Beyoncé’s video for the new song “Dance For You” is made up to look like an old film noir, but all those genre touchpoints are really just distractions. The video, it turns out, is really just five minutes of Beyoncé grinding, and you already know whether that’s something you want to watch. This much, however, is indisputable: Beyoncé is very good at grinding. And, perhaps more debatably, she also deserves some credit for refusing to hide her pregnancy while, at the same time, being sexy as fuck in an extremely public way. Beyoncé herself co-directs alongside her “Party” co-director Alan Ferguson.
Even for a longtime iconoclast like Kate Bush, the song “Misty” is a true flight of fancy — a thirteen-minute-plus tragic reverie about a woman who gets busy with a snowman. When the track is actually playing, it’s easy to get lost in Bush’s voice and the liquid arrangement and to forget just how ludicrous the song’s concept is. But the new “Mistraldespair” video, which animates a short segment of the song, makes everything as literal as it can possibly be. And even if things don’t end well for the snowman in question, the narrator from the Rudolf The Red-Nosed Reindeer claymation special has a new favorite music video.
Six famous thought experiments explained humorously in a minute each, by David Mitchell of the BBC’s That Mitchell and Webb Look. Produced by The Open University. -via The Daily What
It took Kalle Mattson, Kevin Parry, and friends over six months to create this cute stop motion short, a lot shorter than the time-frame covered in the video! Watch as history is told via illustrated paper, on an ever turning globe that brings it all back around again.
Here, as promised by director Mikael Colombu earlier in the week, is the official video for The Weeknd’s Cocteau Twins-sampling House Of Balloons closer “The Knowing.” It’s gorgeously shot — “in 2D JANKYVISION with Nikon 95 cm. film,” for those keeping track — and takes place on Planet Ethio X in the year 16311. Model Geena Rocero plays the heartbreaker.
Without You' - originally by David Guetta ft. Usher Written by: Pierre Guetta, Usher Raymond, Giorgio Tuinfort, Frédéric Riesterer, Rico Love, Taio Cruz Published by: EMI Music Publishing, Sony ATV Music Publishing & Shapiro Bernstein & Co Inc
Office toys go on a road trip the only way they can, with the help of Google Street View and stop-motion animation in this animation by Tom Jenkins. Read more about this video at the Atlantic. Link -via Metafilter
What better way to put off doing that thing you gotta do than watching this nifty book trailer about ... procrastination (Why do you procrastinate? "The problem isn't that you are a bad manager of your time. You're a bad tactician in the war inside your brain.")
“The Shrine/An Argument” is the sprawling eight-minute suite from near the end of Fleet Foxes sophomore album Helplessness Blues; it’s the one with the free-jazz horn freakout. The new video for the song is a haunting and sometimes exciting animated piece about some sort of carnivorous antelope traveling across a hostile, fantastical landscape. Monsters abound. Sean Pecknold, the brother of Fleet Foxes frontman Robin, directed the video; he’s also one of the two animators.
There's another way to buy, share and listen to music. Try it now at http://music.google.com.
Google Launches Google Music Features MP3 store, free cloud storage, sharing on Google+
More than six months after the launch of Music Beta by Google, the internet giant's Google Music has officially launched, featuring a new mp3 store linked to their cloud-based storage service. The company made the announcement at an event in L.A. yesterday that featured a performance by Drake.
The online shop, which is part of Android Market, functions like the iTunes store or Amazon. It allows users to share one free play of purchased songs with their friends on Google+, Google's social networking service. As The New York Times reports, Warner Music Group is the only major label that has not reached an agreement with Google Music to sell their catalog yet. As Billboard points out, Google Music also includes a service that allows independent artists to sell their music directly to customers.
Google Music allows users to store their music collections online, for free, and access them from any computer, as well as through Android devices, "without the hassle of wires or syncing." Users can upload 20,000 songs free of charge, in addition to Android Market purchases. Google Music will also offer personalized music recommendations as well as editorial content emphasizing music discovery.
The new video for Kate Bush’s 50 Words For Snow track “Wild Man” takes a two-and-a-half-minute chunk of the song and sets it to a windblown haze of wintry imagery. It’s hard to see what’s going on at any given moment, but Bush seems to be telling the story of the abominable snowman being hunted through mountains. Maybe? That’s my interpretation, anyway.
Florence + the Machine - No Light, No Light (Dir: arni & kinski)
The absurdly overdramatic video for Florence & The Machine’s Ceremonials wailer “No Light, No Light” features a crystal skull, a voodoo doll, a weird masked contortionist-dancer guy, a kids’ choir, and maybe the most epic stagedive in recorded history. It is a truly ridiculous piece of work.
Feist has revealed her new video for “How Come You Never Go There”, and either she went halfsies with The Twilighton a film shoot or we now have two music videos, shot in black and white, featuring performances in the middle of the woods. For comparison’s sake, we have both videos (The Twilight Sad’s clip is for their new song “Sick”).
MGMT - All We Ever Wanted Was Everything - Animated (Late Night Tales)
When they released the LateNightTales compilation that they curated a couple of months ago, MGMT included one new song: Their cover of Bauhaus’s “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything.” Now Ned Wenlock has animated a video for the song: A rolling, impressionistic, constantly-changing thing about British urban life, with the lyrics scrolling along beside the pictures of smokestacks.
There's a video for "Hit the Ground (Superman)", the Laurie Anderson-sampling new single from the Big Pink's forthcoming sophomore effort, Future This. It features a lot of split-screen and slo-mo footage of young people blowing bubbles with gum, making funny faces, and getting out of bed. Directed by Tim Brown.
Director: Nate Buchik Cinematographer: Adam Wissing Editors: Nate Buchik and Jonathan Pulley Assistant Director: Jason Kelley Hair and Makeup: Amanda Ryan Stylist: Crystal Saujon X Factor: Derekh Froude Grip: Garrett Davis
After an almost 10-year break, VH1's Pop Up Video program resumed last month. Accordingly, Vampire Weekend's "Holiday" and the White Stripes' "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself" have both received some royal Pop Up treatment, with explainer bubbles highlighting on various aspects of the videos. The White Stripes video was directed by Sofia Coppola and features a Kate Moss pole dance that may be considered slightly NSFW, whereas "Holiday" was helmed by directing duo The Malloys. Watch it above.
Another week, another video, this is our newest official we created from the High 5 Collective on Kitsune's amazing new indie band Citizens! "True Romance" is an offbeat tragedy revolving a hunchback and his strive towards human connection. Nonetheless, it gets a little spooky and strange.
The Rapture have released two videos to accompany "Sail Away", the anthemic opener to In the Grace of Your Love, a short version and an extended version. The whimsical clips, directed by Kris Moyes, feature frontman Luke Jenner engaged in a mystical struggle with a shiny silver bag (!), while Vito Roccoforte and Gabe Andruzzi blow on what sure looks to be a pair of shofars (!!).
Strangely timed, yes, but today’s new Black Lips videos features the Lips dudes as corrupt cops in New York. It stars Leo Fitzpatrick — let me clarify that — Johnny Weeks from The Wire and model Janell Shirtcliff. It’s the first Black Lips video we’ve posted since the rather pukey “Family Tree,” so that’s something of note. There is much less puke in this, so depending on what your puke perspective (P.P., for short) is, it’s either a very good or very bad thing. Phil Pinto directs and Rachelyn Remz-Porter produces the video.
The entire video for the Raveonettes’ romantic reverb-awash “Let Me On Out” consists of old-timey black-and-white close-ups of the two Raveonettes. When your band is good-looking enough, I suppose you can get away with something like that.
The Roots are rolling out a new video and track from their upcoming concept LP undun each Tuesday and this week’s edition comes in the form of “Stomp,” another black-and-white clip of a hooded figure up to some felonious stuff. Check out the previous videos for “Make My” and “Tip The Scale” and you can see a little bit of a narrative emerging.
ROSA is an 9m50s epic sci-fi film that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where all natural life has disappeared. From the destruction awakes Rosa, a cyborg deployed from the Kernel project, mankind's last attempt to restore the earth's ecosystem.
Rosa will soon learn that she is not the only entity that has awakened and must fight for her survival. The film was created entirely by young comic-artist Jesús Orellana with no budget during a single year.
The new video for the Red Hot Chili Peppers track “Monarchy Of Roses” is a chopped-up, animated, mostly black-and-white affair, in which the Chili Peppers inhabit environments taken directly from the drawings of a particular artist, the great Black Flag-affiliated pen-and-ink brutalist Raymond Pettibon. Marc Klasfeld directed the video, but it’s credited as being “inspired by the work of” Pettibon. I hope that means they broke him off with some paper, though I guess Raymond Pettibon isn’t exactly hurting for money.
The video for “Scale It Back,” DJ Shadow’s new collaboration with Little Dragon, opens with a vaguely creepy guy who explains that, to memorize a deck of playing cards, he creates a story in his head by assigning an image to each pair of cards. We then see a group of actors and puppeteers recreate every single absurd image, which means we get stuff like a breakdancing viking and an old man with a cane attacking Chun Li from Street Fighter. I’m pretty sure it’s all done in one unbroken shot, too, which is ridiculously impressive. Casey Raymond and Ewan James Morris direct, just as they did with the brand-new Los Campesinos! video.
We are a bit late to the game on How to Eat Your Apple, a surrealist gem by Erick Oh, but it still tastes great! More treats await on Erick’s blog and his Vimeo, like Way Home and the trailer for Heart
Learn more about How to Eat Your Apple at Short of the Week’s interview.
The video for Los Campesinos!' "Hello Sadness", taken from the new LP of the same name, features forced spaghetti eating, being dragged across the floor, and other general minor abuse committed by masked figures. It's kind of like the video for LCD Soundsystem's "Drunk Girls", only nobody looks like they're having much fun. The clip was directed by Casey Raymond and Ewan Jones Morris.
The concept is deeply silly and even a bit obvious, especially when it turns into the Joker-makeup bacchanal in its last minute. But the little touches are nice. Frontman Till Lindemann, for instance, is an almost disturbingly plausible David Hasselhoff clone. And the song turns out to be easier to twist to than anyone could’ve expected. Nice color pallette, too.
Ramshackle indie rock duo Secret Music builds their frenetic pop around simple, catchy synth or guitar lines, and that’s the basis of their single, “T.O.Y.S.” The video, directed by TV Carnage, piles up Jerry Springer clips, Full House snippets and lots of freaky-ass ventriloquist dummies. The song was produced by Passion Pit’s Ayad Al Adhamy.
Sometimes you promise someone forever but it doesn't work out that way. Watch Katy Perry and Diego Luna star in the sixth chapter of the "Teenage Dream" story. Do you have "The One That Got Away"?
Music video by Katy Perry performing The One That Got Away. Directed by: Floria Sigismondi / Produced by: Jannie McInnes & Danny Lockwood
New Clip from Hudson – Stop Motion Kaleidoscopic Fun.
The new music video for ‘Against The Grain’ from emerging Melbourne indie-folk artist Hudson sees him collaborate with film maker/animator/VJ Dropbear (aka Jonathan Chong), producing a vibrant and colourful clip based around a mainstay from our humble artistic efforts throughout childhood – coloured pencils.
After flirting with an intense dark/light duality since the late Nineties, Britney Spears' twisted side took on more graphic, unapologetic proportions by 2008 with the nihilistic pop politics of Blackout. The singer's accompanying mental health scandals giving her pop lustre a certain tortured gleam. She smartly embraced those tensions, creating visuals like this titillating video of her writhing around while mouthing the words to Marilyn Manson's 1995 cover of the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)."
Originally broadcast as a live interlude clip for her Circus tour, where Britney test-drove her Jekyll-and-Hyde image through various persona-shifting guises, a high-quality version of the video leaked online this week, sending YouTube viewers into a frenzy. For the video, Chris Ashbrook, who also directed Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart's original "Sweet Dreams" clip in 1983, portrays Spears as the mistress of a dark masquerade-cum-orgy, with her dancers slinking around. In many ways, it's the perverse culmination of what Spears' live act has been about for years, just with Manson soundtracking.
Amazingly, it all feels rather appropriate. For some, the idea of pairing Britney Spears and Marilyn Manson might seem apocalyptic, the ultimate collision of musical opposites. But for others, that's the very point: sweet dreams (beautiful nightmares?) can be made from these two antithetical pop ingredients, who arguably had an equal hand in birthing Lady Gaga. In any case, in this era of unlikely pop partnerships, this is one we wouldn't mind seeing in the light of day – or darkness of night.
Lewandowski’s back with a music video for Hurting by the Friendly Fires. It’s a sweet take on the age-old story of boy lusts for girl, girl has hot legs and crushing power over boy (perhaps these are interrelated), but boy just can’t stay away.
I dig the fun, Gondry meets high-end homebrew VFX, feeling. And I love the in-camera lighting, created by velcro-ing literibbon and litecards to a balaclava.
I have been waiting for years to get my hands on a new Elder Scrolls game, and my excitement can barely be contained. Enter an equally excited, and fashionably medieval, bard to sing the praises of the newest incarnation-Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.
The “Song of Skyrim” is beautifully animated by Harry Partridge, and is so catchy that you’ll be humming the tune all day as you wait to get a copy of Skyrim in your hands.
We all love short animated films, but creating short film is very hard task. Putting whole story in 5 to 10 minutes is not easy. Can you imagine? Few films produced after working hard more than 6 years! Here we collected 15 dazzling animated short films for your inspiration. You can find different genres in these movies like heart-touching film One life, frightening film The Passenger.
I bet you will love these short animated movies, do let us know your favorite one, also feel free to share your favorite short film if it’s not present in the list.
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
Oscar-nominated film of ‘Granny O’Grimm’, directed by Nicky Phelan, produced by Brown Bag Films, and written/voiced by Kathleen O’Rourke.
Oktapodi (2007)
In Oktapodi, these two cuties help each other escape the clutches of a tyrannical restaurant cook. But, even once they are out of the kitchen, their battle to stay together is not over.
This Side Up – A Short Animation by Liron Topaz
A naive music-lover’s patience is tested on his quest to download music online, as his perspective on technology completely changes.
Oxygen
Oxygen tries to make friends on the playground. Unfortunately for Oxygen, he is unaware of the many things that can go wrong when trying to interact with his other elementary kin…
“Heavenly Appeals” a short film by David Lisbe
After many millennia of being tortured in Hell, Raymond K. Hessle has finally earned a chance to appeal his sentence of Eternal Damnation. Upon arriving at the “appeals” gate of Heaven he is greeted by the angel who will preside over his case. As Raymond waits at the edge of paradise, he will finally have a chance to prove just how worthy he is.
Marcelino and Bartolomeo: Bye Bye!
Marcelino and Bartolomeo are playing pong at the office when they are not supposed to. Unfortunately their boss shows up and makes a harsh call.
Bunny Animation
The Passenger
The Passenger is the result of about six years spent in a bedroom with a computer.
GetOut – Best Animated Short Film
Alma
Alma is Rodrigo Blaas’ first short film as a director. Originally from Spain, Rodrigo Blaas has worked in animation for more than ten years, in Spain and in the United States.
Pigeon: Impossible
A rookie secret agent is faced with a problem seldom covered in basic training: what to do when a curious pigeon gets trapped inside your multi-million dollar, government-issued nuclear briefcase.
Replay – Amazing Animated Short Film by Talantis
In a destroyed world, the only glimpse of hope is the memory of a forgotten past. But be careful not to let your dreams control your mind…This is Replay an amazing animated short film.
One Life – Amazing Animation by Corey Hayes
This animation will make you think about your life. The song is “old man” by Neil Young Animation by Corey Hayes.
The Last Knit
When knitting becomes an obsession. Directed by Laura Neuvonen, Country Finland.
Do penguins fly?
A collective of French artists braves the current glut of penguin films and even a flooding air conditioner to create this excellent film seeking the truth about those tuxedo-clad Antarctic birds.
UK youngsters the History Of Apple Pie have some messy fun to the tune of the upbeat, shoegazey “Mallory.” Whoever the curator of the food items used for the food fight is, A+, some truly great/gross textures and colors in the mix here. May it enter the pantheon of indie rock food fight videos! Check out the clip after the jump.
9-minutes musical short film on the famous song by Serge Gainsbourg, Variations sur Marilou, interpreted in 2006 by Alain Bashung (Label barclay).
Hot off the press and sure to be doing he rounds pretty quickly, this wonderful delight is from Chez Eddy director, Maxime Bruneel. If you are offended by illustrated breasticals and other such goodness then please consider this video NSFW.
Around these parts David O’Reilly needs no introduction.
When David’s name is attached to a project anything can happen. Usually grotesque, sinister and wholly unholy, but always hilarious.
With his latest offering for Tim and Eric’s “Professor Genki’s Super Ethical Reality Climax”, he does not disappoint. Again it’s NSFW (and finishing of the recent NSFW posting trilogy). Normal service will now resume!
In the buildup to the December release of the Roots’ concept album, undun, the legendary rap collective is putting out a video every Tuesday at 12:06, which mirrors the 12/6 release date of the LP. Today’s clip is for “Tip The Scale,” a gritty black-and-white clip where a lone figure patrols a bleak neighborhood, a motif the Roots are familiar with. Dice Raw guests and Clifton Bell directs.
Sometimes, ambiguity is a good thing. The Brooklyn band Pearl and the Beard just released a beautiful music video for its song "The Lament of Coronado Brown" that adheres to that mantra by inviting multiple interpretations with both its visuals and lyrics.
The band, made up of guitarist Jeremy Styles and multi-instrumentalists Jocelyn Mackenzie and Emily Hope Price, just played a series of shows at CMJ and is currently touring Europe. Together, they make warmly inviting folk music with uplifting three-part harmonies.
The video for "The Lament of Coronado Brown" is a solemn, stately affair that mixes shots of the band with footage of a man trekking across a sandy beach, shovel in tow. He's looking for something, but what it is remains unclear. That's part of the video's power; instead of being told what to think, the viewer is dropped in the middle of the story and encouraged to come up with his or her own interpretation.
Where to begin? You know what, I think this is one of those videos that you just have to experience!
It looks to me like the director, Jeremie Perin, was weened on a diet of Urotsukidōji and darkness that is required to conjure up such a delicious slice of evil. Be warned, some scenes could be considered NSFW so make sure your screen is adequately shielded from prying eyes (and your mum).
A brand new version of ASIMO – Honda’s humanoid robot, which has been in development for over 10 years now – was recently demonstrated. The new model can jump on one leg, pour drinks and much more.
Check out the video for "Satisfied" directed by Jesse Dylan from the new record Bad As Me.
Jesse Dylan knows a few things about dealing with difficult, enigmatic musical-genius types. He is, after all, the son of Bob Dylan, and he directed Method Man and Redman in their cinematic opus How High. For his latest effort, he’s helmed the bare-bones video for Tom Waits’s junkyard-blues howler “Satisfied.” In the clip, Dylan films Waits in high-contrast black-and-white as he does his deranged-preacher impression and pulls off impressive old-man angry-rooster dance moves in flickering backyard light.
South African rave-rap terrorists Die Antwoord, who became global viral sensations last year and who somehow turned that into an Interscope contract, have parted ways with their major label, claiming that Interscope was doing its best to turn them into something more pop-friendly. Instead, they’re planning to self-release the new album TEN$ION on their own label Zef Recordz. And with that announcement, they’ve given us a new video called “Fok Julle Naaiers,” a title that translates to “Fuck You All.” The black-and-white clip doesn’t have the same eyeball-exploding weirdness that the group’s earlier videos brought, but not a lot would. Instead, the black-and-white video mostly features bare-chested dudes, many of them with bad tattoos and firearms, staring down the camera. There’s also a whole lot of scorpion/tarantula/butterfly/worm action.
With the new video, they’ve also uploaded a new clip in which rat-mustached frontman Ninja explains that they aren’t homophobic and that the elaborately latex-masked DJ Hi-Tek (at least, I hope that’s a mask) is gay.
In director Clifton Bell‘s video for the Roots’ new single “Make My,” one guy gets shot a whole fuckload of times, and that’s pretty much the only thing that happens. The slow-motion black-and-white clip is just two minutes long, about half the length of the song, and it excises guest rapper Big K.R.I.T.’s verse entirely. The Roots don’t appear. According to the YouTube page, it’s one of four planned videos for the band’s new concept album undun.
"The Ph.Diddy is on the scene" - Animation of life in the biotech lab
I suspect that Alex’s grad school life (remember, the owner of this site is a fully credentialed mad scientist) was like this. Except for the female groupies.
This video was produced as a promotional spot for the firm Invitrogen.
“It’s Real” is one of Real Estate’s best tracks from Album Of The Week album Days, so it’s fitting that the song’s equally great video maintains the same cheery, upbeat attitude. Oh, and there are like, a dozen dogs in the video, hanging out and starring in home movies. Several are wearing bowties. Bowties! This video is definitely the logical counterpoint to Best Coast’s “Crazy For You” video, although I think they blew an opportunity to include those bumper stickers that say “I [HEART] My [Picture Of Dog Breed].” Maybe next time. Directed by Weird Days.
The video for Mates Of State’s “Sway” chronicles the budding romance between a woman who falls into an alternate world and a creature she meets there. Budding, because he’s a plant! Or something. Then they go to her prom where they’re the only two attendees, apparently, and Mates Of State is the house band. This does not speak my experience with proms or alternative dimensions.
The bands led by Honus Honus seem to have a way, of late, with mega-fun violent gang chaos in their videos. Last week brought us Man Man’s clip for “Pirhanas Club,” with its mob of baby greasers. And today, we get director Corey Adams‘s clip for “Bronx Sniper,” in which a little kid’s action figure comes to life, and that action figure and his ski-masked buddies terrorize the kid’s father and wreck his house in spectacular fashion. It’s cartoonish to the max, and the bloody finale makes no sense whatsoever.
L.A. synth-exoticist duo High Places have already dropped a couple of deeply weird and beguiling video for “Altos Lugares” and “Sophia,” two tracks from their new album Original Colors. But their new clip for “Sonora” is by far the strangest and the most watchable out of all of them. In director Keith Musil‘s clip, bloodied High Places singer Mary Pearson, with an inexplicable disgusting growth on her arm, goes on a gory kill-crazy rampage to rescue Liars frontman Angus Andrew from a group of thugs. It makes no sense at all, but goddam if it isn’t fun to watch.
Watch how future technology will help people make better use of their time, focus their attention, and strengthen relationships while getting things done at work, home, and on the go. (Release: 2011)
The official Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3 live action trailer featuring Sam Worthington, Jonah Hill and Dwight Howard. Whether you're a veteran of Call of Duty or a n00b just starting out, there's a soldier in all of us.
This one is marvelous: watch this short 3D animation by Jens Blank called Don't Swim After Lunch, about the fantastic things that pop up on the kitchen table.
I'd love to see that expanded into a longer movie! Hit play or go to Link [Vimeo] - via LikeCOOL
Experience a action-packed, coast-to-coast race for your life, all through the eyes of Michael Bay.
Game: Need For Speed: The Run Developer: EA Black Box Publisher: Electronic Arts
It's called The Run. An illicit, high-stakes race across the country. The only way to get your life back is to be the first from San Francisco to New York. No speed limits. No rules. No allies. All you have are your driving skills and sheer determination as you battle hundreds of the world's most notorious drivers on the country's most dangerous roads.
BoingBoing points to a new video for Björk's "Thunderbolt" off her latest album, Biophilia. The clip, directed by thirtytwo, presents a live performance of the song by Björk and a backing choir of women. It is appropriately features visuals and sounds of lightning bolts.
Björk writes on Boing Boing, "Please please, do me a favour and use headphones or proper speakers when you listen." Watch the video here.
Cass McCombs has released a new video for "The Same Thing", from his forthcoming album Humor Risk, out November 8 on Domino. His six-minute soft rock sprawler soundtracks a vintage blur on an assortment of homespun black-and-white images. It ends with an eerie graveyard scene. (Via The Fader)
The ethereally dour and sultry “Surface,” one of many great dreamcasting tracks from TX outfit Pure X’s Acéphale debut LP, gets the video it deserves compliments of director and collaborator Malcolm Elijah. What this means for you is watching a clip with lights constantly peering through smoke, bodies strewn about in a partied-out stupor, and ladies in make-up breaking up the bacchanalia in order to blow powder into the already palpable haze. This video looks like Pure X sounds, which is great.
Concept - A Terri Timely and Sarah Applebaum Collaboration Direction- Terri Timely Producer- David Lambert Production manager- Ryan Miller Production Coordinator- Ayesha Janmohamed DOP- Donavan Sell Art Director- Zoe Kim and Jona Tochet
Director Ben Cook’s new video for the Kills’ predatory blues-rock throb “Baby Says” is a moody, meditative piece about the adventures of a glamorous, hard-partying cross-dresser. Check it out below. Also below, we’ve got the Kills’ tour dates; they’ve got some new ones.
Soko is a French artist of considerable international popularity — her key track “I’ll Kill Her” has racked up over 1.5MM YouTube views — and yet I only heard about her when my friend Brandon first pointed out her YouTubes have in excess of 1.5MM views. She’s collaborated with Spike Jonze before — and again here — so of course, she’s on far more important radars than mine. This time, Spike supplies his skill as an iPhone cameraman to capture the love affair between Soko and a very convincingly disguised alien, in L.A.’s Echo Park, with both her brother Max and his (Sam Spiegel) in the mix. Soko directs, and the track and vocals are all her as well: loping and chirping, woozy and whimsical, just what you’d want on the OST for say, a Sundance indie film about an intergalactic love affair. You can see Soko’s acting chops at play, too; she is very convincing in the role of “cute human.”
This short demonstrates how sometimes simpler is better, and that good acting and straight ahead storytelling are often better than over-the-top action and visual effects in 3d animation. Enjoy!
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