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Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock and local band Sun Atoms have collaborated on a new single, “Narco Polo.” The video premiered Friday, Oct. 25, on Sun Atoms’ and Modest Mouse’s Instagram pages, garnering 53,000 views in the first 20 hours, according to Sun Atoms vocalist Jsun Adams.
It’s a six-minute surrealist, psychedelic fever dream in which Brock sings and acts as a wizard controlling people with Adams as his mischievous helper. Brock shot his component at Modest Mouse’s Ice Cream Party Studios in Southeast Portland. (There’s a nod in the video to the band’s Ice Cream Party platform, when the characters overfeed each other sundaes in a funny but also sinister way.)
The “Narco Polo” video was shot over two days in September at a house in the Woodstock neighborhood of Southeast with a bunch of the band’s friends. Close viewers might notice a Willamette Week cameo about a minute in, when someone is reading two copies of the Sept. 18 music page.
“We were trying to do a fever dream, kind of like a David Lynch-meets-Fellini kind of movie,” Adams says.
Sun Atoms has been together since 2021. The band’s bassist is Peter G. Holmström, who also plays guitar in the Dandy Warhols and has known Brock for about a decade. Sun Atoms has opened for Modest Mouse and also played with Dinosaur Jr. at Revolution Hall earlier this year.
“‘Narco Polo’ is more than just a music video—it’s a labor of love and a true embodiment of our collective artistic spirit. I’m filled with gratitude for this incredible crew and excited for what lies ahead,” says video director Brady Tucson in a statement.
Sun Atoms’ new eight-song LP Everything Forever comes out Nov. 8 on Portland label Little Cloud Records and includes “Narco Polo.” A record release show will be held Saturday, Nov. 9, at Show Bar in Revolution Hall.