Maybe you think you’ve seen every hot take on quarantine life. Zoom videos, stock footage, self-made home movies, but we’re betting you haven’t seen anything quite like Brooklyn-based duo Papi Shiitake’s “Quarantine Dream” video. The animated clip swoons across the screen with as much carefree bounce as one would expect from this dream-pop jam. If plucky bass lines, vibrato-drenched guitars, and minimalist drums could come to life, they would look like “Quarantine Dream.”
It begins like every other story this year, with frontman Young Tuxx locked up at home and feeling mighty stir crazy. There’s only so much social media, Netflix, and FaceTime any one person can consume until they desperately crave that human connection. He can’t leave his dwelling to see his special someone without meeting a can of Lysol to the face courtesy of his neighbor, so if he can’t be there in body, he can at least be there in spirit. The Papi Shiitake spirit floats out the window and over the empty streets of New York City, which still maintains a certain chaotic beauty. He finds her alone, just like him, pondering what the next move should be. He blows a little phantom kiss in the window and returns home, where Papi (the real one) waits by the door…
