Fresh off of a show at Music Hall of Williamsburg Tuesday night, Dr. Dog offer up a new video for Fate standout “The Ark.” I’m starting to realize that they’re very diligent about their explanations. When first we heard this track, the band shed some light on the lyrics:

The song is about deeds. Actions. This is a man who has found no solace in faith, mankind, love, or hope. These things to him are just another problem, yet he is determined to try. He’s not sitting on his hands and waiting for the goose to waddle by crapping golden eggs. And he’s also not blaming anyone or crying in his beard.

The first and the last lines of the versus are indeed biblical. The first is obvious. the second is from the end of the Noah story where he sends out a raven and a dove to find land on the endless sea. The raven never returns. But the dove comes back with an olive branch. They b-line it to the shore. Unfortunately, for our fellow there is no land, but he doesn’t get discouraged. His meaning is found within the acts, not their outcome.

For the video treatment, the band’s directors Adam Kurland and Panoptic tell Subterranean it’s “a love story between a man’s head and his own body.” Further, it takes aesthetic cues from this surreal scene appearing in Alejandro Jodorwosky’s 1974 film The Holy Mountain, in which sand, birds, and various vegetation pour from the wounds of a violently massacred crowd. So yeah a little bit of a diversion from that Biblical theme.

For your PMP:

• Dr. Dog – “The Ark”Download

Fate is out via Park The Van.