Yes Giantess Attacked by Robots!

Posted on Feb 10th 2010 2:30PM by Simona Rabinovitch
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The robots are coming! The robots are coming! Silver mechanical femmes fatales are slicking up the screen in the video for Yes Giantess' new dance single, 'The Ruins.'

Inspired in part by Fritz Lang's cult classic 1927 film 'Metropolis,' the video is the Boston-based electro-pop foursome's very first effort.

"We basically got some of our friends to dress up as robots, hunt us down and make us play music for them," Jan Rosenfeld told Spinner backstage in Montreal before opening for UK sensation La Roux.

"It's extremely professional but still feels warm and handmade and indie."

Directed by Brooklyn, NY duo Ben McIntire and Danny Abel, the epic sci-fi romp was shot over four long days, including one entire day -- "literally, from nine in the morning until 2 AM" -- spent shooting a stop-motion animation sequence of the guys' faces being painted silver to indicate they, too, are morphing into creatures of the robotic persuasion.

"I expected it to be a lot of work, but [it took] eight hours to get ten minutes of footage of which you use thirty seconds," said Rosenfeld, who was chastised for his sub-par lip-synch skills. "I guess I'm not good at fake-playing."

However, the lads got lots of practice at real playing last year, touring with Calvin Harris, Marina and the Diamonds, and Canadian favourites MSTRKRFT. Now on the road with La Roux, that tour, which Rosenfeld explained began with smaller shows in front of 400 people and gradually grew into bigger venues and audiences. The Montreal show at Metropolis, for instance, rocked a crowd of 2400 fans. The whole shebang wraps up Feb 11 with a sold-out gig at New York's Webster Hall, followed -- of course -- by an afterparty DJ set with Hercules & Love Affair.

Yet Yes Giantess, who first blew up in blogland based on a few EPs and remixes, earned their gritty road warrior stripes on a recent tour with Little Boots. "It felt really classical, even though we're all playing extreme electro-pop music," Rosenfeld quipped. "It was really like 'the great American tour.' We got to drive up the California coast with ten people in the van and hit every major American city."