Conjuring the power for the 90’s kid, iLL-Literacy breaks out with “Gentleman’s Kool-Aid,” a music video that stretches DIY to the limits. Featuring a hand-made nightclub diorama, action figures from their parents’ garages, and hallucinogenic red vines growing wild in the Grand Canyon, the video (shot mostly on a passe 8mm camcorder) is juxtaposed with reinterpreted 16-bit throwbacks that become increasingly psychedelic. The song, “Gentleman’s Kool-Aid,” questions the concept of manhood through conjured ego, adding another layer to the musicians’ representation of their experience coming of age at the same time as the internet.
iLL-Literacy is a band that explores new concepts of music and performance by promoting imagination as a means to connect entertainment, education, and politics. Moonlighting between stages at SXSW in Austin, Cornell University in New York, and the New Organizing Institute in Washington DC, the band is dedicated to shedding light on the power of creative approaches to a crumbling music industry, a failing school system, and a cynical political climate.
“Gentleman’s Kool-Aid” is filmed and directed by iLL-Literacy and Karen Lum (director of the Emmy Award winning short film “Slip of the Tongue”) with special effects and editing by Mandel Lum of Shia Productions.
Leave a Reply