Flamingo Shadow test

In his 1937 book The Road to Wigan Pier, author, journalist, and critic George Orwell quipped: "We may find in the long run that tinned food is a deadlier weapon than the machine-gun." It was a warning, essentially, that technology, no matter how much it makes life easier, also has an uncanny ability to strip away the essence of the human experience in ways that are difficult to detect before the consequences are irreversible. It's a sentiment that Flamingo Shadow singer madeline Adams Matysiak brings to a fin point in "Taxi," the fourth single from Flamingo Shadow's debut full-length, Earth Music, out Aug. 21 via Irrelevant Music.

The video, scripted by Adams and shot and directed by guitarist David Matysiak during a road trip to California, is a rumination on the arc of the automobile industry, and how youth and freedom on the open road are forever linked. Scenes from James Dean's death site in Cholame, CA, juxtaposed with lyrics such as "I've come to fear these machines, once navigator I don't know where they take me," say an awful lot about the loss of independence in the face of automation. The adventure playing out in these scenes will be a thing of the past as self-driving cars establish more of a presence in day-to-day life. But "Taxi," with its vibrant musical tones and tropical post-punk bounce, isall about living in the moment, rather than lamenting what's being taken away.