Reptar's "Houseboat Babies/Cannibal Canyon" (Body Faucet, Make Records not Bombs) is an examination of the human need for relationships, sex, and intimacy, and the preoccupations and obsessions people can cultivate as they switch one type of relationship out for another.
Although it speaks to the greater human desire for intimacy, the video is told through the vector of an old man who looks to be about in his 60's. This old man occupies a 2 story house in Los Angeles to himself and his many dogs. He has developed an obsession which has progressed into a fetish with these dogs. Dog statues, pictures, trophies and other collectibles are stashed around his house. Unbeknownst to the dogs, he is feeding them the dead bodies of their companions. It is never shown whether or not these dogs were killed to that end or had died naturally. The dogs eyes take on an eery green glow when they eat their companions, harkening to a horror movie.
Despite this man's obsessions with his dogs, he appears aloof as he tends to his chores for them. Then, he finally meets a woman with a rabbit whose eyes glow as well, and they sleep together after a celebratory undressing as the dogs watch.
The video concludes shortly after the sex scene. The man rounds up all his beloved pets and puts them into a van, takes them to an unspecified public location and puts them up for sale for families that have no idea that these dogs have been cannibalizing. At this point, the man is ecstatic, enlivened by his new sexual relationship with this woman. The dog's eyes have gone back to normal, but when a picture is taken you can see in the picture that the eyes glow that eery horror movie green again.
The opening shot of the music video is the camera panning down from the bright blue of the California skies to a dog house. Within, only green glowing eyes can be seen. Then a series of quick-shots of dog paraphernalia: dog statues, dog bowls, a dog trophy from 1997, a dog painting.
And now we see a lone man in his kitchen. Slightly above 6 feet tall and skinny, old--- in his 60s. He is cutting meat from a dogs carcass. He picks up a dog with no eyes or skin, but with flesh still on it, from the refrigerator to communicate what is happening. The old man rings the bell and a myriad of dogs, around 8 mid sized dogs, come down to eat the meat of their own companions. Their eyes glow a bright green. This is no doubt an allusion to horror films. Reptar is making a very tongue and cheek allegory here about this man's obsession. He cares for them and loves them, but it is horrific. Despite this allusion, the ton remains cheeky, the man with a half pleasured look upon his face the entire time. A sense of pleasure that is lazy--- lacking in lust and desire and conviction.
We then see the man shaving one of his dogs. It is midday. He stares into the distance preoccupied mentally by something else while he diligently does this task. He then takes a red dog toy and stuffs it with the dog hair and the toys eyes also become green. Zombified by the recycling of dog material just like the dogs are.
And then we get a third dog allegory. The man sets up an entire photoshoot in his living room. He is dressed as though it is the 1930's. He has umbrellas set up and takes the photo with a flash-lamp camera, and the photo turns into a black and white one.
Then a woman comes to his door, and he looks incredibly excited. His face lights up and they begin to undress each other. He seems to be ecstatic to the point of incredulity as she takes off her panties and bra, all as the dogs stare on.
We next see the man in the shower, and he sings the words of the song we are listening to, "yes I can feel it!" It is unclear whether it is the same day or the next one, but he rounds up all his dogs in cages in his white van. The dogs eyes are now regular. His enthusiasm remains from when he had slept with the woman. He sells one of his dogs to a nice nuclear family who smile as he takes their picture. This time he takes it with a digital camera. The family smile but in the photo the dogs eyes are still green, alluding to a horrific past with this dog that they will never know about.
If we examine the "Houseboat Babies" music video from a 'postmodernist' lens where all things can coexist simultaneously and equally, we see a man and his relationships.
He has a relationship with his dogs. An obsessive one. He tends to them carefully, feeds them, sets up trophy and art. He worships them. Yet he feeds them themselves. He doesn't have anything from the outside to give them. He is essentially recycling their own love back to them. Within this dynamic, he is often aloof and uninterested. He has a very dull, lazy satisfied smile fixed on his face as though he had just cum. He is satisfied but lacking of passion, conviction, lust, or forward moving energy.
Then he has a relationship with this woman. She shows up, and has a cannibal bunny--- they connect. He is lit up with life all of a sudden. His smile as she takes off his bra and jumps on him seems almost impossible to contain. As if he is so happy that his mortal body cannot possibly express his happiness.
Finally, he chooses to sell the dogs after meeting this woman. It seems as if he is finally truly satisfied. He has essentially switched out one relationship from the other. He seems alive and vivacious and the dogs have recovered from their green-eye-glowing state.
However, these relationships coexist in that they are both part of one man. The man cultivated both types of relationships, but it seems that he can only have one at a time since he did switch out the dogs for the woman.
There is also the theme of age. The 1997 trophy. The old man living alone. The 1930's picture and old camera. Then later on he has a digital camera. There is also some commentary on this man holding on to old ways. When he meets this woman it seems his ways are updated.
In conclusion, Reptar's "Houseboat Babies" music video seems to be making a commentary on the human need for intimacy and the different outlets people can find. This one being that a man had a relationship that was a tongue in cheek horrific. He then meets a woman who invigorates him and revitalizes him and he is brought to the present day again. So the video would support the song lyrics in that it is about attraction and attachment and the ways people seek them out.