6/30/2014

Kitty - “Marijuana” (Official Video)



A couple weeks ago, Kitty announced a tour with the similarly named Kitten, and shared the excellently hazy Chrome Sparks-produced impatiens EP B-side “Marijuana.” Now there’s a video for that song, shot by Shomi Patwary and edited by Kitty herself. It’s a pretty low-key affair, showing the rapper/singer wandering around Chinatown with a bike and sometimes riding it. Interestingly, this is now the second video starring a kitty soundtracked by Chrome Sparks’ “Marijuana.”

Riff Raff - “Introducing The Icon” (Official Video)



“Introducing The Icon” is the first and maybe the best song on Riff Raff’s newly-released official debut Neon Icon. It’s an aggressive, absurdist bulldozer of nonsense braggadocio, and the part where Riff makes fun of Diplo just about makes my heart sing. The new video, from director Stuey Kubrick, is exactly the sort of dizzy rainbow the song needs. It’s a fast-edited blur of song lyrics and butts and platinum fangs and digital non-sequiturs, and it’s a lot of fun.

Araabmuzik - "Summer Time Sadness" Ft. Lana del Rey (Official Video)



A few days ago, Rhode Island producer AraabMuzik shared “Summer Time,” an apocalyptic new remix of Lana Del Rey’s sad-girl anthem “Summertime Sadness.” The track will appear on the upcoming For Professional Use Only 2 mixtape, and now it has an accompanying performance video in which you can see lots of sped-up and slowed-down footage of button pressing, crowd shots, and what looks to be a pretty impressive light show.

Cam’ron - “Funeral” (Official Video)



Beloved Harlem rap icon Cam’ron has recently been working on Federal Reserve, a collaborative EP with A-Trak, and “Dipshits,” their track with Juelz Santana, was the stuff that Dipset dreams are made of. But Cam is also working on a series of his own solo EPs, which he’s calling First Of The Month, and the first of those is coming very soon. He’s now shared a BLACKPRO-directed video for his new solo track “Funeral,” which takes place at a memorial service for a friend and which turns out to be a deeply cold-blooded take on a fucked-up situation. It’s the cruelest Cam song in recent memory, and it’s below.

A Sunny Day In Glasgow - “In Love With Useless (The Timeless Geometry In The Tradition Of Passing)” (Official Video)


Sea When Absent, the sublime new album from international dream-pop outfit A Sunny Day In Glasgow, came out this week. On the heels of the release, the band has unveiled a video for “In Love With Useless (The Timeless Geometry In The Tradition Of Passing),” the first song we heard from the project way back in the first week of the year. The song is brimming with life’s possibilities, and director Ty Flowers has given it a video that captures that optimistic spirit. First-person footage of forest hikes and playground hijinks are matched with surreal images of paint-splattering and oranges rolling around in the sky. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s a great gateway into this band’s music.

Twin Peaks - “Flavor” (Official Video)



There are few songs more inherently “summer” than Twin Peaks’ new “Flavor,” released in May, on the cusp of the sunny season. Cheerful, major-key progressions soundtrack that first school’s-out pool party or a road trip taken with your best pals. The top-down, muggy-breeze feeling translates quite literally into this nostalgically grainy video, a celebration of youth and warm weather. Watch the poolside jam in its natural habitat below.

Diplo, Steve Aoki, & Deorro - “Freak” (Feat. Steve Bays) Video (NSFW)



Next month, Diplo will release a new compilation of recent tracks called Random White Dude Be Everywhere. One of those tracks is “Freak,” a full-on EDM pounder that unites Diplo with a few guys who are, like him, very much of the Ultra Music Festival scene, Steve Aoki and Deorro, as well as Hot Hot Heat singer Steve Bays. The video, from director Ryan Staake, debuted today on Playboy’s website, and it’s very much not something you should watch at work. There’s no nudity, but it does hint at things happening just off-camera. And even if it does (predictably) subvert those things, it’s still probably not a case where you want you boss to randomly look over your shoulder.

