Arcade Fire - Reflektor (Vevo Tour Exposed) Behind-The-Scenes Video Of Arcade Fire’s Reflektor Tour

Arcade Fire have been moving along on their massive tour with almost every night providing a new surprise, the most recent being a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven.” Now you can watch a short behind-the-scene documentary of the tour that Will Butler describes as being like a tightrope act “and the tightrope walker has had a couple scotches.” They cover each aspect of the show in detail, discussing the concept that went into the lights and sound and interviewing the designers and stage manager. Later Dan Deacon shows up to talk about their (and the audience’s) costumes and the way they loosen inhibitions. 

The Hold Steady - “I Hope This Whole Thing Doesn’t Frighten You” (Official Video)

The Hold Steady celebrated their 10th anniversary earlier this year with a show at the Music Hall Of Williamsburg. Footage from that special night makes up what you see in their new video for “I Hope This Whole Thing Doesn’t Frighten You,” the lead single off their new album, Teeth Dreams. It simply captures the band playing live to an insanely enthusiastic crowd, but as anyone who’s been a part of that crowd over the years can attest, the Hold Steady live is a lot more exciting than most music videos. Watch it at Rolling Stone.

Higgins Waterproof Black Magic Band - “Mad Lifeline” (Official Video)

TV On The Radio frontman Tunde Adebimpe is joining the long line of Brooklyn indie rock luminaries (Ed Droste, Amber Coffman, and TVOTR member Dave Sitek included) who’ve made a break for Los Angeles — but not before going on a short tour with his other group, Higgins Waterproof Black Magic Band. In the midst of those West Coast dates, Higgins has shared a video for “Mad Lifeline” from last fall’s Debut EP. Among other things, the clip features a strange introductory parking lot scene, dancing angels of death, and a lengthy intergalactic graphics sequence.

Sylvan Esso - “Play It Right” (Official Video)

Sylvan Esso is the side project of Amealia Meath of Mountain Man and Nick Sanborn of Megafaun. A few years back, Mountain Man released a folkier version of “Play It Right.” With Sylvan Esso, Meath revisits the track, but Sanborn plugs a synth-pop beat into the chorus. Now the band has paired “Play It Right” with a video, which reflects the updated track’s electronic sound.

(via Gorilla vs. Bear)

Tom Vek - “Sherman (Animals In The Jungle)” (Official Video)

The veteran British dance-punker Tom Vek just announced his imminent return with the new album Luck, and first single “Sherman (Animals In The Jungle)” is exactly the sort of serrated deadpan new-wave jam with which Vek made his name in the last decade. Director PAXI filmed the song’s video at London’s Town Hall hotel, lighting Vek and a couple of good-looking actors in ways that make them look spooky as hell, and then editing it for maximum weird-out impact. It’s a nice exercise in creep-vibes, and you can watch.

Watch Arcade Fire Cover Kansas’ “Dust In The Wind” In Kansas City

Arcade Fire’s Reflektor Tour rolled into the Starlight Theatre in Kansas City last night where the band performed a cover of Kansas’ “Dust In The Wind” during its encore. Will Butler let the dramatic serenade of the bobbleheads until Win cut him off: “Guys, that was really beautiful, but that’s a Kansas song and we’re in fuckin’ Missouri. That’s gonna kill when we play Lawrence, though.”

Watch Arcade Fire Cover Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven” In St. Louis

Cloud Boat - “Carmine” (Official Video)

Cloud Boat are a London production duo, and their new single “Carmine” is a mournful downtempo synthpop dirge with an archly minimal almost-R&B vocal. It’s a song with a particular sort of atmosphere, and its music video takes that atmosphere and runs with it. The video, from director Chris Toumazou, takes place in a grim London laundromat, and it shows us the song coming to possess the souls of all the ashen-faced customers gathered there.

Elbow - “My Sad Captains” (Official Video)

Former “new Radiohead” candidates Elbow have carved a long career out of mournful and ornate rock balladry; it’s amazing that it took them this long to title a song “My Sad Captains.” But they finally did it on the recent The Take Off And Landing Of Everything, and now that song has a video featuring footage from a young children’s dance class.

Anthony Bourdain Breaks His Legendary Silence In The Rock Vs. EDM Debate

The celebrity chef and travel-minded TV epicurean Antony Bourdain has never made any secret of his tastes, culinary and otherwise, and he featured musicians like Fucked Up and the Black Keys on his old show No Reservations. Bourdain now hosts the CNN show Parts Unknown, and a new episode dedicates itself to the fair city of Las Vegas. One segment of that show focuses on the way the old institution of the Vegas show is giving way to the new institution of the Vegas superclub. Vegas is home to the rich, craven epicenter of the recent EDM boom, and you’ll never guess how Bourdain feels about that. Just kidding. You’ll guess exactly how he feels about it. If you’ve watched enough Bourdain, you might be able to guess that his spiel on it includes the exact phrase “ye lords and princes of douchedom.” Check out the segment.

Ramona Lisa - “Dominic” (Official Video)

Chairlift leader Caroline Polachek has taken on the side-project alter-ego Ramona Lisa, and she recorded all of her new album Arcadia by herself, on her laptop. She’s already made a video for the album’s title track, and now she’s followed that one with a new self-directed video for “Dominic,” another hazy track from the album. In this one, Polachek pilots a rowboat through some picturesque marshlands in Florida’s Everglades National Park, and she seems way calmer about all the alligators surrounding her than I would be. Also, she’s got a new haircut, and I really like it.

Dum Dum Girls - “Rimbaud Eyes” (Official Video)

Dum Dum Girls released “Rimbaud Eyes” way back in January, right before they dropped their newest album, Too True. Four months later, we’ve got a shiny set of visuals to go with the vixenish tinge of “Rimbaud Eyes.”

The video, directed by musician and visual artist Tamaryn, features lead singer Dee Dee Penny waltzing through a sex shop-lined alleyway looking like a neon siren. Soon, she’s joined by the rest of her pastel-clad bandmates in a performance on a floating heart. Their cartoonish coloration is fully realized, turning the band into some kind of surreal kaleidoscopic dream.

GONGA (Feat. Beth Gibbons) – “Black Sabbeth” (Black Sabbath Cover)

It’s been a while since we heard Beth Gibbons’ ghostly voice, but this week she showed up in a unique setting. Instrumental metal band GONGA recorded a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Black Sabbath,” inviting Gibbons to take the place of Ozzy on vocals, and renamed the thing “Black Sabbeth.” Gibbons fits the song perfectly, and her voice is as pretty and sinister as it was on Portishead’s incredible reunion album Third several years back. Watch the spooky, but totally fun.

We Are Scientists - “Sprinkles” (Official Video)

Veteran pop-rockers We Are Scientists have a new album out called TV En Français. In keeping with that title, they’ve made a video for single “Sprinkles” that features the band traipsing around Europe playing rock shows and having the time of their lives. Incidentally, I played pool with these guys and Oxford Collapse backstage at Stubb’s once during SXSW and can confirm that they’re actually chill bros as depicted. The song is multi-tiered and richly harmonic, and its groove is as freewheeling and fun as director James Perou’s video.

Veruca Salt - The Museum Of Broken Relationships

Veruca Salt - "The Museum Of Broken Relationships". Directed by Gary Kordan

Duck Sauce - “NRG” (Official Video)

A-Track and Armand Van Helden of Duck Sauce inject their sense of humor into their entire collaboration, and the duo’s new infomercial-inspired video for “NRG” is no exception. While the group’s dance track plays, an infomercial demonstrates the many uses for a fake “Everything Gel” product. Surely some insane entrepreneur is already preparing such a product/infomercial to go to market right now, no?

Neneh Cherry - “Everything” (Official Video)

Neneh Cherry returned earlier this year with the Four Tet-produced Blank Project, her first full-on solo album in 18 years. Now, she’s reunited with one of her old music-video directors, the veteran French fashion photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino, who first worked with Cherry on her “Manchild” video in 1989. Mondino did Cherry’s video for the seven-and-a-half-minute workout “Everything,” and the entire thing is one shot, a long, exceedingly slow zoom-in on Cherry as she frantically dances her way across a gigantic white room. It’s a fitting tribute to Cherry’s berserker charisma.

