After releasing their debut full-length album, Love, Ice Cream, last year on Bad Actors Records, Toronto “molecular pop” duo Ice Cream have resurfaced with a new video for their single “Dress Me Up.”
During the chorus, the track’s monosyllabic title is sung staccato over a minimal beat like a firm order, suggesting the act of being dressed is an assertion of female agency, rather than the denial of it. The visual, directed by frequent collaborator Christina Carvalho, riffs on that theme further. Taking cues from the song’s inspiration, American fashion designer Bob Mackie, the band dances on the shores of Lake Ontario draped in chains and wearing tasseled leather jackets.
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In an email to THUMP, the band’s Carlyn Bezic explained the video’s concept in greater detail:
“The video was first conceived by our director Christina as a psychedelic, single-shot vid with Amanda’s twin Hilary emerging from the lake as a shimmering water nymph. But when we got to the beach, our Cher-inspired outfits (à la Turn Back Time) kind of dictated our performance. In a sense, this is documentation of ‘the clothes mak[ing[ the [wo]man.’ It’s fashion as persona, as armour, as frivolity, as freedom. We got possessed by the power of leather and lace.
….Or we’re just dancing on the beach. Another side of Ice Cream’s aesthetics.”
Watch it above, and check out their upcoming European tour dates with Toronto producer Scott Hardware below.
Ice Cream/Scott Hardware Tour Dates
May 22 – Kamio – London, UK (w/ Xiu Xiu)
May 24 – Le Pop In – Paris, France
May 25 – Le Rouge – Lille, France
May 26 – De Ruimte – Ghent, Belgium (w/ Cindy Lee)
May 27 – Gare Du Noord – Amsterdam, Netherlands (w/ Cindy Lee)
May 29 – Red Light Radio – Amsterdam, Netherlands
May 31 – Bonnefooi – Brussels, Belgium
June 2 – KLPPRFLD – Frankfurt, Germany
June 3 – Dr. Seltsam – Leipzig, Germany
June 4 – Hunermanhattan – Halle, Germany (w/ Cellular Chaos)
June 8 – Same Heads – Berlin, Germany (w/ Galya Chikiss)
June 9 – Avoid Gallery – Prague, Czech Republic
June 10 – Ostinato Ceske – Budejovice, Czech Republic
June 11 – Hand-Made Festival – Bologna
Michael Rancic is on Twitter.