Hooray For Earth - “Keys” (Official Video)



“Keys” was our first preview of Hooray For Earth’s upcoming Racy, and now it’s the first video too. The dark, disorienting footage is heavy on motorcycles, forestry, and human skin. It seems to be portraying some sort of romantic encounter on motorbikes, but of a very different kind than in the “Bound 2″ video.

6/26/2014

Pink Mountaintops - “Second Summer Of Love” (Official Video)



Pink Mountaintops have shared a video for the Get Back track “Second Summer Of Love,” and in it, somebody rides a flaming skateboard. Directed by Brook Linder, the clip follows a bunch of punks as they cause mischief, and there’s sort of a plot that you can follow, but who cares when you get to see a skater grind and leave a trail of flames behind him? It’s really cool to look at, which you should do below right now.

Monomyth - “Patsy” (Official Video)



Halifax indie rockers Monomyth just released the video for “Patsy” from their album Saturnalia Regalia!, and it’s a weird one. The song is a slightly ethereal yet punchy retro pop song, the sort of rock ’n’ roll ballad you’d expect to hear at a school dance in some ultra-hip version of the 1950s. Except in director Seth Smith’s video, the song soundtracks an ’80s-looking wedding between a big-haired bride and a groom with a head like a disco ball. The festivities pick up with a harrowing toast from the father of the bride. It’s quite a thing to see, and you can see it below.

Total Slacker - “Super Big Gulp” (Official Video)



Total Slacker, who released their new album, Slip Away, this past winter, have a new video game-centric video for their song “Super Big Gulp.” In the Danny Krug-directed clip, Tucker Rountree sits down to play a mysterious Sega Genesis game only to be sucked into it (via animation that reminds me of “Digital Estate Planning,” the video game-themed episode of Community) while bandmate Emily Oppenheimer plays. Also of note: Anyone else remember that Jurassic Park game Rountree is playing in the beginning? You could pick to play as a human or a raptor, and while I wouldn’t call the thing good exactly, I still played the shit out of it as a kid and had a blast.

Nina Persson - “Food For The Beast” (Official Video)



Nina Persson, the Swedish singer who has fronted the playful pop-rock band the Cardigans on and off since 1992 and has also featured in the trio A Camp, released her debut solo album Animal Heart this year. One of the standout tracks was the pulsing mid-tempo disco track “Food For The Beast,” which now has an eye-catching video by Tomas Melinder of the Malmö creative firm Top Dollar. The clip finds Persson behind and in front of various flashes of light — disco balls, video projections, undefined ethereal glimmers — while continuing to be the charismatic performer we’ve always known her to be.

Lil Herb - “Just Bars” (Official Video)



Thus far in 2014, the young and hard-as-fuck Chicago rapper Lil Herb has released Welcome To Fazoland, one of the year’s best mixtapes, and rapped alongside Nicki Minaj on her great “Chi-Raq” single. He is having a good year. And now he’s got a new chorus-free banger called “Just Bars.” The song’s video, from director Steven Michael Sims, isn’t much; it’s mostly just Herb and friends in the studio. But the song is great. This kid can flat-out rap.

Norah Jones - “It Was The Last Thing On Your Mind” (Official Video)



With her new song, Norah Jones helps set a sultry-sweet, shamelessly clichéd mood for David Wain’s new rom-com spoof They Came Together. The campy flick starring comedy all-stars Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd opens 6/27 in selected theaters and on-demand. “It Was the Last Thing On Your Mind” is one of several original songs featured on the They Came Together digital EP. Watch its video below, featuring a montage of scenes from the movie, with cameos from John Stamos and Adam Scott.

6/25/2014

School Of Seven Bells - “I Got Knocked Down (But I’ll Get Up)” (Joey Ramone Cover) Video


Yesterday, we heard School Of Seven Bells’ cover of Joey Ramone’s “I Got Knocked Down (But I’ll Get Up),” a track that Benjamin Curtis, the group’s late production mastermind, put together in his hospital bed while he was dying of lymphoma. Curtis died late last year, and his bandmate Alejandra Dehaza has paid him tribute by making a contemplative, elegiac video for the song, visiting deserts and beaches and desolate towns and forests, staring off into infinity all the while. Tony Halbrooks and Alan Del Rio Ortiz directed the video, and it’s a beautiful and deeply sad piece of work. 

Future - “Side Effects” (Official Video)



When you spend a good chunk of your life jetting around from show to show, you’ve got to find something to do on all those long flights. Future’s answer to that problem: Make a video! Much of the new low-budget video for “Side Effects,” a love-song bonus track from Future’s new Honest album, takes place on an in-flight plane, and the rest of it could’ve been knocked out immediately after the flight landed.

6/24/2014

The Child Of Lov (Feat. Damon Albarn) - “One Day” (Official Video)



Enigmatic Dutch bedroom-R&B producer Martijn William Zimri Teerlinck aka Cole Williams aka the Child Of Lov released his fantastic self-titled debut, a dusty, grimy, crackling marriage of bluesy soul and electronic experimentation featuring a crack team of high-profile collaborators, about a year ago. Tragically, the rising 26-year-old artist died in December due to complications from surgery. Before he passed, he shared a few arresting videos with us, and today there’s a new one for Damon Albarn collab and album highlight “One Day,” directed by Christine Yuan. The video explores a day in the life of a young woman and her lover — I won’t spoil it for you, but I will say that it’s pretty sad, creepy, and unsettling.

FKA twigs - “Two Weeks” (Official Video)



The excellent British singer FKA twigs is set to release her first full-length, LP1, and today she drops its first single and video, “Two Weeks.” The song is a sighing, soaring bit of electronic pop, and its lush slow-motion video (directed by Nabil) matches the song’s regal, ethereal beauty.

Liars - “Pro Anti Anti” (Official Video)



Earlier this year, Liars released Mess, their most dance-friendly album in many years but also one of their most apocalyptic. The new video for “Pro Anti Anti,” a song that Factory Floor have already remixed, is just as apocalyptic. In the clip, Liars band members Angus Andrew and Aaron Hemphill go to visit the 3D technology company Direct Dimensions to have their faces scanned completely. We then watch as their faces become statues, taking time to take in all the craftsmanship that goes into work like that. I don’t want to give anything away, but the creation of those faces is not the end of the video. Yoonha Park directed the video, and it’s a powerful and absorbing meditation on ideas of art and decay.

Veruca Salt - “It’s Holy” (Official Video)



After 19 years apart, the original members of the ’90s alt-pop hook-monsters Veruca Salt returned earlier this year to release a 10″ Record Store Day single that sounds way stronger than anyone could’ve possibly guessed. The band already made a studio-footage video for the amazing A-side “The Museum Of Broken Relationships,” and now they’ve made another one for “It’s Holy,” the nearly-as-catchy B-side. This one, from director Gary Kordan, mixes the shots of the band recording the song with more footage, presumably fan-submitted, of people dancing around their houses to the song.

Tunde Olaniran - “Critical” (Official Video)



Tunde Olaniran is unique among rappers-turnt-singers, a true character whose quirks don’t outshine his obvious talent. On “Critical,” a track from his recent Yung Archetype EP, the electrifying, androgynous Michigan musician — whose day-job is statewide Manager of Outreach for Planned Parenthood — vogues and emotes his way across a skittering, bass-booming production that wouldn’t sound out of place on Yeezus. Director Kevin Eckert’s video finds Olaniran sporting a massive wave of hair, rocking wild outfits, and basically carrying himself like a superstar. Perhaps he’s on his way? See for yourself below.

6/23/2014

Ab-Soul - “Closure” (Official Video)



After a long build-up, Ab-Soul will release his third full-length These Days… this week. Our last taste of the new album before the whole thing gets dropped on us comes in the form of this video for “Closure,” which features vocals from Jhené Aiko. It’s a slow and dark rumination on the end of a relationship and the video mostly involves Ab gloomily sitting on the bathroom floor.

Soft As Snow - “Halo Heart” (Official Video)



Norwegian duo Soft As Snow makes wild, impressionistic electronic music that splits the difference between Purity Ring’s exquisite beat-driven pop songs and the Knife’s brain-blasting experiments. They’ve matched “Halo Heart,” an expansive hallucination from their upcoming Glass Body EP, with an appropriately colorful splatter of kaleidoscopic imagery from director Michael Crowe. (“I’ve hidden a small brown mouse in the video, nobody’s spotted it yet,” Crowe notes. “When you see it you’ll drop that strawberry in awe.”) WARNING: There’s a lot of strobe action here, so those with epilepsy should proceed with caution. Everybody else can watch below.

The Fresh & Onlys - “Animal Of One” Video



Last week, prolific San Francisco garage rockers the Fresh & Onlys released House Of Spirits, their latest LP, and now they’ve shared a video for the woozy single “Animal Of One.” The video plays out as a sort of reverse-Purple Rose Of Cairo: A bunch of scuzzy rockers goes to see a Paris, Texas-looking movie in a theater, and one schlub gets hypnotized and beams himself into the action onscreen. Mehdi Alavi directs. It’s a goofy trip of a video, and you can watch it below.

Ought - “Today, More Than Any Other Day” (Official Video)



Back in April, Ought put out their debut collection of itchy art-punk, More Than Any Other Day, which managed to garner the band a bit of buzz. Today, they’ve shared a video for quasi-title track “Today, More Than Any Other Day” and it’s an anxious compilation of quick cuts of suburban minutiae that gets increasingly frenzied as the song builds toward its climax.

Sondre Lerche - “Bad Law” (Official Video)



Later this year Norwegian singer/songwriter Sondre Lerche will release Please, inspired by a recent divorce, and now you can watch the video for its single “Bad Law.” The Evan Savitt-directed video finds Lerche at a luxurious party, which fits with the song’s initial dance-pop cheer. But just like how the chorus is interrupted by crashing drums and jagged guitar noise, it becomes apparent how alienated (and drunk) he is at this party, as his actions grow more destructive and people try harder to pretend he’s not there. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Lerche said the video is based on a real “godforsaken night” last year.

Hundred Waters - “Out Alee” (Official Video)



Before releasing their new sophomore album The Moon Rang Like A Bell, the spaced-out Florida synth-impressionists Hundred Waters played a record-release show in the desert town of Arcosanti, Arizona. Yours Truly sent director Alex Warren to document the show, and he’s used footage from that show as the video for the ravishing album track “Out Alee,” which follows the band’s videos for “Cavity” and “Murmurs.” More than most live-show videos, this one makes great use of the gorgeous landscape surrounding the venue.

Against Me! - “Drinking With The Jocks” Video



Against Me!’s incredible recent album, Transgender Dysphoria Blues, came in at #7 on our list of the 50 Best Albums Of 2014 So Far, although it’s pretty impossible to force the album into any such context: Our #1 album, Sun Kil Moon’s Benji, is no less confessional or confrontational than TDB, but songwriters have been meditating on death since the first caveman first banged together two rocks in 4/4. Laura Jane Grace, on the other hand, is in uncharted territory — in mainstream music, only Hedwig And The Angry Inch has dealt so openly with transgender life, and Hedwig is a fictional musical comedy that only arrived in the mainstream after years playing to LGBT-sensitive audiences in Chelsea. (And Hedwig STILL feels daring.) TDB, meanwhile, is a largely autobiographical work by a woman who grew up — and became a hugely popular figure in punk rock, in real life — while living in a man’s body, with a man’s identity. How can such an album be adequately compared to others, and how can any other album compare to that? Anyway, today Against Me! released a video for TDB track “Drinking With The Jocks,” which provides what feels like a look into the subconscious of a transgender woman. It’s not exactly NSFW but enough dirty words and bare asses flash across the screen that it’s not totally appropriate for every workplace. When it’s safe for you, though, you should watch.

Cold Specks - “Absisto” (Official Video)



London via Canada “doom soul” act Cold Specks will release an album called Neuroplasticity on Mute this August. The first single is “Absisto,” a foreboding minor-key track laced with atmospheric sounds of rock and orchestral varieties and prone to cacophonous outbursts. In a Canadian forest, director Ian Pons Jewell filmed a video that depicts a harrowing encounter and what appears to be some sort of mystic ceremony presided over by Cold Specks leader Al Spx. It’s appropriately freaky for an artist whose new album also features Michael Gira, yet the song flickers with an emotive warmth that reminds you Cold Specks also opened for Joni Mitchell at her 70th birthday party.

Interpol - “Anywhere” Live Video



Earlier this month, Interpol announced the impending release of El Pintor, their fifth album. And a couple of months ago, before they’d even announced the album, they debuted a couple of new songs, “Anywhere” and “My Desire,” live in Newcastle. We got to hear those songs as fan-made live videos, but now they’ve done us one better. We still haven’t heard the studio versions of any of those songs, but now they’ve shared a professionally done live video of themselves playing “Anywhere” in Brixton. For a pro video, it’s awfully heavy on shots of the backs of peoples heads, but it still gives us the clearest audio of the song we’ve yet heard. You will be shocked to discover that it sounds very much like an Interpol song.

Austra - “Habitat” (Official Video)



Austra’s Habitat EP is out this week, and now so is the video for the title track. Director Matt Lambert’s clip seems to be about a wave of lust sweeping through a cheap motel. Various hookups ensue, although nobody gets all the way naked, so the NSFW-ness may vary. On Twitter, Austra notes that the video was made in Scarborough at the same motel where Hedwig And The Angry Inch was made.

FKA twigs - “tw-Ache” (Official Video)



The London conceptual pop singer FKA twigs recently announced the impending release of LP1, her debut album, but she’s just now come out with a video for “Ache,” an instrumental track from last years EP1. Her amazing past videos, for tracks like “Water Me” and “Papi Pacify,” are the sorts of things that linger long after you’ve watched them, but those videos depend on effects and theatricality. The new video, rechristened “tw-Ache” for whatever reason, leaves nearly as deep of an impression, and it does it with a much simpler setup. The whole video is just twigs and a couple of male dancers performing an elaborately choreographed dance in a big, empty room. And while there’s a sexual element to it, the video is more about physical exertion, about the strain on tendons as she pulls herself up on ceiling pipes. Tom Beard directs.

David Bowie & Mick Jagger’s “Dancing In The Street” Video Without The Music Is Pretty Great



If you haven’t heard of the “musicless music video” series this might be the best introduction. Behold David Bowie and Mick Jagger’s infamous “Dancing In The Street” video in which the music’s replaced awkward sound effects. So we get feet pattering on pavement and some occasional grunting to soundtrack the terrible dancing. It’s funnier than it should be.

Check out the entire series here.

Coldplay - “A Sky Full Of Stars” (Official Video)



At this point, Coldplay are old hands at the supremely goofy rock-star stunt, and their new video for “A Sky Full Of Stars,” the Avicii-produced track from their new Ghost Stories album, certainly qualifies. In the clip, the members of the band walk down a busy city street, playing the song while wearing ridiculous-looking one-man-band getups, and the throngs of passersby seem absolutely thrilled to see them. It’s structured to look like they surprised everyone, and I have my doubts, but maybe. Either way, the video walks the line between “nice” and “embarrassing,” and that line is pretty much where Coldplay live. I come down just slightly on the “nice” side, but your mileage may vary.

Wild Beasts - “Mecca” (Official Video)



Wild Beasts tend to make good videos, and the British art-rockers have a new one, for “Mecca,” a song from their powerful new album Present Tense. Kate Moross directed this one, and it plunges the band into a gooey, kaleidoscopic landscape. That, by itself, is nothing new, but the difference this time is that the landscape is made entirely out of the same vivid neon design elements as the posters that hung in hair salons in the ’80s.

Lana Del Rey - “Shades Of Cool” (Official Video) - Stream Lana Del Rey Ultraviolence



“Shades Of Cool” is the most Bond-sounding single off Lana Del Rey’s Ultraviolence, but the video is more fairy tale than action movie. It’s steeped in the mirage-like American iconography that has colored Del Rey’s music in since “Video Games,” depicting a romantic fling with an older man. There are also some stylized images involving birds that could be described as “adult Disney.” 

Popstrangers - “Don’t Be Afraid” (Official Video)



London-via-New Zealand trio Popstrangers released their dreamy new album, Fortuna, at the end of last month. Now there’s a Liam Healy-directed video for second single, “Don’t Be Afraid,” which follows a transgender stripper nervously preparing for and then beginning her performance for some leering dudes at a dimly lit club. “The video is about the rush you get after you do something for the first time,” Healy explained to SPIN. “The initial sick-with-nerves feeling, the rejection of your inhibitions and then that final release when you are not afraid anymore.” That idea meshes well with the track itself, which begins with a queasy groove before opening up into airy bliss.