Pharrell - “Marilyn Monroe” (Official Video)

Now that “Happy” has conquered the known universe to the extent that even your mom is starting to get sick of it, Pharrell has finally gotten around to making another video. It’s for “Marilyn Monroe,” the opening track from his deeply enjoyable new album G I R L, and it works overtime to get Pharrell into various rooms with as many women as possible. There’s a lot of dancing in this video — in a rehearsal studio, on a candy-colored set, on a fake Broadway stage. And only some of that dancing is there to get gratuitous butt-shots of stretching women in there, though god knows this video isn’t hurting for gratuitous butt-shots. I’m pretty sure the woman dancing with P at the end of the video is his wife Helen Lasichanh, which means she’s presumably cool with this whole thing. It’s a bright, colorful video.

Watch Google’s Overdramatic “Moving Portrait” Of Future Islands

An intimate, two-minute long look at Gerrit, William and Samuel of Future Islands.

US viewers can currently get 'Seasons (Waiting On You)' free for a limited time, along with the band's latest album 'Singles', on Google Play: http://smarturl.it/singlesgplay

Tobacco - “Streaker” Video (Dir. Eric Wareheim) (NSFW)

When Eric Wareheim gets the time out of his busy schedule to direct a music video it’s always worth your time. His Major Lazer and Beach House videos were two of the very best of last year. But while those videos were silly-weird and beautifully-weird respectively, this new Tobacco clip is terrifying-weird. Beginning as a late night infomercial for a family-run massage parlor, it quickly takes you on a first person tour through hell that plays out almost like a creepy amusement part ride as the various masked (and naked) family members lurch toward you like horny zombies. Filmed with a Texas Chainsaw-style graininess it’s really creepy, but it’s a good fit for “Streaker” (which finds Tobacco at his most abrasive and strange, which is really saying something) and you can’t take your eyes off it. Watch, but be warned that it’s NSFW.

Bruce Springsteen – “American Beauty” (Official Video)

On Record Store Day this past weekend, Bruce Springsteen released American Beauty, a new four-song EP on which he played almost every instrument. Springsteen and his E Street Band were playing a show in Charlotte on the night of Record Store Day, and before the show started, they shot a quick-and-dirty live video for the EP’s title track. The video won’t change your life or anything, but Springsteen’s sheer industry, his drive to continue doing stuff, is a thing to be admired.

Black Lips - "Funny" (Official Video)

Black Lips recently released the album Underneath The Rainbow, and now have a video for the track “Funny.” Starring the band playing on stage while puppeteers make marionettes dance around them, it’s an easygoing and silly video that must have been a good time to make. At least it’s definitely a relief from the last time we had a puppet-themed video in these parts.

Damon Albarn - “Heavy Seas Of Love” (Feat. Brian Eno) (Official Video)

The gorgeous Brian Eno collab “Heavy Seas Of Love” was one of the many tracks Damon Albarn released ahead of Everyday Robots. Now it’s the third to get a video, joining the beat-driven laments “Everyday Robots” and “Lonely Press Play.” Albarn shot it himself on his iPad as a sort of travelogue of all the places he visited while making the record. Watch below as slightly psychedelic, mostly realistic footage of landscapes and cityscapes unfold, and look out for our man Damon at the end.

tUnE-yArDs - “Water Fountain” (Official Video)

The playground-stomping “Water Fountain” gets an appropriately child-friendly video, with Merrill Garbus acting as our kooky schoolteacher in a zany after-school special. There’s an overabundance of ideas in the video, from a potato-wielding scientists to a trippy 8-bit interlude. It’s confusing and schizophrenic and proudly operates in a world where everyone is a caricature and everything is bright, which makes it a perfect companion to the tUnE-yArDs aesthetic. “I’d had plenty of ideas for a kid’s show that had been waiting to see the light of day,” director Joel Kefali says. “I didn’t want to make a straight homage piece; there are moments of nostalgia in there but the video is our own modern, manic, collage of a kids show. Like many great kids shows I wanted to cram in as many ideas as possible and sneak in the occasional wink to the art world, contemporary and historic.”

Watch Beck Cover Arcade Fire’s “Rebellion (Lies)” At Coachella

Beck - Rebellion (Lies) / Blue Moon (Coachella Festival, Indio CA 4/20/14)

Lily Allen - “Sheezus” (Official Video)

Here’s the video for the new Lily Allen song we heard earlier today, the title track (and opener) from her forthcoming third album Sheezus. Apparently this is not one of the rubbish songs that have been serviced to radio, but the singer’s preferred choice for a single. She talked to Rolling Stone about its provocative lyrics earlier this month:

I would have liked to see “Sheezus” as a single, but it’s not up-tempo enough. It’s also got the word “period” in it, which is really offensive to people, even though half the world has to deal with it once a month. … I think that “period” is going to be my “surfboard” with Beyoncé. People will wear sweatshirts to my concerts that are just going to say “period.”

“Sheezus” also features tongue-in-cheek references to the competition, namely Beyoncé, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Lorde. (“Lorde smells blood, yeah, she’s about to slay you / Kid ain’t one to fuck with when she’s only on her debut.”) She explained that to RS, too:

I don’t like being compared to other people because I’m quite aware that there are people who are far more talented and have better singing voices than me. I don’t like being put in the same category as people because we have the same genitals and boobs. Nobody is going to write “Lily Allen vs. Ed Sheeran.” It just doesn’t happen. … It feels like the reason we play women against each other is because it’s the last bit of power that men have. They’re like, “Let’s make them feel shit about each other.”

Now that you’ve got all that context, you can watch the video which features a bunch of Warholian Day-Glo Lilys with animated scribbles.

Ricky Martin - "Vida" ( Official 2014 FIFA World Cup Song) (Official Video)

Ricky Martin -- Vida ( Official 2014 FIFA World Cup Song) -- Released. The Latin heartthrob dropped the music video for his own anthem on One Love, One Rhythm: The Official 2014 FIFA World Cup Album.

SchoolBoy Q - “Studio” (Feat. BJ The Chicago Kid) Video (NSFW)

On Schoolboy Q’s jagged and fired-up new album Oxymoron, “Studio,” a collaboration with the promising R&B singer BJ The Chicago Kid, stands out as a rare languid moment. It’s a song about being at work but wishing you were having sex instead, and, I mean, we’ve all been there. The black-and-white video takes just about the most literal approach you could imagine, with Q finishing up a verse in a booth somewhere while some girl crawls around on a bedspread and gets tastefully naked.

Scarface - “No Problem” (Official Video)

The Geto Boy and Houston rap originator Scarface is one of the greatest rappers of all time — any era, any region, any subgenre, no qualifiers. Face announced a low-key retirement after his last album, 2008′s great Emeritus, and other than a few guest appearances here and there, he’s mostly stuck to it. But Face is evidently finished being finished, and he’s announced that he’ll have a new LP called Deeply Rooted coming out sometime soon. This is great news for us, since Scarface is the rare rapper who has managed to reach middle age while losing barely any of his vitality. He’s now shared a video for “No Problem,” the first song we’ve heard from the album, and it’s really just a gritty, nasty, no-chorus harangue. Director Mr. Boomtown films him with zero frills, stalking through a Houston neighborhood while images of online news headlines flash on the screen.

Owen Pallett - “Song For Five & Six” (Official Video)

The Canadian art-pop auteur and violin virtuoso Owen Pallett will release his new album In Conflict, and “Song For Five & Six,” which rides a wriggling John Carpenter-esque synth oscillation to some unexpected places, is the latest album song that Pallett has shared, after “The Riverbed” and “On A Path.” Director Jeff Scheven’s video for “Song For Five & Six” has dancers from Canada’s National Ballet School performing an intense, graceful, emotive dance that Robert Binet, Choreographic Assistant of the National Ballet Of Canada, choreographed. I know basically nothing about ballet, but I found it to be pretty entrancing.

London Grammar - “Sights” (Official Video)

London Grammar’s “Sights” has already been a very popular song, and now it’s gotten a music-video treatment by director Giorgio Testi. Shot mostly in one elegantly sweeping take, it begins intimately, with the band performing in a stylishly lit space (plenty of lens flare here), before pulling out to the audience. It ends with a little camera trick of faux-seamlessness that’s seen used everywhere from Pharrell’s 24-hour video for “Happy” to Hitchcock’s “one-take” movie Rope. It’s a cool effect, and one that sneaks up on you due to the way London Grammar’s performance (and “Sights” in general) lulls you into such a comforting place.

