What happens when chain-smoking cherubs grow all the way up? Like most child stars, the angel on the cover of Van Halen's 1984 inherits a miserable, broken adulthood populated by day-drinking and unquenchable loneliness. The newest video from Crooked Fingers for "Bad Blood" (off their 2011 record Breaks In The Armor) imagines a dreary, unemployed existence for the full grown angel that's as mundane as the next guy's–except for a striking pair of wings and a little bit of favoritism from the guy up top.
The video features the directing talents of Jamie Fleische and acting skills of Mike Lust, both of whom bring the kind of pathos-spiked humor you'd expect from AV Club vets. And like any good gag, the "Bad Blood" video has a hell of a punchline.