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Sonny & The Sunsets, 'Cheap Extensions'

Be careful what you wish for. In a surreal and comical new video for Sonny & The Sunsets' "Cheap Extensions," a man's obsession is his undoing. In this case, the object of his desire is some sort of supernatural discount hairpiece, and his lust for it nearly destroys the world.

The story, animated by Teppei Ando, opens in a grocery store, where the man first sees a woman wearing colorful extensions. Propelled by a slinky bass groove, he follows her through the city, falls to his knees and prays to her and her extensions, begging for time together. He dreams of marriage and growing old together. But the two are soon accosted by strange, alien thugs who make off with the hairpiece.

"At first, Sonny didn't give me more information on the story, so I started to piece together a Twilight Zone-type pulp story about a guy who sees a femme fatale at a grocery store and is seduced into following her through bizarre and dangerous situations," Ando writes via email. "After I sent Sonny my interpretation, he was like, 'The hair isn't evil, though; actually the contrary. He loves the hair. It turns into a church and feeds him.' So in the end, it went from a song that I had no idea how to accompany visually to a song with infinite possibilities."

"Cheap Extensions" is from the upcoming Sonny & The Sunsets album Talent Night At The Ashram, due out Feb. 17 on Polyvinyl.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Robin Hilton is a producer and co-host of the popular NPR Music show All Songs Considered.