It's been almost four years since Carl Johns, the mustachioed front man of Charlemagne and Noahjohn, left town for greener pastures, but he's never forgotten his friends and fans here in Mad City.
Since then, Johns has ditched the facial hair and bounced from Philadelphia to Brooklyn, N.Y. to Berlin, Germany, where he's reinvented Charlemagne as a two-piece with Emily Farrell. And though Astroland, the famous funfair from Brooklyn's Coney Island neighborhood, is the site of their latest video, the song could easily be a love story set at Brat Fest or the Wisconsin State Fair.
The video begins with Johns, decked out in aviator sunglasses and a Vivian Girls T-shirt, munching on an ice cream bar as he sings about a beach-bound sunbather. Footage of carnival rides and bumper cars (including a "Bump You Ass Off" sign) plays in the background like an old, homemade filmstrip while the bandmates dance in front of it, appearing and disappearing from the scene at random. Occasionally, Johns or Farrell floats across the screen in a brightly colored box, much like Greg, Marcia and their television siblings do in the opening sequence of The Brady Bunch, giving the piece an extra jolt of retro appeal.
