On top of The Fatty Acids’ energetic live shows and steady wave of increasingly great records (including Boléro, which we called the third best Milwaukee album of the 2010s last year), the synth-pop outfit is known for its long line of music videos that range from silly to innovative to downright astounding, especially given the independent band’s budget. Fittingly, the visual component for The Fatties’ “Worst Part”—the second video the band has released since signing with UK-based Pink Lizard Music—is essentially an assemblage of live shots and behind the scenes clips culled from the long-running band’s voluminous collection of music video footage.
The daunting task of piecing together approximately five years of footage from several music videos and an untold number of live shows fell on Milwaukee filmmaker Kelly Anderson. Fortunately, he’s a friend of the band who was the person holding the camera that captured the vast majority of shots used in the video.
“Pretty much ever since Fatties have been making music together I’ve been sticking my camera in their pimply faces, so there are elements of all of this footage in the video,” Anderson says.
Fans might recognize imagery from the set of Kurt Raether’s “Oven Mitts” music video, as well as Ryan Reeve’s unforgettable “Riverwest Side Story” video for the band and Sat. Nite Duets’ half of the Torrential Zen split seven-inch. Additionally, Anderson used live video from The Fatty Acids’ shows at Summerfest, Mondo Lucha, Mad Planet, and candid moments of goofiness in the band’s basement.
Anderson says he’s unable to quantify the amount of time he spent piecing this together, only saying “lots,” but he’s glad to have been nearby as often as he was to collect so much footage for this greatest hits montage-type video for a band who can be trusted to put out more great songs and inventive videos in the years to come.
“The Fatties boys are some of the most motivated and creative people in town and I’m lucky to have been close to them for so long and totally ride their coattails,” Anderson says. “There has never been anything short of a sense of grandeur when it comes to the level of commitment and love they put into their work.”