Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros have released a new video for the song “Life is Hard” from their new, self-titled album. This performance was recorded live in front of an audience at The Box Theater, Aug. 25, in New York City.



Here’s what frontman Alex Ebert said about the video:

“Two major inspirations for this video exist – One was to, in a visually controlled, poignant, and real way, exhibit and record ourselves live — the performance is entirely live. The other was to respond to the pop music industry of the last 20 or more years, in which performance music videos are nearly always a suped-up, lip-synced karaoke, and a major contributor to that which is flimsy and feigned about pop music today.

To me we are primarily a live band — the albums are there to hold you over until we get to your neighborhood. So once the idea finally came to do a full-blown performance video in which we actually played and recorded everything live, I was set on it. We happened to have a few days off in NYC after a tour in Europe, and, with a lot of help from very talented people, we were able to put the whole thing together. It was a day of pure chaos, and it is truly amazing that we were able to get the performance we did — I think it may be, so far, the best we have played this song.

By the way, I should say that ‘Life Is Hard’ is not the only song that was recorded that day, of course, and at some point we may release another song or two from the recordings that day.”

Read more about “Life is Hard” and how the track came to life. Also, check out this great article about the new video by Caitie Carter from Music Times.