Atoms For Peace - "Ingenue" (Watch Thom Yorke Dance)

Ready your .gif-makers: Thom Yorke dances once again in the video for Atoms for Peace's "Ingenue", taken from the supergroup's debut album, Amok. Yorke does a wild, conceptual routine with contemporary dancer Fukiko Takase.

 It was directed and choreographed by the same team as Radiohead's "Lotus Flower", Garth Jennings (who as part of Hammer & Tongs directed Blur's "Coffee and TV" clip, among other iconic videos), and choreographed by Wayne McGregor.

Unkle - "Hold My Hand" (Official Video) (NSFW)

 

"Hold My Hand" is the latest offering from Black Dog Films as part of the ongoing creative relationship between them and music producer and DJ James Lavelle.

The film was spontaneous, almost guerrilla like in its conception and execution, done in 24 hours and featuring the phenomenal performance artist Miss Crash, a friend of Lavelle's.

"We were interested in the power of the performer and her sexuality rather than the titillation of the audience. Observing her and her pre show process, what she puts herself through to prepare for this incredible show, its really intimate. It was great to get a sneaky look behind the curtain at that. To gain access to see her in a way the audience doesn't. Trying to capture that."

This is the second video to "Hold My Hand" and was approached as a visual remix of the song.

Directed by

James Copeman, James Lavelle & Ben Newbury

El Perro Del Mar – “I Was A Boy”

The melancholic Swedish songstress Sarah Assbring — better known as El Perro Del Mar — released a video for her song “I Was A Boy” off of the 2012 album Pale Fire. The video’s simplicity is jarring; a back-lit Assbring stares unflinchingly into the camera with pink-rimmed eyes as she croons the entirety of “I Was A Boy.” The camera never moves, and nothing distracts from Assbring’s mournful voice accompanied by whistling arrangements reminiscent of the sea.

Sunny Ali And The Kid – “High Treason”

Last we heard from former member of brotherly trio PO PO Hassan Ali Malik’s new band Sunny Ali And The Kid, Amrit pointed out that their track “Chai” was an exercise in Malik finding a voice separate from his that of his brothers’, dropping “the country affectation in favor of PO PO’s seamless stitching of Asian subcontinental melodic motifs.” With “High Treason,” however, we see its sonic opposite. Here, simple percussion and monochromatic guitar riffs that only slightly peak and valley lull you into the most pleasant state of alt-country hypnosis. A much quieter thing than “Chai” but in no way less engaging. And the video, which was filmed at Philly’s Kung Fu Necktie, keeps you locked in, as well, watching the duo perform while you acting as a totally-PG-voyeur to Date Night At The Honkey Tonk Bar.

Ra Ra Riot – “Dance With Me”

Yesterday, Ra Ra Riot released a video for their single “Dance With Me” off their new album, Beta Love. In the video, zombie-skeletons chase the band throughout a post-apocalyptic New York City, culminating in a warehouse party-turned-battle. The storyline seems dark for the Brooklyn-based indie poppers, but quirky cut-and-paste visuals paired with cheesy digital renderings and an upbeat track makes their imminent death seem fun.

Melody’s Echo Chamber – “Crystallized”

Last year, Tame Impala frontman Kevin Parker produced the self-titled album from Melody Prochet’s Parisian pop project Melody’s Echo Chamber, and the two of them found a sweet spot between sophisticated hooks and bleary psych. And now director Zaiba Jabbar has made a video for lead single “Crystallized.” The clip goes heavy on disorienting edits and tells the story of a tumultuous relationship, but it looks like it’s been assembled from out-of-context clips of an arty European thriller from the early ’70s — which is to say that it looks great.

The History of Music Told in Seven Rapidly Illustrated Minutes

Your senses do deceive you, my friends. This is not the latest, greatest video from RSA Animate. No, this video comes to us via Pablo Morales de los Rios, a Spanish artist, who has artistically narrated the history of music — or the Historia de la Música – in a shade less than seven minutes. 6:59, to be precise. You don’t need much Spanish under your belt to realize that the story starts 50,000 years ago, then moves quickly from the Ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians, to the troubadours of the Middle Ages. The video gives disproportionate attention to classical music during the following periods – Renacimiento, Barroco, Classicismo and Romanticismo. But before wrapping up, we tack over to America and witness the birth of jazz and the blues, before heading back across the pond for the Invasión británica. Artistically speaking, it all culminates in a pretty interesting way. But we’ll let you see how things play out.

David Bowie – “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)” (NSFW)

David Bowie announced his imminent new album The Next Day, his first in 10 years, with a new song and video called “Where Are We Now?”  The song was strong, but the video was absolute muddled weirdness. But with a new video for the sweeping, impressive new song “The Stars (Are Out Tonight),” Bowie is, once again, an artist whose visual presence demands to be taken seriously. In the clip, he and fellow glowing alien Tilda Swinton star, making the ultimate leap by playing a solidly predictable bourgie couple. They’re haunted by Lynchian visions of freaky, androgynous pop stars, one of whom bears a striking resemblance to a much younger Bowie. Directed by Floria Sigismondi, it’s an intriguing and ultimately funny video.

Slander – “Magnets” b/w “Ghosts”

Mystic, CT’s Slander have released a lengthy dual-video for their singles “Magnets” and “Ghosts.” The black and white clip is as ominous as it should be for one in which a seemingly dingy motel room hosts the band’s spectral punk sound. It gets increasingly creepier as they goes from checking in to performing to a very strange solo audience.

Young Dreams – “First Days of Something”

Norway’s Young Dreams are set to release their debut full-length Between Places on Modular early next month. This is the third video from that platter, and the third directed by Kristoffer Borgli. Here on “First Days Of Something,” Young Dreams give Borgli more latitude to delve into directorial short-filmic mode, to very good results: The thesis for the piece comes from the main character, newly single, in a sort of voice-over interview about halfway through: “I feel like if I listen to (this song) everyday, it’ll connect the song to how I’m feeling just to get it in there, stuck in my brain, as a source of inspiration in years to come.” And so we hear “First Days”‘ Afro-pop-infused Fleet Foxes melodicism up close, but also as background, as our dude makes his way around Oslo, lonely at art galleries, lonely at parties, lonely while in his underwear with someone new, all the while starting and stopping and listening to and talking over Young Dreams. It’s a pretty ode to music’s power, and to its limitations.

Darwin Deez - "You Can't Be My Girl"

While wandering through the internet, sometimes you come across something weird and beautiful. Keith Schofield who brought us singing crotches in the past, now had some fun with stock footage.
As funny and ridiculous as it is, the video also tells us a sad and over-romantic love story. Fall in love, get married, have children, grow old together, live happily ever after. The images of perfect commercial love give the whole story an extra dimension. It’s not his life, it’s not his girl. Frustration, anger and fighting follows. Although it’s not technically perfect all the time, who cares, it made me laugh.

Frightened Rabbit – “Backyard Skulls”

Watch the official video for Frightened Rabbit's new single 'Backyard Skulls'

Broke – “Let The Youth Go Mad” (Feat. MØ) (NSFW)

Broke is a noisily pounding Danish electro duo, and last year, they released their Lifestyle Music mixtape. On the song “Let The Youth Go Mad,” they linked up with fellow Dane MØ, whose “Glass” video is pretty awesome. The song’s video tells the story of an intense young man, played by Danish jumpstyle champion Tobias Dahl Larsen, who does not lead a particularly healthy lifestyle. Ian Isak Ploug Ochoa directs.

Kendrick Lamar - Poetic Justice (Explicit) ft. Drake

In the context of Kendrick Lamar’s masterful coming-of-age concept album Good Kid, m.A.A.d. City, the Drake collab “Poetic Justice” might be the most immediately accessible song, so it’s a bit of a surprise that Kendrick has waited this long to make a video for it. It’s no surprise, though, that the video is a gorgeous and near-mythic piece of work, a visually gorgeous story about a flirtation interrupted by a shooting.

Ducktails – “Letter Of Intent”

For the remarkably smooth and supple new album The Flower Lane, Matthew Mondanile’s Real Estate side project Ducktails has become a real band, one that features New York luminaries like Daniel Lopatin and Joel Ford. And in the video for the single “Letter Of Intent,” a deeply likable deadpan jangle, the whole band, along with guest singer Jessa Farkas, perform the song in and around Central Park, adapting a blank-faced New York cool that seems to spring directly from the ’80s art scene. Watch it at Rolling Stone.

Disclosure - White Noise ft. AlunaGeorge (Official Video)

It’s a simple concept, but there’s so much this video has to get across: Detroit’s cinematic decay, the grey and depressing perma-cold, the sense of people just trying to get by in rough circumstances, the genuine joy that this guy gets to experience whenever he’s alone in this beautiful and dying building, the casting of a believable working stiff who can also dance his ass off. And Monaghan nails all of that with grace and empathy and a sense of serious fun, and he does it all without even overplaying the great little love story at the end.

Physical Therapy – “Do It Alone”

New Jersey producer Physical Therapy has released a video for his song “Do It Alone” off the 2012 EP Safety Net. The video is a typical western narrative: An animated cowboy rides through the desert in pursuit of a train containing his kidnapped damsel-in-distress. The classic storyline seems to contradict the accompanying glitchy rave track, until the heroic cowboy wrangles the train into outer space.

Junip – “Line Of Fire”

When he’s not making gorgeous, spare folk-pop on his own, José González leads the pastoral folk-pop trio Junip, and they’ll follow up 2010′s Fields this spring with a self-titled sophomore album. The video for “Line Of Fire,” that album’s first single, is some icily creepy Scandinavian shit, consisting mostly of various Viking-blooded types staring at each other and looking disconnected. It will probably creep you out. Mikel Cee Karlsson directs.

SSION – “High”

written & directed by cody critcheloe
director of photography & editing: christopher good

The video would make John Waters proud; any attempt to create a narrative is derailed as Japanese game show weirdness, circus performers, and garish makeup make you forget where the story started. That said, the outlandish chaos of the video accompanies the playful track perfectly. Check it out below.

DIIV have unveiled a video for their monster track “Wait.” Try not to get too mad at me for saying this, but the clip grabs a lot from Lana Del Rey’s wheelhouse. I know the Instagram filter-tinged, found footage (or, at least what looks like found footage) thing doesn’t have an LDR trademark on it, but even just the overall aesthetics of the video feel like something conjured up in a Del Rey fever dream. Don’t let that deter you from giving it a watch. You may not like her music, but she does know how to make a music video. Keep your eyes peeled for a Sky Ferreira cameo.

Antwon – “3rd World Grrl”

Before he released his excellently noisy In Dark Denim mixtape last week, the San Jose rapper Antwon shared his dark, S&M-dominated video for “Still Guarded.” His new clip, for the decaying club-rap banger “3rd World Grrl,” is a decidedly more light-hearted affair, with a puppet version of Antwon wilding out in a club somewhere. Alessio Avezzano directs, and whoever was working the puppet was clearly enjoying himself.

Tanlines – “Not The Same” Interactive Video

Last week, in conjunction with the Creators Project, Tanlines released an interactive version of their video for “Not The Same.” The clip takes on the same concept as their original, with multiple Jesses and Erics playing each element of the song, only you have the ability to add, remove, and place them on the screen to your liking. There’s a grip of backgrounds you can use as well. It’s pretty fun to mess around with, but while I am a Tanlines-enthusiast of the highest order, I will say that this video is not a time-eater like Chairlift’s choose your own adventure video for “Met Before.” Both of these clips, though, make a good case for increased innovation in music videos — there are a lot of new things that can be explored since we’re not watching them on television. Check out the video for “Not The Same” over at the Creators Project and, seriously, if you make something that looks awesome, screengrab and put it in the comments.

Miguel – “Candle In The Sun”

Miguel’s “Candle In The Sun” has nothing to do with Elton John or Princess Diana; it’s a foggy world-gone-wrong lament from his introspective, psychedelic R&B instant classic Kaleidoscope Dream. The song’s new video is nothing special; it’s mostly beautifully shot but obvious times-are-hard imagery. But it’s worth your time for the performance footage and for the reminder that this is a really, really good song.

Diplo – “Butter’s Theme”

Diplo, A-Trak, and Skrillex just got together to start a new YouTube channel called Potato, and now Diplo has used it to debut the video for “Butter’s Theme,” a fizzy electro track from his Express Yourself EP. The clip, from director Reuben Dangoor, is a hallucinatory kaleidoscope of girls twerking in ski masks and face-bandanas, which is to say that it’s just about the most Diplo thing ever.

HAIM – “Falling”

“Falling” is the lush and expansive new hippie-synthpop single from L.A. HAIM, and it’s also the title track from their new EP. In the song’s new video, the three sisters in the band travel deep into the jungle and get on their back-to-nature shit, practicing backwoods archery and pulling fish out of rivers bare-handed.


HAIM - Forever (Official Music Video)

Bat For Lashes - “Lilies”

“Lilies” is one of the standout spectral floats from last year’s Bat For Lashes album The Haunted Man, and its brand-new video is the sort of thing that makes you like a song even more. Peter Sluszka directs Natasha Khan as she dances with a trio of monsters who look like bit-part characters from Labyrinth before undergoing a few transformations herself. It’s some prime Michel Gondry/Björk-level whimsical surrealism, and you can watch.

Beck – “Sound And Vision” 360-Degree Interactive Video

Well, Beck wins music videos for the day, probably for the week provided Kanye doesn’t release “Runaway II” or something. While last week it didn’t seem like Beck could get any more mad with 167-piece orchestra-fueled power, he has somehow already done so: The fully interactive video for Beck’s 9-minute cover of David Bowie’s “Sound And Vision” is now available here. Shot with 360-degree camera, recorded in 360-degree sound, and linked to your webcam so that the camera moves in response to your head turning, the Ford produced video is the definition of excess –- don’t believe me? The instructions for watching the video are longer than the original Bowie song. And it all works surprisingly well. It’s so overwhelming I forgot they were even playing a Bowie song about halfway through -– I’m pretty sure Beck did, too. But it doesn’t matter when the video is this over-the-top. You get the choice of three camera angles that you can switch between during the video, one facing the audience, one on Beck, and one in the back focusing more on the massive orchestra. Go for the orchestra one, it’s basically the “It’s A Small World” Disneyland ride for every instrument you can think of.

CYMBALS - 'The Natural World' (Official Video)

The new single from CYMBALS, featuring dancer/choreographer Jaime Flor.

"I knew Jaime while growing up (he was my parent's lodger in Paris). He was selected by a French dance school to come and train in contemporary dance and has since had a career as a dancer in Paris. I saw him dance a few times back then, and you could tell he had something unique. Much later, I had the crazy idea of having him dance to one of our songs, and I'm a bit overwhelmed that we actually managed to make it all happen, and by the end result. We talked through the lyrics and had long conversations about what they might mean, and Jaime built up the choreography closely inspired by the song. Having left Paris a while ago, it felt like a reconnection with a former part of myself, shouting through the lyrics in French around East London with my old friend." - Jack Cleverly (CYMBALS singer/guitarist)

Credits
Choreography/dancing - Jaime Flor
Director - Miles Langley
Assistant director - Philippa Johnson
Executive producer - Ollie Evans
Original concept - CYMBALS
D.O.P. - Jamie Durand
Stylist - Heather Falconer
2nd camera - Josh Brooks
Colourist - Jack McGinty
Single edit - Chris Bellam

Lana Del Rey – “Burning Desire”

Well, here’s something the comments section should love. Back in September, we reported that Lana Del Rey is at the center of a new ad campaign for Jaguar’s new F-Type car, and that she’d recorded a new song called “Burning Desire” for it. That song now has a video. In a lot of ways, it looks like a standard LDR video: Slinky dress, empty ballroom, video clips of context-free vintage pop-cultural Americana. But it also has a whole lot of footage of a car that none of us can afford.

Primal Scream – “2013″

Primal Scream’s tenth album More Light is out this spring, and today we get a listen to an edit of its first single “2013″ (the album version is nine minutes long). The track’s arty video features some unsettling slow motion shots of threaded moths, rope bondage, and a woman convulsing on an operating table. The Dave Holmes-produced song’s a bit brighter than that imagery would suggest, though, with a prominent sax part and Kevin Shields’ dreamy guitar work.

Azealia Banks – “Harlem Shake” Video

Baauer ft. Azealia Banks - Harlem Shake (Official Video)

Tyler, The Creator – “Domo 23″

 

I’ve given Odd Future a lot of leeway in the past. The blood-gargling sexual violence of their early records felt like intentional transgression and felt like a slap in the face, so even though it was wildly disturbing, it didn’t turn me off from their music. Likewise the homophobia and the bad design decisions and the terrible Adult Swim show. But when they start messing with the hallowed American tradition known as professional wrestling, that’s where I draw the line.

Tyler, The Creator’s new self-directed video for “Domo 23,” the new single from his forthcoming album Wolf, has Tyler and Domo Genesis playing wrestlers, Earl Sweatshirt playing the ref, and assorted extended Odd Future fam playing the audience. And it’s like: Pro wrestling has rules, Tyler! You can’t just start a match with one guy and then have a gigantic fat luchador take over as your opponent, at least if it’s not a tag team match! You don’t put a stool in the corner of the ring; that’s boxing! The ref doesn’t dance with the winner at the end of the match, Earl! And what, you couldn’t have one actual pro wrestler on set to teach you guys how to fall down right and to successfully apply a Boston crab? Ugh. Anyway.

MØ - Glass (Official video)

MØ, the moniker of Danish singer Karen Marie Ørsted, tackles the schism of carefree youthfulness and approaching adulthood with her skittering track “Glass.” The video is the perfect visual manifestation of end-of-the-line rebellion: A dirtier, lonelier version of Rihanna’s “We Found Love” that is especially gloomy due to its Scandinavian locale and the dearth of ribbon vomit. Say what you will about the surge of poptimism in the indie-sphere — and I know you will — but when we’re getting gritty and emotionally revealing infectious treats like this, I will gladly start putting Sky Ferreira, HAIM, and now, MØ posters on my bedroom wall.

Lil Wayne – “Love Me” (Feat. Drake & Future)

Damn, all the famous people decided to drop music videos today. Lil Wayne already enlisted Drake and Future for “Love Me” (formerly known as “My Bitches Love Me”), the Mike Will-produced single from his forthcoming I Am Not A Human Being II, without letting either of them throw an actual verse on there. And now all three are present and accounted for in the song’s ridiculous video, which also has models with CGI lizard-eyes and snake-tongues crawling through flooded bedrooms and paint-filled bathtubs. It’s, um, not subtle. Watch it at MTV.

Justin Timberlake – “Suit & Tie” Video (Feat. Jay-Z) (Dir. David Fincher)

Justin Timberlake spent a whole lot of time away from music so that he could try acting, but he really only made one good movie, The Social Network. That movie’s director, David Fincher, got his start making videos for people like Madonna and George Michael, and now he’s returned to the form for “Suit & Tie,” Timberlake’s big, slick comeback single. The clip, shot in gleaming black-and-white, doesn’t have much going on conceptually, just a whole lot of footage of light choreography and recording studios and models, with Timberlake and guest Jay-Z always getting to be the coolest motherfuckers in the room. But it’s fun to see a glossy big-budget video put together by one of the best ever to do it.

Passion Pit – “Carried Away”

Something that’s become increasingly apparent in the months since Passion Pit dropped sophomore album Gossamer: Passion Pit are really good at making music videos! Their latest, for the peppy “Carried Away,” stars frontman Michael Angelakos and One Tree Hill actress Sophia Bush as a couple who seem to spend more time arguing than doing anything else. It starts out as a slice-of-life pocket-drama, but more and more loony touches gradually come in until it becomes this bizarrely inventive live-action sadness-cartoon. It’s actually the song’s second video; its Tiësto remix already has its own entertaining video.

Wild Nothing – “Only Heather”

Wild Nothing’s 2010 release Nocturne has not been laid to rest. The latest track from the LP to get visuals is “Only Heather.” No spoilers, but a video that just features a man walking down the street, it so adeptly displays the physical arrest one goes through when feeling overwhelmed by their own feelings.

Bad Religion - "True North" (Official Video)

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When old punk bands position themselves as some sort of youth thing, it becomes seriously fun and fascinating to parse the results. Case in point: SoCal lifers Bad Religion’s new video for “True North,” the title track from their new album. The video consist of a young punk kid, with circa-1982 show flyers all over his walls, throwing on the new Bad Religion record and engaging in a vigorous air-drumming session. At one point, we see the kid’s iPhone, so we know that it’s a present-day kid; Bad Religion didn’t somehow send their record 30 years into the past. So apparently that kid printed out all those old flyers? He didn’t just put up a bunch of flyers for shows that he actually went to? There’s nothing weird about the idea that a younger punk would be into an older band. Bad Religion were considered an old band in 1994, when they released Stranger Than Fiction, which means I was (a much uglier version of) that kid at one point. But when I was banging the new Bad Religion, I had, like Total Chaos and A.F.I. posters on my wall, not painstakingly recreated flyers from shows I’d never been to. So Bad Religion aren’t really doing themselves any favors here! They’re showing that the kids who like their new album are the ones bizarrely focused on past punk scenes! Which would’ve been like if the teenage Bad Religion members, rather than forming Bad Religion, had gotten really obsessed with Bill Haley And The Comets! Anyway. Watch the video at Rolling Stone.

Local Natives – “Heavy Feet”

The video for “Heavy Feet,” the harmonically rich single from Local Natives’ new Hummingbird album, follows the adventures of the Llandow Visually Impaired Harriers: Three blind guys, with superhuman senses of smell, who get together to build and fly model airplanes. They also eat sandwiches which, when not being eaten, sing to them. This is a deeply strange and dreamlike video, but it’s filmed with a sharp, patient visual style, one totally free of directorial tricks. Ben Reed directs.

Pissed Jeans – “Bathroom Laughter”

The video for Pissed Jeans’ “Bathroom Laughter” is sort of an insomniac’s dream. While most late night infomercial-viewing is pleasurable only for its soft glow from the box and the pseudo-camp factor of watching people shill absurd products, Pissed Jeans take it to another level here to disastrous results. To celebrate the release of their fourth album, Honeys, the band will be live-chatting on the YouTube page for this video from 12-12:30PM.

Pusha T – “Millions” (Feat. Rick Ross)

Clipse rapper Pusha T recruited Rick Ross for “Millions,” the lead single from his Wrath Of Caine mixtape, and now both guys are here to rap animatedly in the song’s video. You’ll never believe this, but the clip is full of drug-dealer iconography: Guns, expensive cars, beautiful but duplicitous girls, police raids. You can tell Ross is a baller because the police don’t seem to mind if he smokes a gigantic cigar in the interrogation room. It’s a massively cliched video, but it sort of works anyway because Pusha and Ross show such charisma. Samuel Rogers directs.

Watch Beck Cover Bowie’s “Sound And Vision” With A 167-Piece Orchestra

There is so much going on here, I can hardly wrap my head around the whole thing. Beck and 160+ musicians have recorded a new, multi-instrument, yodel-filled version of David Bowie’s “Sound And Vision.” The cover has moments of awesomeness and “wow” but also feels like a scene in that episode of 30 Rock when Tracy Jordan decides that to make the most perfect song, you have to combine all the most popular genres of music. Messy. But what is most confounding about this — aside from Beck’s sequined blazer — is why this exists at all. This wasn’t a thing that Beck just wanted to do. He was enlisted by Ford as sort of a spokesperson for the revamped version of their Lincoln MKZ. The whole point of it is that Lincoln is innovating a classic and so is Beck with this fully immersive video experience that you will eventually be able to watch through different lenses and at different angles on their website. Watch the video and help me figure out if this is all an elaborate plot to get Lincolns to be more than just the car associated with cab services.

Jim James – “A New Life”

Last week, My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James released his solo debut Regions Of Light And Sound Of God. Here, the album’s lead single “A New Life” gets a visual treatment. What starts off very sparse becomes super inventive as the track begins to liven up. Who would have ever thought to give James backup dancers? I don’t know who did, but it totally works. Read our interview with him here.

Drake – “Started From The Bottom”

Rap Album Of The Year winner Drake dropped a clip for his new single “Started From The Bottom” during the Grammys last night. Director X and C. Papi — a clear nod to Drake’s Instagram handle and what I am just going to assume is his own version of Nathaniel Hornblower — directed the video, which features Drizzy in all white in the snow contrasted with him working at a drug store, among other things. He also announced the title of his third album, which is Nothing Was The Same and will be out this year.

James Blake – “Retrograde”

I’ll have to watch James Blake’s video for his heady, luminescent new single “Retrograde” a few more times before I have any idea what’s going on. But the dark and mysterious clip, directed by Martin De Thurah, involves asteroids, alien visitors, bikers who fell to earth, and a few gorgeously rendered frozen moments of destruction. Watch, and then imagine the headfucking space-mystery sci-fi film that might result if Blake ever blew it out to feature-length proportions.

Kvelertak – “Bruane Brenn”

Kvelertak – “Bruane Brenn” (Dir. Stian Kristiansen)

As a society, we may not share too much common ground, but I think we can all agree on this: It was about time that Norwegian death n’ roll got its very own “Sky’s The Limit.”

Flatbush Zombies – “MRAZ”

Last year, the dazed Brooklyn rap duo Flatbush Zombies released a strong mixtape called D.R.U.G.S., but it almost felt like an afterthought to the ferocious run of videos they’d made, adding an eye-grabbing psychedelic sensibility to the old mid-’90s Rap City aesthetic. The group is getting ready to release their new Better Off DEAD mixtape, and now they’re back at the video game, giving us a dizzy and acid-fried clip for their recent track “MRAZ.” Phillip T. Annand directs.

Muse - "Supremacy" (Official Video)

The official video for Supremacy by Muse.

Liars – “WIXIW”

Liars frontman Angus Andrew is a tall guy, and like every tall guy who’s never been paid to play basketball, he probably has some history of b-ball failure. (I promise you, I know.) So maybe it’s not surprising that his band’s newest video, for the title track of their 2012 album WIXIW, focuses on a flowing-haired baller who tries, over and over, to dunk a basketball, while a small crowd looks on silently and a demonic witch-doctor type dances mockingly. Alex/2Tone directs, filming everything in mythic black-and-white slow-motion.

Frightened Rabbit - "Today's Cross" (Official Video)

Just yesterday, the Scottish band Frightened Rabbit released Pedestrian Verse, their fourth straight album of chest-beating emotional anthems. But the video they’ve released today isn’t for any of the album’s songs; it’s for “Today’s Cross,” the uncharacteristically rambunctious B-side of their “The Woodpile” single. The seriously entertaining video, from directors Ian Greenhill and Jordan Laird, tells the story of how Jesus Christ deals with a mean case of writer’s block.

Houses - "The Beauty Surrounds" (Official Music Video)

Chicago band Houses describes their interests on Facebook in four words: “Sustainable living, being alone.” Despite their isolationist tendencies, the band has released a slew of EP’s and a pair of full-lengths since 2010. Today, they released a new video for their single “The Beauty Surrounds,” from their forthcoming third album, A Quiet Darkness, due out in April. A tale of heartbreak and loneliness set in the desert, “The Beauty Surrounds” video is as aesthetically beautiful as the story is depressing.

Companion – “Only”

The video, from director Bridget Palardy, shows what happens when a mob of dancers takes over a beach at sunset.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra – “So Good At Being In Trouble”

Today, the twitchy indie trio Unknown Mortal Orchestra release sophomore album II, and they’ve also chosen this morning to drop their video for the surprisingly graceful and funky single “So Good At Being In Trouble.” The director, frequent Animal Collective collaborator Danny Perez, mostly leaves behind his usual brain-melt visuals to tell a relatively straightforward story. Christopher Mitz-Plasse, McLovin from Superbad, plays an angry young man who takes on a hippie cult.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - "Jubilee Street" (Official Music Video) (NSFW)

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ new album Push The Sky Away is a couple of weeks away from release, and today we get the video for their languid, sinister “Jubilee Street.” Cave’s old buddy and collaborator John Hillcoat (director of the Cave-written films The Proposition and Lawless) helmed the video, which stars the great British actor Ray Winstone as a guy who ventures to seedy downtown establishments to get boobs shoved into his mouth. I probably don’t have to tell you this, but you shouldn’t watch it at work. After Gaspar Noé’s ominous “We No Who U R” video, this is the second Push The Sky Away video with a well-known and properly feared director.

Paperman - Full Animated Short Film

The Disney animated short Paperman is up for an Oscar this year. The technique used to produce it is a combination of hand-drawn art and computer animation, giving it the feel of a classic Disney film.

Paperman‘s seemingly seamless way of blending the personality of hand-drawn animation with CGI in the physical space of the story is the result of new in-house software called Meander, a vector-based drawing program that allows for manipulation of the line after the fact — something that Kahrs described as “just like painting on the surface of the CG.”

In practice, it successfully blends the best of both forms of animation together in way they’ve never been seen before. Depicting George and Meg as flat, drawn characters keeps them safely out of the uncanny valley that even the best CGI sometimes can’t avoid and somehow makes them seem more real; other sequences, like the multiple paper airplanes zooming through the air, would be far less convincing and far more time-consuming if rendered without the help of computer generated imagery.  

The plot? Boy meets girl, of course. Link

Woodkid - "I Love You"

Music video by Woodkid performing I Love You.

Video Directed by Yoann Lemoine
Cinematography by Arnaud Potier
1st AD Antoine Poulet
Featuring Matvey Lykov
Styling (Matvey) Kris Van Assche
Produced by Mourad Belkeddar & Roman Pichon Herrera
Executive Producer (iceland) : Jean --Michel Paoli 

Suede – “It Starts And Ends With You”

The reunited London glam-poppers Suede, whose initial early-’90s wave of hype was pretty much the Big Bang for Britpop, are about to return with a new album called Bloodsports. And now here’s the video for its first proper single “It Starts And Ends With You.” This is simply a performance video, but it’s shot to make the remarkably well-preserved band look like gloomy gods as they shimmy their way through a pretty good approximation of a single that their younger selves would’ve written.

Hundred Waters - "Boreal" (Official Music Video)

The serenity of nature meets bloody, terrifying monsters.

Café Tacvba - "Olita Del Altamar"

 

Music video by Café Tacvba performing Olita Del Altamar. Dir.: Gustavo de la Torre Casal / Rubén Albarrán

Rhye – “Open” (Version 2) (NSFW)

Sensuous Sade-intoned LA R&B outfit Rhye have already taken one pass at a visual treatment for their supple love song “Open,” and it very fittingly framed pretty shots of couples dry humping. This new version connects to their video for the ace track “The Fall,” in that the themes are the same: love is complicated, doubts are ever-present, it’s hard to stay open, the gnawing feeling of knowing something’s off. It’s not just a thematic thread, either: The troubled older couple from “The Fall” make a cameo near the end of this video about a younger couple setting up for the same, full-circle. Says Rhye: If you can’t stay open you’re bound to take the fall. Or maybe something not quite so literal. Or maybe that’s exactly what it is. Either way, that is good advice. And either way, this video and song are great. It’s mildly NSFW, if your work is squeamish about make-out scenes with lots of skin.

Rhye – “Open” (NSFW)(Version 1)

This languid video is practically softcore porn — it shows a revolving door of humping couples — but it works artistically, too, showing the awkward, fun parts of sex as well as the more traditionally televisual sexy parts. Gorgeous song, too.

Beach House - "Forever Still" (Short Film)

In making their short film Forever Still, the members of Beach House spent a night traveling to a bunch of different breathtaking locations in Texas to perform four different songs from their 2012 album Bloom. The 27-minute mini-movie looks absolutely gorgeous, with the band convincingly showing just how larger-than-life these songs are.

Dropkick Murphys – “The Boys Are Back”

 
Signed And Sealed In Blood it’s an exceedingly, gratifyingly simplistic album, and its most simplistic song is the opener, a gang-shout battering ram called “The Boys Are Back.” The song’s video has about as direct a concept as it needs: The band playing in a boxing ring, in a Boston gym, while fired-up punks surround them. There’s really nothing about this that I don’t like. Mark Higgins directs.

Antwon - "Still Guarded"

Last year, the San Jose rapper Antwon made a name for himself with his End Of Earth mixtape. Later this month, he’ll follow it up with a new one called In Dark Denim, and first single “Still Guarded” is a fashionably decaying, noisy thing with production from fellow punk-reared rapper Cities Aviv. Romoface directed the murky and low-budget video, which features a bunch of girls in cat masks and dog leashes and which may well creep you out.

Watch Beyoncé’s Super Bowl Halftime Show

Last night, the Baltimore Ravens won the motherfucking Super Bowl. Really, for those of us who come from Baltimore, everything else that happened is a footnote: The bizarre half-hour power outage that threatened to send the game into chaos, the Budweiser commercial with the horse that made everyone cry, the presence of porcupine cheerleaders at the Puppy Bowl. But we’re also lucky that last night had arguably the best halftime show since Prince tore it down a few years ago. Beyoncé, still apparently furious about all the talk of lip-syncing at the Inauguration, ripped through a strenuously choreographed, hit-jammed 14-minute show that took pains to highlight her absolutely-real vocal chops. Beyond a quick (and expected) Destiny’s Child reunion, the show had no celebrity guests, though it did have a female guitarist whose instrument shot sparks from both ends and a multiple-screen installation thing that made it look like Beyoncé was cloning herself in front of us. Watch the performance below before the NFL inevitably rains fiery hell down on all the YouTube posts.

Depeche Mode – “Heaven”

Depeche Mode have a new album called Delta Machine on the way, and a couple of days ago we heard the dramatic lead single “Heaven.” And now here’s the video, from director Timothy Saccenti, in which the band, playing in a dusty old church, co-stars alongside skulls and druid-robed aliens and ghost trees. It’s almost like the whole video just exists as bait for crackpot internet illuminati theorists.

El Parche - "Trago Patron" ("Homenaje a Nicolas Menacho")

Party nights, drink and women in the third person. Directs Eduardo (Yayo) Prada.

The song is part of the album "Homenaje a Nicolás Menacho" with the participation of: Andrés Barba, Animal de Ciudad, Doble-A, El Parche, Ex-Génova, Glen Vargas (Track), La Maga, Laura Camacho, Los Salmones and Romina Mazo. And can be downloaded free by following the download link.

Los Salmones - "El Carretero" (Homenaje a Nicolás Menacho)

Via: Voxpopuli.

Ra Ra Riot – “Beta Love”

David Dean Burkhart, a fan of Ra Ra Riot, recently made his own video for “Beta Love,” the dance-poppy title track from the band’s new album, by editing together footage from a local 1980s Bay Area UHF show called Dance Party. The band liked his work enough to make it the official video, and I’m not surprised. Those fuzzy images work as a monument to the timeless spectacle of giddy teenage awkwardness.

Kool A.D. - "Eroika"

The former Das Racist rapper (it hurts to type those words) Kool A.D. has a new solo album called 19 coming out, and first single “Eroika” is more or less a Lil B parody, and a pretty good one. (“Bitch, I’m Kevin Sorbo.”) The song’s video is an absurdly low-tech affair, with Kool A.D. and some friends getting very, very high and having some fun with green screens.