Photo: Danny Clinch

My Morning Jacket today released scads of YouTube-ry, including the decidedly weird video for their decidedly weird song “Holdin’ On to Black Metal” from the recently released Circuital.

The song is a tongue-in-cheek dressing down of black metal: It’s a darkness you can’t deny/But it doesn’t belong in a grown-up mind/Oh black metal, you’re so misunderstood. All and all, it’s a typically even-keeled song from My Morning Jacket, anchored by a consistent eleven-note riff, the group’s ever-present harmonies and a prevalent horn section. But the video takes the subject matter into a half-performance/half-animated drug excursion that features the band in their native land — a live concert — but also blends an animated Pac-Man ghost singing the chorus, the band chilling on Lucifer’s beach and a Willy Wonka style bar scene, where a magical drink called Lucifer’s Peach sends them into this black metal tailspin.

For a band known for their energetic, jam-friendly live shows, this is a perfect blend of absurd cartoonish fantasy and the ridiculousness of a southern-rock band playing a horn-tinged tune about not wanting to give up one’s love for black metal. [Watch “Holdin’ On to Black Metal” here.]