Synopsis

In a sunlit meadow beside a river, Grizzly Bear undergoes a series of unsettling self-examinations. The band members pull at hair, skin, nails and ears, draw blood, and endure twitching, bubbling and melting bodily imagery. As the procedures intensify, the video shifts from clinical body horror toward a strange natural spectacle. Leaves pulse, water appears to boil, light fractures, and sparkling particles drift through the air, suggesting that the musicians' creative energy is spreading into the surrounding landscape.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was released on January 28, 2013, as a visual companion to "Gun-Shy," a track from Grizzly Bear's 2012 album *Shields*.

• Its central idea asks what the creative energy of a living organism might look like if it were visible at a molecular level.

• The concept was developed in conversation with Daniel Rossen and reflects the idea that everything is connected.

• The production used scientifically explainable natural phenomena, including soap-film interference, rapid crystallization, and the splitting of the light spectrum.

• The contrast between the lush, peaceful setting and the graphic medical imagery gives the video much of its unease. Contemporary coverage repeatedly noted that it was not suitable for squeamish viewers.

• The final section deliberately moves away from bodily experimentation and toward imagery described as metaphysical or alchemical, linking the band's physical presence to changes in the landscape.

• The video became one of the more distinctive visual pieces associated with the *Shields* campaign, pairing the album's relatively upbeat song with surreal, unsettling imagery.