New Glasgow-expats Lime Ricky have got their priorities straight. They’re giving it their all, putting the chutzpah into their hustle, and still finding time for the relationships that matter. Their new video for “Not Cool” from their 2020 album, Vodka, might have a love song at its heart, but it’s a universal fact that there’s no greater love than that which exists between a man and his kitty cat. Whatever your hustle is, you best be home on time to give them purrybois their snicklesnacks.
Okay, so spoiler alert: we probably just spoiled the whole surprise ending to Lime Ricky’s new video. You can skip to the end to see what majestic floof corresponds to your favourite bandmate if you really want, but some things are more about the journey. It is a punk song, however, so you can probably manage to wait it out while holding your breath if necessary.
That being said, these show-stealing cats are but the comedic foil to the real issue at hand: our feelings. Lime Ricky’s Tyler MacDonald explains it’s not usually his style to write songs about love and relationships, but sometimes these things just happen.
“Not that I don’t enjoy a good sappy track, I just think songs about beer and friends or the fucked up state of the world make for better punk songs,” explains MacDonald. “Despite my efforts, some gals have pulled on my heartstrings too bad to not write about it. None more so than the beautiful and inspiring, lovely lady/heartbreaker extraordinaire this song was written for.
“This song was about the tormenting state of hanging on to something comfortable yet chaotic to the last possible moment before letting go is inevitable. Despite the heavy subject matter, or maybe because of it, we knew we needed to add a much sillier, ridiculous, drunk-punk element to the production of this video.”
And that silliness resulted in a creative use of the classic split-frame technique, with the band hurrying through their respective days, overcoming challenges, and tackling their goals, all to get back in time to feed their cats—each of which have probably been meowing that their dishes have been empty since before the sun came up.
MacDonald notes that it was also an effective way to pull off a music video under Covid-protocols and providing guitarist Liam Story with his directorial debut (with input, ideas, and videography by Joe Cash.)
Despite the ridiculousness of it all, apparently, the video isn’t all too far off from what the reality of their days would look like.
“Liam and I had the idea that we each needed to be distracted by something on our high-paced, city-spanning missions, and so we broke down what we would most likely be caught up with. For me it was snagging a couple of brews from the LC, Liam running into Dead Dog records for an impulse LP purchase, Chance stopping for a puff of a joint and an eventual smooch with a pretty gal in the park, and Spenser taking the opportunity to capture a nearby Pokemon on Pokemon Go,” explains MacDonald. “The last of which being especially realistic because I literally once watched Spenser mindlessly sprint across oncoming Yonge St. traffic to join an immanent Mewtwo raid.”
B”oth Chance and I, separately, were catastrophically hungover for our parts,” adds MacDonald. “My first take jumping on that little green penny board, not realizing it was a very different balancing requirement than an actual skateboard, lead to the real hardcore bail that can be seen near the beginning just before the lyrics kick in.
“If you look closely you can see the road rash on my face for the rest of the video. I’m just amped we were rolling for that spill!”
Fortunately, it seems that no kitty cats were harmed in the production of this video, and any rumours that they were forced to endure hours without being fed were most likely started by the cats themselves.