The Danger Bees 'Standing Still (The Girls I Call Don't Answer Anymore)' -- Video Premiere

Toronto indie rock band The Danger Bees' semi-official rallying cry is "all we are saying is give nerds a chance." But in the band's new video for "Standing Still (The Girls I Call Don't Answer Anymore)" chance -- and fate -- catch up with them in the form of some vengeful suburban children.

The video, directed by Rob Lazar, features the Weezer-meets-Ben Folds act running afoul of kids at a birthday party and the results are... killer.

"Shooting 'Standing Still (The Girls I Call Don't Answer Anymore)' was an interesting experience," singer David Macmichael tells Spinner. "There were kids all over the place running around and being hyper, but they were all great and had personalities that worked with the dark theme of the video.

"All the guys in the group get murdered by a kid looking to take his place in the band to impress the girls at the party. I get knocked out into the backyard pool and drown. We actually spent a day shooting the underwater stuff. It was late October and the water was freezing. We thought it would only take a few minutes but it turned out to be more difficult than we thought because of my inability to act and sink underwater. It was a salt water pool which didn't help the sinking. We also couldn't hear the music down there. About an hour later we felt we had all the shots, but the next day I was bedridden for 48 hours from it. Totally worth it!"

Guitarist Josh Gillard also has a swimming pool-centric death.

"I have a kid who ends up poisoning me with some kind of pool cleaner, which he pours into a green drink of some sort, Kool-Aid and whiskey maybe?" says Gillard. "In reality, it was green food colouring in water. I remember the kids were coming up with really gruesome ideas for how to kill us off, but alas, they had to stick to the script. The best part of the shoot was watching the kids getting into their psychotic roles. They were maybe a bit too psyched."


A bunch of children besting the Bees in mortal conflict to a soundtrack of "Standing Still (The Girls I Call Don't Answer Anymore)" certainly fits with the band's hard-luck vibe. Macmichael says the song sums up all the band's foibles.

"The song 'Standing Still' is more or less a summary of many topics I've touched on over my career as a writer -- girls who won't take my calls, pills which don't cure my anxiety, a shut-in attitude that leads to my dwindling health, my panic and worry that I won't ever be able to fix anything or have anything go right. I wish I could say it was a special kind of emotional breakdown I was having the day I wrote it, but the sad truth is that it was just like any other day."

The Danger Bees headline Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern on Friday, January 11.