Everybody knows Jay Reatard is a misanthropic loner who lashes out with bits of sonic angst…and that’s why we love him. In his new video “It Ain’t Gonna Save Me”, the first single off his forthcoming album, Watch Me Fall, the Memphis punk has himself a good old-fashioned food fight.

The video sees Mr. Reatard crash a birthday party in the style of a Gothic David Lee Roth, complete with a top hat and a fourth-wall-breaking sneer. Water balloons rain down from the sky and all hell breaks loose. The fancy free goofball stuff ends there and we witness stick fights, a little bondage, exploding piñatas and Grimace on acid.

The song and the video are an eagerly awaited step in the right direction for Reatard. He’s relying less on a carefully crafted bad boy image as well as his lo-fi machine gun sound and instead writing songs like a punk-rock Alice Cooper. In fact, he’s feeling so good that he’s offering a free downloadable four-track EP via his MySpace. And it’s not even our birthday!

Watch Me Fall hits stores on August 18th via Matador Records.

Jay Reatard 2009 Tour Dates:
08/14 – Oslo, Norway @ Oya Festival
08/15 – Gothenburg, Sweden @ Way Out West Festival
08/18 – Los Angeles, CA @ Amoeba Music Hollywood
08/19 – Long Beach, CA @ Fingerprints
08/20 – San Diego, CA @ M-Theory
08/21 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Streetlight Records
08/22 – San Francisco, CA @ Amoeba Music
08/23 – Berkeley, CA @ Amoeba Music
08/25 – Portland, OR @ Jackpot Records
08/26 – Seattle, WA @ Easy Street Records
08/27 – Seattle, WA @ Sonic Boom Records
08/28 – Vancouver, BC @ Zulu Records
10/28 – Paris, FR @ Maroquinerie
10/29 – Cologne, FR @ Luxor
10/30 – Munich, DE @ 59 to 1
10/31 – Berlin, DE @ Lido
11/01 – Copenhagen, DK @ Loppen
11/02 – Oslo, NO @ Parkteatret
11/03 – Malmo, SE @ Mejeriet
11/04 – Hamburg, DE @ Logo
11/05 – Prague, CZ @ Matrix
11/06 – Vienna, AT @ B72
11/07 – Bologna, IT @ Covo
11/08 – Clermont Ferrand, FR @ Coop de Mai
11/09 – Brussels, BE @  Botanique Rotonde
11/10 – Birmingham, UK @ Bar Academy
11/11 – Glasgow, UK @ King Tuts
11/12 – Manchester, UK @ Roadhouse
11/13 – London, UK @ Underworld
11/14 – Bristol, UK @ Croft
11/15 – Liverpool, UK @ Masque
11/16 – Dublin, IE @ Whelans