The Avett Brothers Unearth Unseen “Matrimony” Music Video

The Avett Brothers, image via YouTube

The Avett Brothers, now 26 years and 12 studio albums into their tenure at the apex of Americana, have reflected on their origins today with the release of an archival music video for “Matrimony.” The storied trio of Seth and Scott Avett and Bob Crawford all feature in the long-lost visual accompaniment to their 2006 track, which captured the frenzied energy of a pivotal moment in their development on Super 8 film before vanishing into storage for two decades.

“We filmed this video in one afternoon and took twenty plus years to edit and release it,” says Scott Avett. “We just wanted to make sure it was perfect.”

“Matrimony” appears on The Avett Brothers’ groundbreaking fourth studio album, Four Thieves Gone: The Robbinsville Sessions, released via Ramseur Records in February 2006. The band cut the record over ten days at a rented house in Robbinsville, N.C., tracking live to tape and letting a howling furor of ragged guitars introduce a new area of heavier folk rock. Like their reinvigorated sound, they shot the music video in a single day with filmmaker Tim Nackashi, and the artists’ fervent passions are manifest in the shaky, saturated relic of a bygone time.

“We shot on Super-8 with long lenses in a very run and gun fashion,” Nackashi recalls. “We only got a few takes in before we ran out of filmstock. I got the film developed and then moved across the country and kickstarted a new career… Those precious film reels lay dormant in a storage facility. The energy of The Avett Brothers’ performance leaps right off the emulsion. They were screaming their hearts out over the business district of Athens, GA. Damn, that was a great day.”

Watch the archival music video for “Matromony” below. The Avett Brothers will return to the stage in March for a live debut of their recent Mike Patton collaborative album AVTT/PTTN at Knoxville, Tenn.’s Big Ears Festival. Read more about that project here.