Video: Carmen Sandiego - "Ocupaciones y Oficios"

Arriving as if completely in tune with how burnt out and over list-season we are, the new clip from Carmen Sandiego (along with their just-released LP Ciudad Dormitorio) is pretty much better than anything those Reyes Magos brought us. First single "Ocupaciones y Oficios" is warm and endearingly cynical, a song that recalls Fonogramáticos-era classics (Vol. 11 in particular). For its visual treatment, the lyrics desaturate against an amusement park in Montevideo where director Bernardo Quesney must have set out to remake Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha. Presented as a "making of" of sorts, the video collects moments taken towards perfecting a scene, ("shooting a film is like a stagecoach ride in the old West.. by the halfway point, you just hope to survive.") Yet what's strange is for all its candid and imperfect bits, the clip still manages to execute a polished and memorable look that with any other song, any other director, any other band just wouldn't have worked.