watching. Dave Grohl once said this great thing about how Kurt would always grind his teeth in time with the drums when he was playing -- he's doing that here and I bet it was hell on his jaw (I'm a teeth-grinder too, it hurts), but there's something deep and meditative about it. And I love what Kurt says about punk rock, in this video of him playing a mega-fucked-up version of "Come As You Are":



I think it's so cool when he's sincere about things like freedom and passion, and I'm happy he got to have those moments of being free. When I'm "in the right place" and I listen to Nirvana super-loud, the crazy and brutal/beautiful energy of it rips me out of myself, but also makes me feel so wholly myself in a really powerful and electrifying way, and that makes me feel free too.