“Me and Joe [Boley, bassist] were in the van one day, driving to Austin,” recalls Ethan – guitarist/vocalist for Austin’s most prominent acid-punk sibling band, the Boleys – between sniffles mere hours before he and his brother head into town for the Bernie Sanders rally. “We were trying to think of video ideas, when we saw this ambulance driver.”
Several emergency vehicles sped past to an accident site, but an errant EMT driver missed the turn.
“They had to go way down and make this U-turn, and then come back to the emergency,” he laughs. “We thought, ‘Oh, those are the stoner ambulance drivers!’”
Thus a song written “long ago,” mostly about general depression, gets a B-movie-style video that Ethan laughingly admits has little to do with its subject matter. Dude wakes up hungover in his low-rent house, after what was obviously a bender. He goes to his shitty job at a convenience store, where he’s berated by his boss.
Afterward, he stumbles out back and scores acid in a van. Following a trip sequence and a raging party, the protagonist is killed by three corrupt cops, played by Ethan, Joe, and Emma Boley, the power trio’s drummer. Morbid story twist aside, “Pinky Toe” kicks out a fun testament to the power of friendship and community.
The Boley’s family ranch/compound outside Florence serves as the house and the party sequence’s set, filmed during a “real party that got pretty cray-cray.”
Ex-King Country/current Peppermint Kiss guitarist James Davenport stars. The Dead Coats’ Lauren Warner plays his boss, and did makeup/sfx. John Rosales of Holy Death Trio directs and portrays the acid dealer. Members of Peach Almanac, the Irons, Sticky Nickle, Mud Dog all appear.
This article appears in February 28 • 2020.
