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Popeye resurrected: Wilco gets animated for ‘Dawned on Me’

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When Wilco’s ace guitarist Nels Cline told The Times recently that his band leader, Jeff Tweedy, was a ‘collage artist,’ one who would resurrect ‘treasured items,’ Cline was talking pop structures. Yet he apparently could have been discussing an appreciation for vintage cartoons. In what’s a rare proper music video from Wilco, which is in the midst of a three-night stand in Los Angeles this week, the band’s ‘Dawned on Me’ has been re-fashioned as a tale of love and jealously centered on Popeye the Sailor Man and his familiar cast of characters.

The cartoon, a collaboration between Wilco’s label dBpm Records and Blow Me Down! King Features, was directed by designer-branding guru Darren Romanelli. Said to be the first hand-drawn Popeye cartoon since 1987, the clip sees the popular spinach-eating sailor trying to distract the love of his life, Olive Oyl, from failling for Wilco’s Tweedy. The girl, of course, chooses the musician (sigh).

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‘Dawned on Me’ is one of the more lighthearted songs on Wilco’s new album, ‘The Whole Love,’ although lyrically it has a slightly dark undercurrent in its midsection. Amid brightly colored guitar and keyboard textures, what at first appears to be a bouncy number about calling a loved one is revealed to be something a little more sinister when it’s made clear that the couple are no longer together.

But never mind all of that. There’s a cartoon to watch:

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-- Todd Martens

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