Pharrell - “Happy” 24-Hour Music Video

The year of Pharrell is coming to an end, but not without this pretty huge finish. “Happy,” a song from the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack, has been made into what’s billed as the world’s first 24-hour music video. It’s a huge, happy, dance-y, smile-y adventure of a thing with cameos from Jamie Fox, Steve Carrell, Tyler, the Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, Jimmy Kimmel, and Magic Johnson, but better yet it just features a lot of normal folks having a good time. Directed by the We Are From L.A. group, the camera only cuts during occasional moments to focus on the ground or sky, making edits really subtle (kind of like what Hitchcock did in Rope) and giving it this really seamless flow over the day it takes to watch. And if 24 hours isn’t enough, it also ends right where it starts, Finnegan’s Wake style, so you could technically watch the video in an endless loop. Watch a 4-hour clip below, but the curious should check out the video 24-hour song.

DIANA - “Strange Attraction” (Official Video)

Toronto band DIANA’s Perpetual Surrender played with the dynamic between hooks and experimental oddity, and was one of the more overlooked and original takes on synth-pop last year. Album standout “Strange Attraction” blended blocky percussion, ear-worm synths, and Carmen Elle’s smoky vocals into a song that’s wonderfully catchy, but not without its avant touches. George Bok’s new video for the track achieves a similar quality in its emotive performances, tweaked with strange details like the masks seen above and moments played in reverse.

The Menzingers - “I Don’t Wanna Be An Asshole Anymore” (Official Video)

Grassroots Pennsylvania pop-punks the Menzingers release their new album Rented World today, and they’re marking the occasion with a video for the triumphant lead single “I Don’t Wanna Be An Asshole Anymore.” Director Whitey McConnaughy has given the colossal fist-pumper a humorous yet wistful treatment about a serial killer trying to turn over a new leaf. It’s a genius concept for a song that already sends hearts racing, so you’ll surely enjoy it below.

Hugh Masekela - 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue' (Official Music Video)

The video is a unique township mbaqanga take on the Bob Dylan classic. It is also a moving tribute to Bra Hugh's lifetime friend, and legendary South African photographer Alf Kumalo.

Directed by Brett Rubin alongside cinematographer Robert Wilson, art director Nicole Van Heerden and editor Tom Glenn. The video was produced by House of Masekela in association with Vatic, and is endorsed by the family and estate of Alf Kumalo.

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The video features never-before-seen footage of Bra Alf Kumalo, at work in his darkroom and shooting street scenes in Alexandra Township.

The video also includes an incredible montage of some of Bra Alf's most iconic pictures spanning the last 50 years of world and South African history -- a dizzying array of images that capture some of the most important moments and icons in our country, and the world's, history. As well as striking photographs of the ordinary men and women who crossed Bra Alf's path.

Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Oliver Tambo, Robert Sobukwe, Steve Biko, Ruth First, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Father Trevor Hudddleston, Miriam Makeba, and Muhammad Ali are all featured in private and public moments, at ease in the eye of Bra Alf's lens.

The most telling part of the music video is a picture of a young 16-year old Hugh Masekela leaping in the air, clutching the trumpet that had been sent to him by Louis Armstrong. This iconic image became the starting point of a life-long friendship between the two young men, both of whom went on to change the world in their respective ways.

Greys - “Guy Picciotto” (Official Video)

The Toronto post-hardcore ragers Greys, named “Guy Picciotto,” the first single from their debut album If Anything, after the eternally badass co-leader of Fugazi. And in the song’s new video, from director Amanda Fotes, the members of the band hurl an amp off the roof of an abandoned high-rise. The real Picciotto might not approve!

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – “She’s On It” (Beastie Boys Cover) + “Jack The Ripper” (Link Wray Cover) Video

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion just released a Record Store Day recording of their popular live medley of “She’s On It” by the Beastie Boys blended with “Jack The Ripper” by Link Wray. Now you can watch the video for it, which patches together footage of the band playing it live.

Kool A.D. - “Tight” (Feat. Lakutis & Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire) Video

Last month, the former Das Racist rapper Kool A.D. gave us his Word O.K. mixtape, possibly the strongest of the many full-lengths he’s dropped since Das Racist broke up. “Tight,” one of the tape’s hightlights, has a tense and physical beat from Toro Y Moi’s Chaz Bundick, and it’s also got verses from New York underground rap livewires Lakutis and Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire. There’s not a whole lot to director Slack Barrett’s new video for the song; it’s just the three rappers and a few extras captured in sharp, clear black-and-white against a plain white wall. But the hallucinatory editing and the weirdo charisma of the performers make it a strangely entrancing piece of work.

Mazzy Star - “I’m Less Here” (Official Video)

Mazzy Star was working on music consistently during the 17-year break between Among My Swan and last year’s Seasons Of Your Day so they probably had a lot of material to pick from when figuring out what their Record Store Day exclusive would be. They chose “I’m Less Here,” a track that’s been floating around in their live shows since 1994. The video for “I’m Less Here” is just as moody and eerie as the song it accompanies, mired in slow dissolves and superimpositions. If you’re sitting around reading this, you’ve probably already come back with your RSD haul but if you have a chance, this is out now on a coke-bottle clear vinyl 7″ with b-side “Things.”

Tyga - “Senile” (Feat. Lil Wayne & Nicki Minaj) Official Video

Tyga - “Senile” (Feat. Lil Wayne & Nicki Minaj) (Dir. Colin Tilley)

What happens when that Odd Future aesthetic bleeds through to actual big-money rap videos, with actual talented directors involved. I’d just like to point out that nobody has accused Nicki Minaj of using those shirtless tatted-up Latino dudes as props, even though she totally is.

Future - “I Won” (Feat. Kanye West) Official Video

The celebratory and sentimental Future/Kanye collab “I Won” now has a video to go along with it. The video’s a subdued, mostly black-and-white affair featuring some of the sexiest dancing on a beach since Beyoncé danced on a beach for her “Drunk In Love” video. In case you missed it, Future also shared his André 3000 collab earlier today and you can stream most of Honest right now. Watch the Hype Williams-directed video.

The Faint - “Evil Voices” (Official Video)

12 years ago, Omaha synth-punkers the Faint played one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen, so it warms my heart that they’re still whipping out supercharged new wave. The band just released the new album Doom Abuse, and we’ve posted their “Help In The Head” video, as well as their new tracks “Salt My Doom” and “Dress Code.” Director Nik Fackler’s new video for their “Evil Voices” is an intense, hyperactive, violent affair: The band plays in a room somewhere, some guy slowly gets his face peeled off, a lady smashes something over another lady’s head. But it’s all edited into such a digitally-distorted blur that it’s hard to tell what’s happening at any given moment. 

Major Lazer - “Aerosol Can” (Feat. Pharrell) Official Video

Pharrell is still having a moment. And while his mug (and his hat) seems to be everywhere these days, in Major Lazer’s new video for “Aerosol Can” we hear Pharrell, but instead of seeing his age-defying face, we get to watch graffiti and tattoo legend Mike Giant tag up a white room with Pharrell’s lyrics.

It’s almost a new take on the concept of a lyric video, as Giant scrawls stylized lines across a perfectly white wall, some of his illustrations begin to animate, squirming, wiggling, or spinning in place — the sheer liveliness of Diplo’s dancehall catalyzing energy from potential to kinetic.

The Horrors - “So Now You Know” (Official Video)

Psychedelic British chameleons the Horrors are about to return with Luminous, their first album in four years, and now they’ve made a video for “So Now You Know,” which follows the expansive “I See You” as the second album track they’ve shared. The video depicts a group of suspiciously photogenic misfit kids who have some sort of mystical experience in an American desert town. The video can’t make any claims to realism — I don’t know if you’ve spent any time in the desert, but the teenagers who live there do not look like that — but it’s a powerful aesthetic experience nonetheless. Some of the prolonged helicopter shots in there will just take your breath away.

Converge - “Precipice / All We Love We Leave Behind” Video

Back in 2013, the Boston hardcore/metal legends Converge earned an Album Of The Week for their furious All We Love We Leave Behind. And though it’s not exactly common practice to drop a video a year and a half after the album comes out, Converge operate on their own timetable, and they’ve just shared an epic six minute clip for two of the album’s songs, “Precipice” and the title track. In the video, director Craig Murray uses hand-drawn and stop-motion animation alongside live action to tell the story of a burly bare-chested motherfucker and his adventures with burning houses, icy lakes, and vengeful dead dogs. Or something. Honestly, I have no idea what this video’s narrative is supposed to represent, but it’s all pretty badass regardless.

Yuck - “Southern Skies” (Official Video) & Southern Skies Stream

Yuck’s surprise Southern Skies EP already yielded the drifting “Athena” and the driving “Another One,” both of which continued the band’s mastery of shoegaze-inflected ’90s alt-rock sounds. The EP was released this week, and its other two songs sound unlike any previous Yuck material. “Set In Motion” is a twangy Laurel Canyon psych-pop song that reminds me of Sparklehorse or a mellowed-out cousin to the Shins’ “Gone For Good.” The gorgeous title track presents yet another new sound for Yuck; it’s a spare, shimmering sigh of a song, and it just got a beautifully minimalistic video to match from director Jacob Perlmutter.

Chet Faker - “1998″ Video

This week marks the release of Built On Glass, the full-length debut from Melbourne singer-producer Chet Faker. With the album’s unveiling comes the video for single “1998,” an immensely appealing blend of airy club music, ’80s pop, and melancholy singer-songwriter sounds. The song is superb, and its video is equally intriguing. Director Domenico Bartolo guides illustrations by Grace Lee through a series of metamorphoses inspired by Keith Haring, ’80s club culture, and putting one foot in front of the other in the aftermath of a failed relationship. Just keep pressing on, it seems to imply — and indeed you should proceed forward to watch this video posthaste.

Sky Ferreira - “I Blame Myself” (Official Video)

Sky Ferreira’s searing, wounded synthpop anthem “I Blame Myself” was arguably the best song on her great debut album Night Time, My Time, and some of us have been wondering for months why it wasn’t a single. Earlier this month, Ferreira performed the song on The Tonight Show, and this morning, she debuted its video. Counterintuitively enough, the clip stars Ferreira as a badass drug-turf enforcer, the type of criminal who deals with police-station interrogations by going into aggressive-seductress mode. It also brings back the old “Beat It” idea that gangs should do choreographed dances. It’s a great, weird video, and you can watch it at SSENSE.

Parquet Courts - "Sunbathing Animal" (Official Video)

“Sunbathing Animal,” the title track from Parquet Courts’ upcoming full-length, is a frantically dizzy four-minute spazz out that never lets up its intensity. The song’s video, directed by Andy Capper and Parquet Courts singer-guitarist Andrew Savage, goes about as far in the other direction as possible. It’s four minutes of a cat hesitantly weighing whether to escape through an open window, Inside Llewyn Davis-style, or just chill on the couch and, you know, sunbathe. According to Noisey, it’s an homage to the Replacements’ legendary non-video video for “Bastards Of Young.” Subject yourself to the suspense (if you dare!) below.

Courtney Barnett - “Anonymous Club” (Official Video)

Clever Australian rocker Courtney Barnett didn’t make it into my Sunday Coachella roundup, but only because I didn’t have long enough to watch her before jetting off to see Chance The Rapper. From the couple songs I did see, I’ll say this: Barnett is way more multifaceted than I gathered from “Avant Gardener” — that is, she can do much more than just quirky, comedic, and upbeat. “Anonymous Club,” for which she released a video today, demonstrates that versatility. The song itself is a faintly glimmering slowcore slow-burn from Barnett’s 2013 release The Double EP: A Sea Of Split Peas built around the romantic refrain “Thank you for cooking for me/ I had a really nice evening/ Just you and me.” The animated video by Celeste Potter adds a layer of intrigue to a song that brilliantly captures a moment of intense emotional connection and longing.

Courtney Barnett - “Avant Gardener” Video

Courtney Barnett is a singer-songwriter from Melbourne whose rambling, conversational lope-rock is just instantly appealing, and it’s tough to imagine a better introduction to her style than the swaggering storytelling ramble “Avant Gardener.” The new video doesn’t have much to do with the song’s narrative, but it’s a disarmingly shaggy story in its own right, with Barnett and her bandmates playing a laughably incompetent doubles tennis match.

OFF! - “Red White And Black” Video (Feat. Dave Foley & Brian Posehn)

Hardcore supergroup OFF! recently put out their new album Wasted Years, and now share a goofy video for “Red White And Black.” In it, comedians Dave Foley and Brian Posehn play two inept fascist leaders who end up getting their comeuppance. Directed by the Admiral, it also features small cameos from Danny Carey (Tool), Dale Crover (Melvins), David Yow (Jesus Lizard), and Jack Grisham (TSOL).

Fujiya & Miyagi - "Flaws" (Official Video)

Pretty soon the UK band Fujiya & Miyagi will put out their new album, Artificial Sweeteners. So far we’ve heard tracks that are filled with danceable, krautrock-influenced rock music. The new video for “Flaws” is a glitchy, neon sprawl that distorts the band and pulses with every beat in the song.

Tennis - “Cured Of Youth” (Official Video)

Tennis, the smooth-sounding husband and wife duo of Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore, dropped their Small Sound EP last year, and now share a music video for the track “Cured Of Youth.” Playing off the song’s title, the song becomes the theme to an imaginary (and very dated) fake TV show about time travel. Directed by Scott Laidlaw, it’s a silly and tongue-in-cheek way to think of the song.

Marissa Nadler - “Drive” (Official Video)

By sheer coincidence, Stereogum just published a Galaxie 500 feature the same day Marissa Nadler released a video directed by Galaxie member Naomi Yang. Yang combined footage by French artist Bernard Faucon with striking closeups of Nadler to create the visual for “Drive,” an eerie, ethereal ballad about life on the road from Nadler’s recent album July. Here’s her director’s statement:

As a musician I immediately connected to the emotional content of this song—especially as it starts with the very powerful first verse chronicling a discouraging night on the road: “If you ain’t made it now/ You’re never going to make it/ Seventeen people in the dark tonight.”
The video tells the story of Marissa facing her own ambition—as well as her disappointments — but ultimately of her desire to reach people through her music. It’s presented as a series of metaphors, or a surreal dream, but one in which Marissa is an active participant in her future (not a passive witness) as she explores her feelings about making music.
Running through the song is the refrain “Nothing like the way it feels to drive,” which made me think of the French artist Bernard Faucon, whose recent work is shot entirely from the front seat of a car as he travels all over the world. Bernard graciously allowed me to use excerpts of his footage—as he put it, “Yes, you can use my roads, they fit so well with Marissa’s song…”

Nadler approves; as she put it in a press release, “[Yang] really got to the heart of what this song is about.” Watch the results.

Strand of Oaks - "Goshen '97" (Official Video)

Timothy Showalter has been releasing haunted, personal folk-rock as Strand Of Oaks for years, and now he’s ready to move up in the world with his new album HEAL. The album’s first single is the ragged rocker “Goshen ’97,” which has some triumphant guitar soloing from J Mascis. And in the new video, from The Comedy director Rick Alverson, Showalter plays the loneliest hesher at an old-school roller rink.

Real Estate - “Crime” Video (Feat. Andy Daly & Nick Kroll)

Real Estate previously worked with New Jersey underground-comedy overlord Tom Scharpling on their “Easy” video, and now Scharpling is back to direct their new video for “Crime,” from the gorgeously zoned-out new album Atlas. The video features comedy types like Andy Daly and Nick Kroll. In one of those meta tricks that Scharpling pulls off better than anyone else, Daly, star of the new Comedy Central show Review, plays an extremely broke Tom Scharpling, who is happy to take money from whoever to put a bunch of extremely dumb ideas in his music video. So here we have a video about undead skateboard enthusiasts, strange ceramic sculptures, and the more innocent days of the 20th century. It’s a wonderful, ridiculous piece of work.

Lust For Youth - “Illume” (Official Video)

The first track we heard off Lust For Youth’s forthcoming International was, to me, a revelation: “Epoetin Alfa” represented a huge step forward for the band. Here the Swedish producer Hannes Norrvide (and his growing supporting cast) presented a much warmer, more synth-pop-based sound than the soft drone we’d come to expect, this new sound very much in the timeless vein of New Order, Depeche Mode, or the Pet Shop Boys. Now LFY have released another cut from International, called “Illume,” and I dunno if it’s the 75-degree weather in NYC or what, but I swear listening to this thing is like an explosion of sunlight behind my eyes. It’s such a perfect, gorgeous pop song. I have a feeling this is gonna be a pretty terrific album! Anyway, the video was directed by Cali Thornhill Dewitt, and stars Norrvide alongside collaborator Loke Rahbek (Var, the Posh Isolation label, Sexdrome, etc.), and the two men were given no direction beyond, “Look beautiful.” Said Dewitt of the video: “The concept of this was simple. My subjects were/are very attractive people, so I decided to pair them with attractive landscapes. We shot the whole thing in one 24 hour period, and Loke and Hannes were very comfortable dressed in their Cary Grant suits.” They do indeed look beautiful, and the song sounds beautiful, and why wouldn’t you want such beauty in your life right now?

Watch Sigur Rós’s Game Of Thrones Cameo

Last night’s episode of Game Of Thrones ended with Sigur Rós’s version of “The Rains Of Castamere,” a song that tends to play on the show when some serious shit is either about to go down or just did go down. If you ever find yourself in Westeros and the opening strains of “The Rains Of Castmere” ring out, run. But the song wasn’t Sigur Rós’s only contribution to the show last night. They also had a quick cameo as wedding musicians, singing for evil whelp King Joffrey. And though Sigur Rós are generally regarded as critics’ favorites, they do not get so much love from Joffrey (though they do get off lightly compared to plenty of others who incurred Joffrey’s displeasure).

SZA - “Warm Winds” (Feat. Isaiah Rashad) Video

The hazy, spun-out soul singer SZA and the open-hearted Chatanooga rapper Isaiah Rashad are both relative newcomers to TDE, the label that Kendrick Lamar and his Black Hippy comrades made famous, and they share an astrally stoned chemistry. The two sounded great together on Rashad’s “Ronnie Drake,” and they sound great together again on “Warm Winds,” a softly drifting track from SZA’s new Z EP. And now SZA and APLUSFILMZ have directed a glitchy, arresting video for the track, capturing SZA and Rashad mooning around a grove of trees, looking photogenically contemplative.

Alicia Keys - “It’s On Again” (Feat. Kendrick Lamar) Official Video (from The Amazing Spider-Man 2)

Pharrell produced “It’s On Again,” the new Alicia Keys inspirational-disco number from the soundtrack to The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and Kendrick Lamar starts it out with a shouty verse, which means the song might have a stronger cast of talent than the movie itself. In the new video for the track, those three, along with an orchestra conductor I don’t recognize, play some sort of super-team, and Pharrell uses his insane-hacker genius to turn all of Manhattan’s lights into a synchronized light show. It’s both pretty dumb and pretty fun.

Atmosphere - “Kanye West” (Official Video)

Last week, the long-running Minneapolis underground rap duo Atmosphere shared their new track “Kanye West,” which had basically nothing to do with Kanye West. Today, the group gives us director Pete Lee’s “Kanye West” video, which does the song better by having basically nothing to do with the song or Kanye West. Instead, it’s a tense narrative about an unlikely couple who goes on a robbery spree and then has fun blowing money. Both members of Atmosphere have cameos as a couple of the unlucky victims. It’s a really good video.

Eels - “Mistakes Of My Youth” (Official Video)

The songs we’ve heard off Eels’ upcoming album, The Cautionary Tales Of Mark Oliver Everett, have been gently steeped in nostalgia, especially “Mistakes Of My Youth.” The video for that song, directed by Brian and Brad Palmer, captures the same feelings with a subdued softness as it follows a young boy riding his bike around town, smoking cigarettes, drinking a bit, causing some mild mischief, and kissing a girl.

Iamsu! - “Only That Real” (Feat. 2 Chainz & Sage The Gemini) Video

The young Richmond, California rapper Iamsu! occupies an interesting place in the California rap ecosystem: He’s a tremendously influential figure and a cult success, someone who shows up on a ton of other people’s hit songs but who can’t seem to make one himself. His latest attempt to chance this status is “Only That Real,” his clipped and catchy new single with out-of-town guest 2 Chainz and his HBK Gang crewmate Sage The Gemini. The track’s new video, from director Alex Nazari, should help matters. It makes Iamsu!’s Richmond look like a deeply fun place to hang out, even with all the animated monsters and aliens and slime everywhere.

Kevin Drew - “Mexican Aftershow Party” (Official Video)

Kevin Drew’s dreamy Darlings single “Mexican Aftershow Party” now has an equally dream video featuring a glittery Drew performing in a room full of emotionally aroused human beings. Scott Cudmore and Michael Leblanc directed.

Todd Terje - “Leisure Suit Preben” Video

Earlier this week, the Norwegian disco-house producer Todd Terje released his knowingly silly debut LP It’s Album Time, and now he’s shared a video for “Leisure Suit Preben,” an album track. It follows the adventures of the song’s title character, a sweaty and sozzled goof who spends the video wandering around Oslo, trying on makeup and jewelry and then cutting loose in a nightclub. Espen Friberg and Emil Høgset directed the video.

DaVinci & Sweet Valley - "I Got That Line" (Official Video)

Sweet Valley, the rap-production duo of Wavves frontman Nathan Williams and his brother Kynan, have cranked out a few instrumental mixtapes, and they’ve just gotten around to making their first record with an actual rapper. That project is Ghetto Cuisine, a new full-length mixtape that they did with the tough, straightforward San Francisco rapper DaVinci. We posted first single “I Got That Line” yesterday, and now the whole mixtape is out. Below, stream it and check out director Eddie Ringer’s half-animated “I Got That Line” video, which has DaVinci rapping in some of the Bay’s least populated locations.

Jamie xx - “Sleep Sound” (Official Video)

In making a video for Jamie xx’s new single “Sleep Sound,” the artist Sofia Mattioli visited the Manchester Deaf Centre and filmed the hearing-impaired people there dancing to the track. They couldn’t hear it, of course, but they could feel the vibrations. All the dancers Mattioli filmed are young, including a five-year-old boy, and there’s some real heartwarming beauty in what Mattioli captured on camera.

Pink Mountaintops - “North Hollywood Microwaves” Video

Vancouver’s Pink Mountaintops have released a raucous new video for their perfectly profane track “North Hollywood Microwaves.” The lo-fi video features lots of geodes, some iPad operation while driving, and plenty of Giant Drag’s Annie Hardy rapping about things that would make your mother blush. Speaking of Annie Hardy, not only is she featured in the video, she directed it as well.

Blood Orange - “Uncle ACE (Kindness Remix)” (Feat. Robert Owens) Video

Last year, Blood Orange released his silky and beautiful album Cupid Deluxe, and now Dev Hynes’s friend and frequent collaborator Adam Bainbridge, better known as the disco-pop auteur Kindness, has remixed “Uncle ACE,” one of that album’s standout tracks. The twitchy, thumping new version has vocals from Robert Owens, the singer whose voice can be heard on many early Chicago house-music classics. Bainbridge has also directed a video for the remix. In the video, we see a series of long, static shots of Romford, the sleepy London suburb where Hynes grew up, and we see Hynes and Bainbridge and Owens wandering through it.

Trust - “Capitol” (Official Video)

Trust — now the solo project of producer Robert Alfons — recently put out the album Joyland, a record filled to the brim with dark, glittery dance music. Director Will Joines has now made a video for the album’s booming single “Capitol” that features Alfons singing while a girl seems to be haunted and possessed by a statue. It might seem kind of creepy if it wasn’t so damn pretty to look at and listen to.

The Men - “Different Days” (Official Video)

Near the middle of the Men’s Tomorrow’s Hits comes “Different Days,” which captures so many feelings and frustrations with a yell of, “I hate being young.” Now the Men have a music video that captures the same sentiment. Directed by Helge Mundt, the video came about through a contest held by Sacred Bone Records encouraging fans to film their own videos. The band chose Mundt’s video, which follows a young guy as he exercises, drinks, smokes, and walks around to excess. Though he never talks, the song speaks through him and makes its message crystal clear.

The Both - “Milwaukee” (Official Video)

Aimee Mann and Ted Leo recently joined forces to form the grown-folks power-pop super-duo the Both, and they’ll release their endlessly catchy and spirited self-titled debut album next week. These two are old hands at turning their music videos into very likable comedy sketches, and their new clip for first single “Milwaukee,” from director Daniel Ralston, is no exception. In this one, Ted Leo plays a dual role — as himself and as Ed Leo, his own burnt-out rocker uncle, who comes to play drums in the band.

Vertical Scratchers - “Way Out” (Official Video)

John Schmersal, who came up in the ’90s with Brainiac and later Enon, has two projects he’s working on right now. There’s Crooks On Tape and Vertical Scratchers, and they both kick ass. This new video for “Way Out” off Vertical Scratchers’ recent album comes from director Danny Perez, most famous for directing Animal Collective’s visual album ODDSAC, and he packs a lot of personality in under two minutes. The video mainly consists of Schmersal bouncing around in a straitjacket, but the set design, makeup, and Schmersal’s charismatic performance make it a lot of creepy fun.

Popstrangers - “Country Kills” (Official Video)

“Country Kills” was the first single from the upcoming Popstrangers album Fortuna, and now it’s the project’s first video too. The London-based Kiwis tapped Mazes member Conan Roberts to direct, and he describes the visuals as such: “The video was inspired by a lot of collage artists, colour printed pages during the 1970’s, how cool people playing in bands look in B&W and my good buddy Royal Limp’s tumblr page.” Adam Page of Popstrangers adds this:

We’ve known Conan via email for a while now. He plays bass in the London band Mazes, and also runs a small bedroom label called Italian Beach Babes. When it came time to make a video it was natural for us to ask him. He makes a lot of videos for his own band, and has also worked with micachu and the shapes, cheatahs, Male Bonding etc. We really liked the idea of the picture in picture concept, and felt it worked with aesthetic of the song, and album as a whole.

As Page’s comments suggest, Roberts has created a simple, direct clip that matches the song’s immediacy and approachability. It has chorus for days, and it looks pretty, so watch.

Neighbors - “Last Of A Kind” Video

Noah Stitelman’s Brooklyn-based electronic pop project Neighbors recently released sophomore album Failure, but single “Last Of A Kind” is a success where melancholy mood, surprise flashes of melody, and contagious rhythmic propulsion are concerned. It’s also got an entrancing video by Nate Buchik and Jonathan Pulley about the desperate pursuit of a unicorn. Explains Buchik, “We just tried to make something as realistic as possible that also starred a unicorn.”

Danny Brown - “25 Bucks” (Feat. Purity Ring) Video

Last year, Danny Brown released the tortured, introspective, adventurous rap opus Old, one of the year’s best albums. One of the risky choices he made on the LP was to bring Purity Ring in to produce “25 Bucks,” a song about remembering his mother pulling his family through hard-times single-handedly by braiding neighbors’ hair on their porch. Brown and Purity Ring’s Megan James performed the song on Kimmel earlier this year, and now they appear together in the song’s new video. In director NORTON’s video, Brown and James travel through time, wandering through a series of frozen scenes from Brown’s childhood. It’s a powerful illustration of the already-powerful things Brown is talking about in the song, and it brings the track home that much harder.

Queens Of The Stone Age - “Smooth Sailing” (Official Video)

Queens Of The Stone age’s last album, …Like Clockwork, came out last spring, but the band have just released a video for album track “Smooth Sailing.” The clip follows Josh Homme through a night of Hangover-esque debauchery, which is more or less how I picture Homme’s life on any given Friday.

Mean Creek - “My Madeline” Video

You’ve banged your head to “Cool Town.” You’ve pumped your first to “Johnny Allen.” Now, on the release date of the new album Local Losers, enjoy a video for Mean Creek’s “My Madeline.” Directed by Richard TK Hawke and James Lindsay, it features singer/guitarist Chris Keene wandering the halls of a bizarre, smoke-filled apartment building. Aurore Ounian (guitarist/back up vocals) co-stars as the smoking beauty queen character, and drummer Mikey Holland and bassist Kevin Macdonald make appearances too. But the real star is the song, which features more tremendous harmonies from Keene and Ounian and yet another side of Mean Creek’s varied yet accessible sound.

Mean Creek - "Cool Town" (Official Music Video)

New Mean Creek album "Local Losers" coming January 28, 2014 on Old Flame Records
"Cool Town" video Directed by James Lindsay & Richard TK Hawke
Produced by Eponymous Films
Edited by Richard TK Hawke
Shot by Richard TK Hawke
Concept by Mikey Holland, Eponymous Films, & Alanis Morissette

Factory Floor - “How You Say” (Official Video)

The punishing London postpunk/acid-house trio Factory Floor released their self-titled full-length debut last year, and now they’re going to follow it up with a series of EPs full of remixes of the album track “How You Say.” The pounding, percolating track now has its own video, too, though it’s really more of an art installation captured on camera. In the clip, we see singer Nik Colk Void’s face on a TV, and we also see that TV in an empty room full of projections. That’s it. It never changes. Void and Dan Tombs conceptualized the video.

Drive-By Truckers - “Made Up English Oceans” (Official Video)

The much-loved wizened Southern rockers Drive-By Truckers released their latest album English Oceans earlier this year, and now they’ve given us a video for the sort-of title track “Made Up English Oceans.” Director Joshua Black Wilkins’s clip tells the story of a lady who enjoys activities like wearing lacy lingerie, wandering through hedge mazes, and tearing pages out of Bibles. The song already had one video — a band-members-playing-in-a-room thing — but this one feels more like an attempt to get play on the nonexistent cable channels that still play videos.

Califone - “Magdalene” (Official Video)

Califone, ex-Red Red Meat frontman Tim Rutili’s longstanding treasure trove of forlorn, chemical-damaged future folk, will head out on another living room tour soon. To drum up some deserved occasion for the jaunt, the band just released an animated video for “Magdalene,” a highlight from last year’s Stitches. It’s directed and animated by Amanda Bonaiuto and Jessie Stein, and while the imagery is beautiful, the song itself is reason enough to tune in. Imagine what the Band might have sounded like if they’d formed amidst some dystopian society a few decades from now, and you’ll get a sense of how gorgeous this song is.

88-Year-Old Living Legend B.B. King Booed At Erratic St. Louis Gig

B.B. King is 88 years old, and in his life, he’s played so many shows that even blues historians can only guess at an approximate total. In 1995, it was estimated he had played some 14,000 shows — at that point, he had been averaging 300 shows a year for 47 years. And that was nearly two decades ago! He’s slowed down since then, of course, but not much. Point is, B.B. King has surely been booed plenty in his time as a performer. But nothing like what happened Friday night in St. Louis. At the Peabody Opera House, King delivered a performance that, per Billboard, “included only a handful of complete songs amid musical snippets, long-winded soliloquies and a 15-minute sing-along of ’You Are My Sunshine’ with the house lights inexplicably up.” King was eventually booed badly by much of the audience.

In a review for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Daniel Durchholz wrote:

For a while, the audience was with him, laughing at his jokes and asides. But it was 45 minutes into the show before King performed anything resembling a song. Even then, his playing was shaky. He explained that he and the band had been off for two months, causing him to lose confidence.

After a capable run-through of “Rock Me Baby,” he played “You Are My Sunshine” and asked the crowd to sing along. The house lights came up and King began noticing individuals and waving to them. As the song went around again and again, nattering on for — and this is not a misprint — 15 minutes, audience members began to heckle, yelling out requests or simply calling for King to “play some music!” Some walked out.
King sensed trouble, but he couldn’t understand the things being yelled at him. Eventually, the music stopped and the show ground to an intensely uncomfortable halt.

It’s a brutal, heartbreaking spectacle. A fan captured the performance on video.

Ejecta - “Eleanor Lye” Official Video (NSFW)

Ejecta is the duo of singer Leanne Macomber, formerly of Neon Indian, and producer Joel Ford, of Ford & Lopatin, and their debut album Dominae came out last year. Macomber has already posed nude on Ejecta’s single and album covers, and she’s once again naked in the BANGS-directed video for the Dominae track “Eleanor Lye.” In the clip, she looks like she’s just coming to life and achieving sentience in an empty room, like an android that’s just been activated. It’s not remotely sexual, but that doesn’t mean you should watch it at work.

The Mary Onettes - “Naive Dream” (Official Video)

Today marks the release of Portico:, a new mini-album from Swedish dream-pop quartet the Mary Onettes. To commemorate the occasion, the band has unveiled a video for single “Naive Dream.” The delightfully C86-y jangler is accompanied by images of an exceptionally anguished beach run, some darkly lit projections, and a dude with his head in a campfire. Hallucinate together below courtesy of directors Philip Ekström and Henrik Ekström.

Galantis - “You” (Official Video)

Last year the EDM pop act Galantis and director Dano Cerny brought us the unforgettable and somewhat NSFW video for “Smile,” the leadoff track on their debut self-titled EP. Now that the EP is out there, the duo — Christian “Bloodshy” Karlsson from Miike Snow and Bloodshy & Avant plus Icona Pop’s “I Love It” co-writer and producer Linus Eklow (Style Of Eye) — has teamed with Cerny for another evocative clip, this time for the digital endorphin rush “You.” Watch below as a mysterious feminine creature called the Seafox wanders the city in search of love.

Wild Beasts - “A Simple Beautiful Truth” (Official Video)

Wild Beasts’ great new album, Present Tense, was preceded by a pair of tracks, “Wanderlust” and “Sweet Spot,” and now that the LP is available (and you should get it, because it’s really fantastic), the band is releasing as a single the album track “A Simple Beautiful Truth” along with a surrealistic video directed by Klaus Thymann, which pays homage to one of Wild Beasts’ notable influences. Said the band about the clip:

We were inspired enough by the absurdist approach taken by Talking Heads to don electric suits and dance in the ether on the top of a Beacons mountain. We wanted to capture the weightlessness of a song like “A Simple Beautiful Truth,” to attempt something so ridiculous as to be sublime. The experience was strangely liberating and we asked ourselves why we hadn’t done this before.

School Of Language - “Dress Up” (Official Video)

School Of Language, the solo side project of Field Music member David Brewis, is about to drop the new album Old Fears, and director Andy Martin’s video for the stiff and disco-flavored single “Dress Up” does fascinating things with it. Martin uses still photos of Brewis, animated together like a flip book, to make it look like he’s gliding across land at a seaside town. It’s a very cool effect, and it brings stillness and kinetic motion together in some mesmerizing ways.

Rush Midnight - “Closer” (Official Video)

Rush Midnight is the new solo project from former Twin Shadow bassist Russ Manning, and he’ll release his self-titled debut next month. The video for the lush synthpop jam “Closer” follows the “In Your Room” clip, and it tells the story of a wintry kickball game against a team full of glamorous ringers. This is a fun one. Xander Robin directs.

Thee Oh Sees - “Drop” (Official Video)

Bay Area garage-rock torchbearers Thee Oh Sees announced a hiatus late last year, but not before they recorded Drop, a psychedelic Lemonhead of a new album that’ll be out later this month. They’ve just shared a new video for the album’s title track, and, like the clip for “The Lens,” it’s a head-spinning animated kaleidoscope that will make you wish you were high (unless you are high, in which case it’ll just make you happy.) Arthur Carvalho put together this video, which is all in black-and-white and which features lots of eyeballs and spiderwebs and geometric play.

Klaxons - “There Is No Other Time” (Official Video)

Klaxons kicked off their upcoming third album, Love Frequency, with the glossy dance pop of “There Is No Other Time,” and now they’ve dropped a video for the song that matches its sound completely. With bright lights, shiny surfaces, and a kaleidoscopic use of mirrors, the clip has that same lavishness that we were already hearing in the track. Even if the second single they dropped was a touch darker, this shows Klaxons are still very much looking toward the dance floor.

Lil Boosie (Feat. Webbie & Kiara) - “Show Da World” Video

The Baton Rouge rap cult hero Lil Boosie came home last month after years in prison, claiming that he’d spent his time away writing literally thousands of songs. He’s been recording a bunch since then, too, and now he’s got his first post-release music video, for “Show Da World.” The song features Boosie’s frequent rapping partner Webbie and he R&B singer Kiara. And the video is a moody black-and-white thank-you to fans around the world, with footage of a ton of different people wearing shirts of Boosie’s Trill Ent. label.

Sweet Apple - “Wish You Could Stay (A Little Longer)” (Feat. Mark Lanegan) Video + Stream The Golden Age Of Glitter

J Mascis’ band Sweet Apple is kind of a supergroup with two members of Cobra Verde, one from Witch, and on the recent single “Wish You Could Stay,” grunge vet Mark Lanegan. The band-directed video for the song, which appears on the band’s new album The Golden Age Of Glitter, follows each member throwing a paper airplane which eventually makes its way to the next member. Watch it, and stream the entire album.

Foxes - "Holding onto Heaven" (Official Video)

Music video by Foxes performing Holding onto Heaven. (C) 2014 Sign Of The Times Limited under exclusive licence to Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited

Warpaint - "Disco//Very" and "Keep It Healthy" (Official Video)

To accompany their recent self-titled record, Warpaint has shared a video for two of its songs, "Disco// very" and "Keep It Healthy". It finds Warpaint dancing in the street and, as the sun goes down, meeting up with a pack of skater boys. Directed by Laban Pheidias, a former pro skateboarder, it features L.A. skaters Justin Eldridge, Patrick Melcher, Kris Markovich, Rob Smith, and Victor Zanoni.

Coldplay - “Magic” (Official Video)

“Magic,” the low-key first official single from Coldplay’s Ghost Stories, is so good that it inspired me to write an impassioned defense of the polarizing arena-rock balladeers. Now the song has a video from veteran director Jonas Åkerlund in which Chris Martin portrays both the levitating assistant and the drunken, famous, “moustachioed husband” of Cecile, “a beautiful young magicienne” portrayed by Zhang Ziyi. The bird from the album cover is hovering around too. Below, watch Martin and Martin square off for Cecile’s affections. Haters will at least enjoy the part that involves throwing knives at Martin.

Rick Ross - “Rich Is Gangsta” (Official Video)

Rick Ross is often on a mission to prove not only the magnitude of his richness but just how fantastic it is to have said magnitude of richness. In his new video for “Rich Is Gangsta,” we start off with an image of the Eiffel Tower before we’re treated to scenes of Ross decked out in all-Versace-everything, rapping into the camera, and nuzzling his face into his luxurious, fur-lined hood. This video is about Versace, being in Paris, and the fact that being rich is indeed gangsta.

Avicii – “Addicted To You (Avicii By Avicii)” Official Video

Avicii – “Addicted To You (Avicii By Avicii)” (Dir. Keshen8)

So Lego people bleed blue. I feel like that explains a lot. And if Lego Batman can be one of the year’s biggest movie stars, then I think we’re all ready for Lego Dolph Lundgren.

Watch A Short Film Inspired And Soundtracked By The Body’s I Shall Die Here

A film by Jason Evans
Starring Todd Schrock
Cinematography by Alexandra Stergiou
Produced by Andre Wiesmayr & Jordan Redaelli
Edited by Jason Evans & Alexandra Stergiou
Production Design by Jordan Redaelli
Music by The Body
Music Produced by The Haxan Cloak
Additional Sound by Matt Snedecor
Color by Roman Hankewycz at Harbor Picture Company

Experimental metal duo the Body’s new album, I Shall Die Here, is the darkest thing they’ve recorded. That’s in part because they teamed up with electronic/drone/nightmare producer the Haxan Cloak (Bobby Krlic), and if there’s one thing these two forces do really well it’s making music that sounds like dying — just listen to their explosive “Hail To Thee, Everlasting Pain.” The album recently inspired filmmaker Jason Evans to make the short At The Mercy Of It All, which is soundtracked by music from that album. It follows a bearded, weary man living in a cabin (as he records an album, and eventually works with Kanye … just kidding!) in complete isolation, as he looks over photos, old pages, and maps. It’s unclear at times whether the man is trying to let go of or cling to some part of his past, but as a storm builds outside, the music fills each methodical action with unbearable tension and terror.

Hooray For Earth - "Racy" (Official Album Trailer)

In anticipation of their new album, Racy, Hooray For Earth have released an album trailer. The trailer features some epic slow-motion footage of Noel Heroux and Co. performing in what looks to be a dank basement. Constantly shifting camera angles give a sense of vertigo while faces caught in the cathartic release of rock and roll exude elation and anticipation.

Pure X "Heaven" (Official Video)

The laid-back Austin psych band Pure X released their Angel LP earlier this week, and today they’ve shared the video for the warm, amber-hued jam “Heaven.” Director Ben Kitnick’s video starts off as a prettily shot meditation on farm life and carnivals, but after the demolition derby, things turn dark and disturbing. Watch it below, but be warned: The final shots have some deeply fucked-up images.

The Shoe - “Dead Rabbit Hopes” Official Video (NSFW)

Actress Jena Malone (Donnie Darko, Into The Wild, Sucker Punch) was recently seen on screen as brazenly rebellious District 7 tribute Johanna Mason in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. In the movie, her character notoriously dropped the F-bomb on live TV, but Malone’s new music video is explicit in a different way. Malone, who records with Lem Jay Ignacio under the name the Shoe, is almost entirely naked in the clip for “Dead Rabbit Hopes,” a winsome twee-inflected ballad from the duo’s upcoming album I’m Okay. Director Alia Penner brought to life a vision of the human body’s beauty as explained here by Malone:

I wanted to talk about a woman’s beauty and sexuality in a way that felt very different from our highly manipulated and sexualized world. I actually wanted to desexualize my own naked body while upholding its own perfect eternal grace. I didn’t want it to be about lingerie or booty shorts. I wanted it to be about the work of art that you are born with.

Hamilton Leithauser - “11 O’Clock Friday Night” (Official Video)

The (former?) Walkmen frontman Hamilton Leithauser is getting ready for teh release of Black Hours, his debut solo album, and he’s already shared his video for the Rotsam Batmanglij-produced first single “Alexandra.” He’s now followed that one up with an inky, low-key clip for “11 O’Clock Friday Night,” an album track that we’re hearing for the first time now. The song has some of that elegantly rumpled Walkmen majesty, except with some added percussive flourishes, and Dirty Projectors’ Amber Coffman adds some barely-there backing vocals. Walkmen guitarist Paul Maroon, who’s also playing in Leithauser’s band at his forthcoming live shows, directed the video, in which Leithauser bikes around New Orleans at night.

Sharon Van Etten - “Taking Chances” (Official Video)

When Sharon Van Etten released “Taking Chances,” the lead single from her upcoming Are We There, Tom noted that it was smoother and more accessible than the dark and brooding SVE joints we’ve come to expect. The video weirds things up a bit, though, by remaking the opening sequence from the 1962 Agnes Varda film Cleo From 5 To 7 with Van Etten standing in for Varda. Here’s director Michael Palmieri’s statement on the pleasant coincidence that cemented the concept:

SVE contacted me a few months back to see if I’d like to come up with some ideas for “Taking Chances,” her first single off the new record. When I first heard the song the lyrics immediately made me think about the opening sequence to the great Agnes Varda film Cleo From 5 To 7, one of my favorites. I usually mull over ideas for days or weeks before coming up with anything decent to share with an artist, but this one just came out immediately. I sent a sketch of the idea onto Sharon and Zeke Hutchins, her manager, then I didn’t hear back from them for over a week, at which point I thought, well, damn, they must hate the idea, I blew it! But soon Zeke contacted me and asked if Sharon had sent me the album artwork. I said, no, I haven’t even heard anything else off the album yet, let alone seen anything from it. Sharon then texted me pretty much the same question, “Did Zeke send you the album before you wrote this?” Nope. I didn’t understand what the big deal was.

Finally they sent me a photograph that’s a big component of the album artwork, it’s this beautiful aged picture of Agnes Varda standing in front of a bazillion reels of 16mm film. This image of one of my filmmaking heroes has been hanging on Sharon’s wall wherever she’s lived for years and years to the point where it’s all tattered and weather-worn. I like to think that Ms. Varda is standing in front of a bunch of reels from Cleo from 5 to 7, but who knows. It’s just one of the strangest coincidences, and it made us all feel like the video had to be made. So now I can safely say the video is inspired by two incredible women: Sharon, for her musical inspiration, and Agnes Varda, whose inspiration on the both of us is quite apparent.

Throwing Muses - “Clark’s Nutcracker” (Official Video)

Throwing Muses returned last year with the enormous 32-track album/art book, Purgatory/Paradise, in classic form on tracks like “sleepwalking-1” and “Sunray Venus.” Now they have a video for the track “Clark’s Nutcracker,” with animation by Jonathan Pound, which tells the abstract story of a man following a glowing ball of light. The animation moves with a surreal fluidity that grows more fascinating as the story eventually reaches its colorful climax.

Tacocat - “Hey Girl” (Official Video)

The Seattle punk band Tacocat (whose member Bree McKenna also plays in Childbirth) put out their new album NVM recently, and with directors Eric J. Olson and James Smith they now have this very funny, striking video. Cut-out figures that resemble animated paper dolls perfectly visualize “Hey Girl,” their funny, sarcastic attack on that repulsive creature: the catcalling asshole. The characters described in the song appear here as gaping troglodytes, while the main character skates by leaving them all in the dust.

PUP - “Lionheart” (Official Video)

Time-lapse videos are pretty common and gimmicky, but Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux has made one for Band To Watch PUP’s world-beating single “Lionheart” that makes perfect sense. In a single sped-up shot, the still camera captures over 4 hours of a drunken basement party. Frontman Stefan Babcock plays “Edward Forty Hands” for most of it, beers are shotgunned, bongs are hit, kegs stands are conquered, and the night ends in fireworks and puke. It condenses an entire night of excitement and joy into an impossibly short runtime, which is pretty much what “Lionheart” does, too.

Mirror Kisses - “Genius” (Official Video)

You may have seen Mirror Kisses’ 2013 album, Heartbeats, in the photo of SAINT PEPSI at the top of our Band To Watch feature on that artist. SP’s fandom was understandable, because that album is the best encapsulation yet of singer/producer George Clanton’s glam-star-via-chillwave style. The new video for Heartbeats’ centerpiece, “Genius,” blends clips of two people painting a stark mural with footage of Clanton performing at a house show in DC, which gives you a glimpse of how intense and cathartic the guy’s performances are.

Classixx - “A Stranger Love” (Official Video)

California duo Classixx took a break from remixing last year to release the very enjoyable Hanging Gardens, but the videos from that album have been truly excellent so far. First there was the lavish “All You’re Waiting For,” featuring Nancy Whang being a supreme badass on a yacht, and now director Jordan Michael Blake has made something even more eye-catching for “A Stranger Love.” The lushly romantic song soundtracks a young couple as they spend a night running through an eerily empty Los Angeles, having strange adventures. The moments of genuine sweetness (the pool) are paired with surreal images (the bed in the basketball court) and brief creepy moments, but the whole thing is so wonderfully shot that everything flows with its own logic.

Oliver Wilde - “Play And Be Saved” (Offiicial Video)

When Oliver Wilde’s “Play And Be Saved” premiered here last month, I called it “a glorious phantasmagoria that hits hard and effervesces brightly.” The video, though, is a study in muted tones. A rotating camera captures Wilde and his band and broadcasts them through a shroud of haze not unlike the cover of Loveless. It’s directed by Lucas Wilde.

De Lux - “It All Works All The Time” Official Video (NSFW)

Last time we checked in with L.A. disco-poppers De Lux, they were racing ahead at rocket speed as if they had just snorted Pixy Stix. This time the only perceivable substance abuse is by a famous cartoon character. “It Works All The Time” offers up a different side of Voyage, De Lux’s forthcoming Innovative Leisure debut. The pairing of a touchy-feely mid-tempo funk groove with uptight nasal crooning registers instantly as Talking Heads fanboy status put to good use, but the video is about as far from Stop Making Sense’s joyous reverie as you can get. Written and animated by Nick Walker, the clip features what appears to be Felix The Cat going on a rampage of racy behavior that includes cocaine, prostitutes, prison fights and more.