What’s that? It’s four-to-six weeks since the last Videodrome? It must be time for another round-up of the most interesting, original and star-studded music videos that have crossed The Playlist’s path of late.
After the jump, we’ve got your guaranteed-100%-Katy-Perry-free Videodrome, featuring starring roles from Megan Fox, Rainn Wilson, Ray Winstone and Charlize Theron, a pair of clips directed by “The Road” helmer John Hillcoat, and videos from artists such as Broken Social Scene, Robyn, She & Him and Ratatat.
Perhaps the most headline-grabbing video in recent weeks is that for Eminem’s latest single, ‘Love The Way You Lie,’ featuring a ghost vocal from Rihanna. Directed by “Torque” helmer and promo veteran Joseph Kahn, who recently signed on to return to features for the horror-comedy “Detention,” it stars Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan (“Lord of the Rings”/”Lost”) as a couple locked in an abusive relationship, reflecting the domestic violence theme of the song. In theory at least; it’s actually a fairly troubling clip, glamorizing and almost justifying its subject matter. We’re sure its heart is in the right place, and it’s not like we were expecting “Nil By Mouth,” but we still think this could have been handled in a way that wasn’t totally crass.
Another burning-building-filled, starry clip worth highlighting, albeit one we’ve looked at before, is for the first solo single from The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers, in which the singer appears alongside no less a personage than Charlize Theron. From Nash Edgerton, the Australian director of crime thriller “The Square,” it involves Theron returning to “Aeon Flux” action heroine mode, rescuing Flowers from torture by a group of ninjas. It’s as glossy, slick and empty as the song, but it’s at least less objectionable than the Eminem clip.
Putting a big star to rather better use is LA singer-songwriter Ferraby Lionheart, who employs Rainn Wilson of “The Office” for the video to “Harry & Bess.” The song tells the story of Harry Houdini’s wife, Bess, aiding her husband in an escape by passing him the key with a kiss, but directing collective Focus Creeps (who has done excellent work with the likes of Girls, Los Campesinos and Neon Indian) didn’t go the obvious route, instead using a tuxedo-ed Wilson to annoy Lionheart as he writes, and half-heartedly mimes a guitar solo. It’s roughly four hundred times more charming and ingenious than either of the previous two. [Stereogum]
From the looks of the next clip, Kristen Bell would do better to stick to music videos than the kind of weak-ass rom coms that she’s been stuck with of late. The “Veronica Mars” star appears in a clip for the latest Yeasayer single, the excellent “Madder Red,” where she plays the owner of a sickly pet. This being directed by Swedish madman Andreas Nilsson, who’s been behind clips from the likes of MGMT and Fever Ray, however, the pet isn’t a cat or a dog, but a creature somewhere between a roast turkey and an aborted foetus. It’s a disturbing watch, and god knows what it has to do with the song, but Bell’s performance is pretty excellent, and it’s even kind of moving by the end [Pitchfork]
A track and video built from the ground up around the involvement of a big name actor is UNKLE’s “The Answer.” Starring Ray Winstone, and directed by his “The Proposition” boss John Hillcoat, it begins with a visibly affected Winstone relating a near-death experience when he was seventeen. From there, it all goes a bit “Koyaanisqatsi,” celebrating the splendor of life. We’re not huge fans of the band, but it’s a great clip, suiting the epic feel of the song perfectly, and giving a British national treasure a nice moment in the spotlight.
Hillcoat also teamed with two others pals, Nick Cave (who wrote the scripts for “Ghosts of the Civil Dead” and “The Proposition”) and Warren Ellis (who co-wrote the scores for those films and “The Road” with Cave), for the new video for their dirty, sexed-up side project Grinderman. We looked at in more detail a few days ago, but it’s pretty crazy, if a little over-literal at times. Oh, and NSFW. At all.
A big-name director is also associated with The Clash At Demonhead, the only difference here, of course, being that they’re entirely fictional, and part of Edgar Wright’s “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.” But that doesn’t mean that they can’t do a music video too, and their version of Metric’s ‘Black Sheep’ was available as a bonus when you preordered the film’s OST on iTunes. You can check out a preview of the clip below. While we love Metric’s original version too, Brie Larson’s sweet, soulful vocals give it a whole different feel.
Also appearing on the Scott Pilgrim soundtrack are Toronto’s Broken Social Scene, and between that and their latest album “Forgiveness Rock Record,” (easily their most accessible to date), they’re set to take a big leap towards the mainstream. Not that they’re abandoning their principles; a anonymous fan made a mash-up video, inspired by the recent G20 summit, to their song “Meet Me In The Basement.” For an unofficial video, the clip is very, very well edited, and memorializes a fairly awful moment in Toronto’s recent history in a propulsive, memorable manner.
Another band with a ‘Pilgrim’ connection are Cults, a much buzzed-about twee-pop two-piece, whose spectacularly good track ‘Go Outside’ soundtracks the animated prequel to the movie that airs on Adult Swim tonight. The pair have also collaborated with Adult Swim as part of their Singles Program, with the track ‘Oh My God,’ which features a video from Daniel Garcia, who’s previously helmed promos for the likes of TV On The Radio and The Go! Team. It’s not the band’s best song, but the clip stands out from other performance videos by virtue of some frankly amazing inflatable costumes (courtesy of balloon artist Jason Hackenwerth). Also, the band get extra points for naming one of their members after a character in “Videodrome.” [Culture Bully]
The tricky subgenre of the corporately-sponsored free download also encompasses “All Summer,” a collaboration between alt-rapper Kid Cudi, Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend, and Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast, that’s available to download on Converse’s website. The track is accompanied by a video from New York duo BBGun (aka Maxim Bohichik and Alex Bergman), who’ve worked with the likes of J. Cole and The Roots. While they’ve produced more innovative work in the past, the pair are having fun with this clip, which features Cudi, Batmanglij and Cosentino hanging out in an apartment with papier mache heads on; it’s pretty charming in a lo-fi sort of way
Very definitely not lo-fi, in any way whatsoever, is Kanye West. Never knowingly understated, his excellent new single ‘Power,’ which samples King Crimson, is accompanied by a ‘video portrait’ by Marco Brambilla, who was best known for “Demolition Man,” but who’s become a respected video artist since. Placing West as the centre of a neoclassical moving painting, and coming across as somewhere between “300” and a Terry Gilliam animation, its ludicrous, semi-religious excesses are about perfect for the track, and the artist.
The “on the road” clip is a staple that most bands/artists get around to making at some point in their career and it’s easy to see why. As a concept it’s fairly straightforward, and it’s a pretty inexpensive way to throw to together a video. Just shoot some footage, edit and you’re done. For the most part, these supposed intimate looks at the band in their day-to-day environment are pretty tepid and largely forgettable so here credit is due to director Max Vitali, who has made his spot for Robyn’s “Hang With Me” completely refreshing. Sure, it’s not as eye-popping or ambitious as some of the other videos in this piece, but Vitali, in choosing the smaller moments of Robyn’s touring life makes her personality palpable, real and approachable. Moments like a young girl thrilled and excited to be watching Robyn perform in-store; the singer hanging out in a bathrobe at a gas station; or lost in gleeful abandon on a rollercoaster — these strip away the artifice that ends up plaguing these sorts of videos. Watching “Hang With Me,” it seems entirely possible that any viewer could hang with the pop star and moreover, it would be totally fun.
Equally, and predictably, adorable is the latest video from Zooey Deschanel’s band with M. Ward, She & Him. Their recent, second album is one of our favorite records of the year, and the video for single “Thieves” is a charmer, featuring Deschanel and Ward being sent presents by their younger selves. Director Norwood Cheek specializes in Super 8 videos, having even set up the Flicker Film Festival, which focuses on the format, so it’s not the glossiest promo you’ve ever seen but it might be one of the loveliest. (via Pitchfork)
Also firmly in the box marked ‘twee’ is the puppet-filled video for Clinic’s dreamy new single “I’m Aware.” Directed by Pete Fowler, an artist who’s collaborated frequently with Super Furry Animals, it’s got a psychedelic feel reminiscent of some lost European kids TV show from the 1970s. At least, we think it’s the Clinic video. It’s either that, or the recession has hit James Cameron’s “Avatar” sequel very hard indeed.
Yet another corporate-sponsored musical venture is Dr. Martens’ initiative to mark their 50th anniversary, which features the likes of N.A.S.A, Buraka Som Sistema and The Duke Spirit covering thebands like The Buzzcocks, The Pogues and Max Romeo, each one featuring a specially-commissioned video. Perhaps the pick of the bunch is The Cinematic Orchestra’s cover of Jeff Buckley’s ‘Lilac Wine,’ which has a stunning animated video from Vanessa Marzaroli, best known for her work on Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.” Inspired by Spencerian calligraphy, it’s both minimalist and complex, and suits the lush, swooning version of the song down to a tee. (via Promo News)
We featured Mystery Jets last time round, with a track from their ace album Serotonin, and they’re back, with Will and Kai from the band collaborating with London dance duo The Count & Sinden on ‘After Dark.’ It’s one of the more irresistible pieces of dance-pop we’ve heard all year, and the video, from Jo Apps, who specializes in artists from the dance world like Fake Blood and Simian Mobile Disco, is a keeper, riffing on those terrible dance shows that are everywhere these days. Put it this way, if “Step Up 3D” had even a tenth of its charm, we’d actually have gone to see the damn thing. Also, we’re totally going to marry the girl who dances at the 1:10 mark.
Another track that’s been killing on dancefloors every time we go out is Maximum Balloon’s ‘Tiger.’ The new solo project for TV On The Radio/Scarlett Johansson producer Dave Sitek features a vocal appearance from Aku, and started picking up attention after soundtracking an Esquire video featuring Daisy Lowe. But now it has an official clip from artist Andrew Huang, who previously worked with the likes of Avi Buffalo and Delphic, which lives up to the band’s title, featuring, as it does, a shitload of red balloons, not to mention an enormous Chinese dragon and Sitek doing his best David Byrne impression.
As ever, we’ve saved the best till last, and our three recent favorites are below. First up is the very, very creepy video for Brooklyn electro act Ratatat’s latest single “Drugs.” Essentially coming across as if David Lynch was a portrait photographer, it simply shows a group of perfectly normal people displaying some of the creepiest smiles ever seen on camera, before the titular substances seem to take effect, and the subjects (and the viewer) start to freak out. It riffs on director Carl Burgess’s earlier work “Three People Trapped In Infinite Politeness,” but combined with Ratatat’s song, it’s even better. (via Vulture)
Director Ben Reed (whose video for James Yuill’s “On Your Own” just missed the cut last time round) also knocked out a clip that doesn’t look like anything else out there, for the title track off The Wave Pictures’ “Sweetheart.” Constructed entirely from the pages of second-hand books, which illustrate the song’s lyrics, it never feels predictable or staid. It’s incredibly dense, and is worth at least a few watches, if only to justify the time that it must have taken for Reed to finish.
Finally, an unofficial video for Icelandic band FM Belfast appeared recently, serving as the perfect calling card for its directors, known as Daniels (Daniel Scheinert and Dan Kwan.) Like the Ratatat clip, it’s simple, yet unnerving, showing a group of people dancing alone in various locales, but the effects and cutting make it unlike anything you’ve ever seen. The LA duo just signed to Warp Films, and have just delivered a totally stunning video for The Hundred In The Hands as their follow-up; more on which next time.
— Oliver Lyttelton, Kevin Jagernauth