The Garment District – “Cooling Station”

RSTB faves The Garment District return with a psych-soaked instrumental built on an organ groove that’s both enticing and unsettling. The video tracks footage of the Circus Circus casino, a particular interest to songwriter Jennifer Baron (The Ladybug Transistor). One of the last vestiges of campy, classic Vegas, the casino is on the verge of being sold, which in the hands of Capital can only mean that it’ll soon be sanded and smoothed to fit the town’s more modern aesthetics.

Jennifer expounds on her lover for the casino over the years, “I was drawn to documenting the built environment of the casino inside and out, particularly the typography, intricate carvings, vivid colorways, patterned old carpets, railings and banisters, friezes and murals, the 1980s aura — everything that creates a sense of another world. This even extends to the hot pink garbage cans emblazoned with the casino’s evocative double name. I spent a late evening on the mezzanine, called the Carnival Midway, where an actual arcade still operates and where live circus shows and trapeze acts are still performed. Opened in 1968, the resort also includes the Adventuredome indoor amusement park.

There seem to be so many forgotten stories in those corridors, which makes me think even more about the psychology of architecture. I have read about a hidden Hippodrome — once home to the Soul Follies revue, fashion shows, boxing matches and “Nudes in the Night” burlesque shows — that was walled off there in the 1970s and discovered many years later.”

The video is composed of both Jennifer’s and artist Johnny Arlett’s footage, cut into a kaleidoscopic array of color and light. The new single is part of the band’s Flowers Telegraphed to All Parts of the World album, and you can dive into the depths of the video above.

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