Mo Troper Takes His Talents to Public Access in the Video for "Paint"

By Matthew Singer

Loathe as you might imagine we are to hype extracurricular projects from contributors to that other weekly, Mo Troper's solo album, Beloved, is just too good to ignore. Same goes for the video for his single, "Paint," the most explosively earwiggy track on an album full of them. Made for what looks like $5 and a can of Pringles, it's just Troper and his band, the Assumptions, running stone-faced through the song against a green-screen of what appears to be found footage taken from a VHS tape grabbed out of a Goodwill bin. Somehow, it manages to be oddly transfixing—maybe because it looks like it's being broadcast live on the world's saddest public access TV show, and who doesn't stop to watch that?

Willamette Week

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Matthew Singer

Matthew Singer

A native Southern Californian, former Arts & Culture Editor Matthew Singer ruined Portland by coming here in 2008. He is an advocate for the canonization of the Fishbone and Oingo Boingo discographies, believes pro-wrestling is a serious art form and roots for the Lakers. Fortunately, he left Portland for Tucson, Arizona, in 2021.

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