“After scouring Home Depot, Joann’s Fabrics, and the creepier corners of ‘Doll Furniture’ on Ebay,” Liam Hurley told NPR, “set construction was completed in mid April, just as filming began (in true theater fashion, some of the paint was still drying while on camera!).” Hurley, an experienced marionette puppeteer and drummer for Josh Ritter, is describing the daunting task of creating a video for “The Curse,” a love song about an archeologist and mummy off Ritter’s seventh album, So Runs the World Away.
Though the budget and time frame were tight, Hurly managed to construct a video for Ritter’s unusual tale that carries you through the 5-minute waltz in a way that makes me wish he had applied his considerable puppetry talents to Ritter’s apocalyptic Cold War love song “The Temptation of Adam,” as well. Check out the second puppet-starring video to catch our eye in as many months below: