¤ milky moon ¤

Many Joanna Newsom fans will have heard of the “Good Intentions Paving Company” music video, which was promoted following the release of Have One On Me, but has not to date seen a full airing. According to user ‘hanahstar’ on the Milky Moon forums, the video was filmed in Hungary in 2010 or early 2011. Around April 2011, Karni & Saul (K&S) were revealed as the directors. Stills from the video, and some behind-the-scenes shots, were released by K&S in June. In December, a minute-long excerpt of the video was released. (As of writing, this is still available on K&S’s Vimeo channel. The photos are also easy to find on the ‘net.)

In the ensuing silence, several fans contacted entities associated with the video in order to try and find out what had happened to it. To the best of my knowledge, the closest thing to an official statement gleaned was the following, purportedly posted on K&S’s Tumblr around November 2012 and since deleted:

dear Joanna fans who have been writing to us.first of all yes the video for good intentions was commissioned by drag city and finished. we are very proud of it.and everyone who sees it absolutely loves it.for various reasons that are not up to us drag city will not release this video.we are gutted.and apologies for letting anyone down.we believe it is a fab piece of film.and maybe one day it will see the light.thanks for your kind emails and for following us.best karni and saul

According to another forum post, Ryan Francesconi, who was a key member of personnel for the song, also commented on the video, saying it “didn’t turn out exactly right”.

And that’s all I could find out! If anyone reading this can contribute any more puzzle pieces, please get in touch. Newsom’s label, Drag City, generally seems to have a very patient, artist-focussed management with very deep pockets, which, to my mind, makes a nixing by Newsom more likely an explanation than any financial or legal threats.