Sag Harbor, NY | October 26, 2023: Alt-indie duo The Moonlit Strays release the cinematic music video to their hit single “Cocaine and Rhinestones” to YouTube on Thursday, October 26th.“ Cocaine and Rhinestones” was shot on location in Marfa, TX, and Sag Harbor, NY by Liam Gifkins.
Featuring singer-songwriter Elks de Joule, “Cocaine and Rhinestones” is pure western camp, with striking visuals of the artists’ hightailing it on horseback through the Chihuahuan Desert, stomping down a West Texas highway, following the story of a wayward gig musician bouncing town to town, bar to bar. He ruminates on love, loneliness, and the one place he feels at home; behind the microphone.
The day/night concept for the video was developed by Los Angeles-based Liam Gifkins, and shot, directed, and edited the high-energy video in collaboration with the artists. Much like the song, the video alternates between the listless guitar-led verses and their pulsating counterparts, the chorus, itself a bacchanalian whiskey-soaked dance party flooded with the glow of neon signs and swirling cigarette smoke.
A professional photographer in the music scene, Gifkins touches on every detail involved in producing the video from the clothes worn and the cars driven to the interior set designs used to define her world of cool, her world of underground art and alternative lifestyle. Raised on a beach, Gifkins is a product of both New Zealand and her Hamptons childhood where she met her musical collaborator Mike Abiuso. She grew up with a camera and a surfboard and makes a yearly pilgrimage to Hawaii where she is known as a professional photographer. When not writing music with Abiuso, Gifkins shoots surf culture and fellow musicians and is known on both coasts of the US for her photography. Her fellow Stray Mike Abiuso is known for his accomplishments in audio production, songwriting, and commercial and Indie Film scores.
