Video premiere: Trip through time and space with JJUUJJUU on the animated clip for “Camo”

In planning its mind-bending new animated video for “Camo,” mesmerizing rock band JJUUJJUU’s Phil Pirrone envisioned what he described as “something that embodied what JJUUJJUU means to me.”

Pirrone, who is best known for founding the acclaimed festival Desert Daze, continued via email: “A motorcycle ride into the cosmos -- where you lose your body and become one with everything— is sorta what it’s like for me to play live in this group (when everything’s working, that is).”

Everything does indeed work in the new clip “Camo,” which the Times is premiering in advance of JJUUJJUU’s debut album. Called “Zionic Mud” the long-player arrives Friday via Dine Alone Records. The video for “Camo,” directed by artist-musician Micah Buzan with animation and art assistance by Brittany Penn, rolls through surreal landscapes while tracking a motorcyclist’s journey.

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Buzan in an email said that he and Penn strove “to animate something that expresses the weirdness and beauty of being alive.“ Specifically, they wanted to show “the evolution of an alternate universe in sync with the phases of the song.” Added Buzan: “We all have inner worlds that no one else will fully understand. Yet we’re all living in the same weird universe together.”

The weird universe of “Camo” is populated with a furrow-browed cyclist who, across six minutes, transcends dimensions while rolling along the highway. As JJUUJJUU finds a tremolo-guitar groove featuring echoed rhythms, maraca-accented percussion and gets lost within it, our hero zips with blissful abandon as she traverses the outer and inner edges of time and space.

JJUUJJUU will traverse American time and space when it embarks on a tour in May. Traveling as part of the Desert Daze Caravan II, Pirrone and band will hit more than two dozen locales across early summer, including a stop at the Wiltern on May 17. As with most of the itinerary, the Caravan will feature sets by Ariel Pink, DIIV, Nick Hakim and SUUNS.

For tips, records, snapshots and stories on Los Angeles music culture, follow Randall Roberts on Twitter and Instagram: @liledit. Email: randall.roberts@latimes.com.