Michelle Williams (Feat. Beyoncé & Kelly Rowland) - “Say Yes” (Official Video)



On her new uptempo gospel jam “Say Yes,” the former Destiny’s Child member Michelle Williams rounded up guest vocals from Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland, the two other members of the best-known Destiny’s Child lineup. (It’s not the best Destiny’s Child lineup; that would be the Writing’s On The Wall one, which didn’t include Williams.) “Say Yes,” the first song to feature all three since last year’s “Nuclear,” now has a video, and it has all three of them looking seriously happy. (Solange was reportedly on the song, but she’s not in the video, so who knows.) Beyoncé brings back the Destiny’s Child-era braids, which is a nice touch. The clip debuted on Good Morning America earlier today, and you can watch.

Sturgill Simpson - “The Promise” (Official Video)



Sturgill Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds In Country Music was likely one of the more surprising inclusions on our list of the 50 Best Albums Of 2014 So Far, if only because we haven’t previously covered the Kentucky-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter yet. So, let’s catch up: On the face of it, Simpson writes traditionalist country ballads the likes of which you wouldn’t be surprised to hear on a West Texas jukebox in 1971, except his lyrics utterly subvert the conventions of the genre. The best example of this is probably on the album’s leadoff track “Turtles All The Way Down,” which starts out with typical country fare about seeing Jesus but ends up referencing “reptile aliens made of light” who “cut you open and pull out all your pain” as well as marijuana, LSD, space, and time. It’s nearly impossible to hear a line like that in a song like this without startling.

Simpson has stated that he aimed to make a “’social consciousness’ concept album disguised as a country record.” The thing is, as I explained in my blurb, Simpson’s music is soul-stirring even when he sticks to the script. He exerts a powerful command of his genre’s weepiest forms, and “The Promise” (a cover of the When In Rome hit) is as fine an example as any. That one is a tearjerker about trying to win over the one he loves, promising he’ll always be there even as he can’t stumble into the right words to express his devotion. Graham Uhelski just shot and edited a simple yet effective video for “The Promise,” which you can watch below.

Cut Copy - “Meet Me In A House Of Love” (Official Video)



Last year Cut Copy embraced their psychedelic side like never before with Free Your Mind, a record that acted like a summer blockbuster reboot of Primal Scream’s 1991 classic Screamadelica. Now they’ve put together a funny and strange video for the thumping disco groove of “Meet Me In A House Of Love.” In case you’re not super familiar with what Cut Copy look like: The guy in this video is not part of the band. His name is Ben Sinclair, and outside of this he’s the co-creator and star of High Maintenance, a web series (available free on Vimeo) that is better than just about anything you’ll find on TV, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Here he plays the host of a late-night show populated entirely by cardboard cutouts.

Corbu - “Believe The Lie” (Official Video)


Corbu, a Brooklyn indie/electronic pop five-piece, have self-released their debut EP, We Are Sound (with another EP to follow later this summer). In interviews, frontman Jonathan Graves frequently references his intense dreams and his love of science fiction, and both of these influences are on full display in the animated space odyssey of a video for EP track “Believe The Lie,” directed by Javier Longobardo. Synths twinkle and swirl around Graves’ dreamy vocals and an insistently thumping bassline, as Longobardo takes the viewer on a tour of a colorful alien landscape.

OK Go - “The Writing’s On The Wall” (Official Video)



For years now, power-poppers OK Go have been more famous for their ability to put together intricately choreographed homespun viral videos than for their music. Their clip for the new single “The Writing’s On The Wall” might be the band’s most ambitious yet. It sends them through a series of optical illusions in a Brooklyn warehouse, throwing them into the geometric paintings of artists like Felice Varini and Dan Tobin-Smith. The whole thing was done in a single take, and the amount of planning that must’ve gone into it is enough to cause your brain to blow a fuse. Frontman Damian Kulash, Jr. co-directed the video alongside Aaron Duffy and Bob Partington.

