Synopsis
White Rabbits perform "Percussion Gun" in a stark warehouse setting, with the camera moving around the six-piece band as their tightly interlocked drumming, piano, bass, and guitar build into a relentless pulse. The performance is cut together with stylized lighting, spinning fixtures, rapid movement, and carefully timed visual repetitions. Rather than following a narrative, the video turns the band's physical coordination into its central spectacle, making the song's percussive attack feel almost mechanical, urgent, and hypnotic.
Factoids & Trivia
- The video was filmed in a warehouse in Columbia, Missouri, after the band traveled back to the city for the shoot.
- The production grew out of Andrew Droz Palermo's close relationship with the group. He had previously toured with White Rabbits while documenting their writing and recording process for an unfinished documentary.
- Palermo lost the earlier White Rabbits footage when his Brooklyn apartment was burglarized. Making "Percussion Gun" in Missouri became an important reset point in his career and helped lead him toward further film work.
- The clip emphasizes the band's synchronized playing rather than imposing a separate storyline. Reviews particularly noted the way the camera and lighting turn the group's coordinated instrumentation into the video's main visual effect.
- Its use of rotating lights and rapid flashes gives the performance a deliberately intense, almost disorienting quality.
- "Percussion Gun" was the first single from the band's 2009 album "It's Frightening," produced by Spoon's Britt Daniel.
- The video was selected as an iTunes free music video feature in 2009. Contemporary reporting linked the placement to a measurable increase in U.S. digital sales of the song.
- The song later gained additional exposure through placements in "Gossip Girl" and the EA Sports game "2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa."