Moaning - Misheard

What this video is

Released June 4, 2018, to accompany Moaning's Sub Pop debut album (March 2, 2018), 'Misheard' the video exists at the intersection of LA DIY post-punk and the 2010s motion design renaissance. Director Steve Smith's deliberate invocation of 1990s MTV ident aesthetics — hyper-chromatic, surrealist, rhythmically aggressive — mirrors the band's own sonic strategy of absorbing 90s noise-rock and shoegaze into a…

Why it matters

Represents the animated music video tradition within 2010s indie post-punk: no live performance, no narrative, purely abstract and conceptual. The video's explicit 90s MTV referencing functions as a meta-commentary on nostalgia within contemporary indie rock, while its technical execution in HD 3D…

The director

Los Angeles-based animator and designer whose 3D motion work spans broadcast clients including Adult Swim and MTV. His commercial animation style — vibrant, surreal, and formally sculptural — has been commissioned for music videos by artists on labels…