Lou Barlow unwittingly walks right past the Get Up Kids’ frontman, Matt Pyror, in the video for the Kids’ new song called, ahem, “Lou Barlow.”
In the clip, Barlow — who fronts Sebadoh, plays bass in Dinosaur Jr., and records as a solo artist — ends up paying the price for not noticing Pryor when he does everything he can to get into the Get Up Kids’ concert, right down to presenting the club’s door man with a copy of the Kids’ new LP, Problems (due out Friday). He points at the song “Lou Barlow” on the back cover and shows the bouncer his driver’s license to prove who he is, but has no luck getting into the club.
The song opens with Pryor singing about how he had once spotted Barlow walking down the street and so badly wanted to be noticed that he started humming Barlow’s songs, “but he refused to sing along.”
Lyrically, though, the rest of the song is more about how people change and grow apart than about Barlow in particular — and Pryor’s lines like “We’re not where we belong” fit the Get Up Kids’ chunky punk guitars and new-wave synths better than his ones about stalking rock stars. That said, the fact that the band got Lou Barlow in the flesh for the video makes the whole thing that much better.
“We kept joking how hilarious it would be if we could get Lou Barlow to be in the video for ‘Lou Barlow,’” Pryor said in a statement. “It was absolute luck that we both happened to be in New York on the same day. When he agreed, we were thrilled. When we saw how much he put into the video, we were floored. He was amazing.”
For his part, Barlow’s official statement is to the point: “I acted the shit out of that.”
The Get Up Kids will be hitting the road starting this week on Problems’ release day, with U.S. dates planned through mid December. They will be hitting more U.S. cities next year in February and March.
Barlow, meanwhile, will be playing U.S. dates with Dinosaur Jr. through the end of the month.