6/17/2014

Arctic Monkeys - “Snap Out Of It” (Official Video)



AM, the album that the Arctic Monkeys released last year, is the sort of album that refuses to get old; its economic grooves and old-school rock-star sneer are rare things in an era where the entire concept of rock stardom is just barely hanging on. But even in the UK, where the band has minor-deity status, I have a tough time imagining the events in the “Snap Out Of It” video actually taking place. The clip takes place in a fancy house, where a pretty lady (the actress Stephanie Sigman) is watching grainy Arctic Monkeys studio footage and obsessing hard over it. I don’t know if this constitutes rock-star fantasy or sheer creepiness, but it’s not really all that plausible. Focus Creeps direct.

Eels - “Lockdown Hurricane” Video (NSFW)


Two words dominate 90% of all music related conversation: under-rated and over-rated.
The criteria with which one uses the two words is different each time. For example - a band can be over-rated because they've sold lots of albums (Coldplay), keyboard-critics in Brooklyn like them (Perfect Pussy), or because they've defined themselves as great (anything by Bono). But an artist can still sell a lot of records and be under-rated (Iggy Pop) or they can be under-rated because only keyboard-critics in Brooklyn like them (Perfect Pussy). It all depends on the band and the person that's doing the talking - which, this time, is The Eels and Me.
The Eels are terminally under-rated. Led by Mark Everett and his inter-changing band, they've released 11 official records of brilliance that've escaped most music fans ears. E has put out a bunch of other material, an autobiography, and all sorts of memorabilia - if you've watched any of the Shrek films you will recognise his voice. They're brilliant and they're under-rated because not enough people know they're brilliant. Thankfully you've got another chance for real to recognise real - he's released his latest record The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett and in advance we've got the premiere of his new video "Lockdown Hurricane." It's a bit of a tear-jerking tune but the video also features sex so, you know, it all evens out.
Via:Noisey.

MØ - “Walk This Way” (Official Video)



Few people on this planet are as good at striking dramatic poses in music videos as the Danish pop singer MØ is. MØ’s music videos are almost uniformly excellent, and they seem to revolve almost entirely around dramatic poses. MØ released her debut album No Mythologies To Follow earlier this year, and her video for the album track “Walk This Way” (which has nothing to do with Aerosmith) comes close to the instantly iconic ridiculousness of her “Don’t Wanna Dance” clip. In the new video, MØ heads up a group of blank-faced, severe-looking gym-class badasses, all of whom artfully splay themselves out across the frame in every camera shot. Emile Rafael directs.

6/16/2014

Quilt - “Eye Of The Pearl” (Official Video)



The psychedelic Boston wanderers in Quilt released their Held In Splendor album at the beginning of the year, and they’ve already made videos for its songs “Arctic Shark” and “Tie Up The Tides.” Now they’ve got anotherone, for the softly sighing “Eye Of The Pearl,” and it’s a pretty one. Band member John Andrews directed the exceedingly good-natured video, which follows the band around on tour, across deserts and snowy landscapes and outsider art installations. The video makes being a member of Quilt look like a lot of fun, and you can watch it below.

Jon Hopkins - “We Disappear” (Feat. Lulu James) Official Video



Jon Hopkins’ Immunity gave us some of the most taut and explorative electronic music of 2013. Now he’s surprising us again by reworking some of those tracks with vocalists. After a new collaboration with Bat For Lashes, Hopkins added a Purity Ring guest spot to “Breathe This Air” and a soulful Lulu James performance to the previously instrumental opener “We Disappear.” Now you can watch the Rob Chiu-directed video for the latter.

Chlöe Howl - “Disappointed” (Official Video)



Chlöe Howl has been gaining popularity for good reasons, and now we have yet another one. The video for “Disappointed” provides just enough story while also showcasing how intense roller derby can be. Most of all it’s a showcase for just how comfortably Howl is developing into a bonafide pop star.

