Earlier this morning, Adult Swim premiered a beautifully animated and wonderfully trippy video for 'Boys Latin,' the second single from Baltimore-bred avant-pop musician and Animal Collective member Panda Bear, government name: Noah Lennox.
The dynamic, seesawing melody and buzzing synth beat are accompanied by a vivid animated story of a young woman who pokes a sea anemone in a drift pool, triggering an otherworldy reaction of colorful bursts. She finds a man facing a similar situation, and they go on to form a family. Stream the video below:
'Boys Latin' is the second single off "Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper," Lennox's fifth solo album, due out Jan. 13, and the title got us wondering if it was a nod to the North Baltimore prep school (technically Boys' Latin), one of several schools known in the early aughts for the lacrosse mullet hairstyle that City Paper dubbed The Balti. Reached by email, Lennox confirmed as much, writing:
"i like to title songs and other things with names of places and areas that have meant something to me. its intended as a suggestion, kind of like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs which lead (hopefully) toward a greater understanding of my experience and, consequentially, a deeper understanding of the music. i grew up not so far from the boys latin school and can remember driving by the sign regularly. i suppose its just one of those things thats stuck with me. in the context of the song, the title is an attempt to evoke the idea of an instinctual and primal language, or a pure tongue."