Ty Dolla $ign - “Or Nah (Remix)” (Feat. Wiz Khalifa & The Weeknd) Video



“Or Nah,” the recent hit from the Californian R&B libertine Ty Dolla $ign, is a gorgeously textured piece of work, but it’s also a total asshole anthem, a weirdly pushy sex song. Wiz Khalifa showed up on the original track, and the Weeknd sang on a remix; both of them show up in the song’s new video, which is incongruously shot like a Swedish thriller, and which features a horror-movie plot twist at the end. Complicated! Ryan Patrick directs.

Yellow Ostrich - “Neon Fists” (Official Video)



Yellow Ostrich released their new album, Cosmos, this past winter, and now have a video for album track “Neon Fists.” The David Feinberg-directed video follows a man as he moves through a static-filled city. Select things in each shot grow distorted — a building in the distance or a reflection in a mirror — while everything else stays in focus.

HSY - “Cyber Bully” (Official Video)



Everyone hates cyber bullies. They’re such … bullies, you know? Toronto noise-punk band HSY (pronounced “hussy”) hate them a whole lot. In fact, their graphic new video for “Cyber Bully” seems to advocate tracking down and procedurally eviscerating your haters, then consuming their entrails. Their characteristic thundering riffs plastered over grimy, discordant vocals provide a disturbing but fitting soundtrack to the carnage.

Lower - “Tradition” (Official Video)



The release of Lower’s excellent debut album Seek Warmer Climes is imminent, and the darkly tinged Danish punks just released another performance video. Like the “Bastard Tactics” clip, this presents Lower in stark shades in a rehearsal space and lets their smoldering stage presence take the lead.

Ray & Remora - “Gold Soundz” Video (Feat. Stephen Malkmus, Kim Gordon, Jeff Goldblum)



We at Stereogum are apparently not the only people obsessed with celebrating shit from 1994 on its 20th anniversary; the synthpop duo Ray & Remora pay tribute to the entire year on their new 1994 EP, which includes covers of songs by Guided By Voices, Superchunk, Weezer, Sebadoh, and Dinosaur Jr. There’s also a cutesy version of Pavement’s “Gold Soundz,” and now actual Pavement guy Stephen Malkmus has opted to show up in Ray & Remora’s video for the cover. Snäckan B. directed the video, which also has cameos from Kim Gordon, Money Mark, Weezer bassist Scott Shriner, the Bird And The Bee’s Inara George, and motherfucking Jeff Goldblum. There’s also an extended dance break.

Riff Raff - “Aquaberry Dolphin” (Feat. Mac Miller)



Riff Raff’s long-in-the-works debut album Neon Icon is only a week and a half away from release, and we’ve already heard the early singles “How To Be The Man” and “Kokayne.” But the new Mac Miller collab “Aquaberry Dolphin” is the first thing we’ve yet heard from the album that returns Riff to his absurdist money-talk prime. And it’s great to hear two of the greatest drug-addled white rappers in the game trading ridiculous lines.

Basement Jaxx - “Sereia De Bahia (Mermaid Of Bahia)” Video



The World Cup begins today in Brazil, which means, among other things, every man, woman, and child in the United Kingdom is in a state of extreme euphoric anxiety. Both members of dance duo Basement Jaxx are British, and perhaps they channeled some of that joyous dread into “Sereia De Bahia,” their new version of their 2013 track “Mermaid Of Bahia,” this time recorded with Brazilian singer Nina Miranda. Alan Masferrer directed the video, which has dancing matadors and hula dancers and Baywatch lifeguards acting like human gifs.

La Sera - “Fall In Place” (Official Video)



La Sera, the solo project from the former Vivian Girl Katy Goodman, released the new album Hour Of The Dawn last month. And in the new video for the jangling “Fall In Place,” we see Goodman and guitarist Todd Wisenbaker bopping down a sunny street, walking their dog and playing the song. Roadies frantically switch out Wisenbaker’s guitars, which is one way of demonstrating just how many guitar songs there are on this song. There are a lot! Michael Erik Nikolla directed the song.

6/12/2014

Ryan Hemsworth - “One For Me” (Feat. Tinashe) Video



Last year, the Canadian producer Ryan Hemsworth released his official debut album Guilt Trips, a gorgeous piece of work that flitted casually among genres but kept a mood running throughout. You can also see some of that mood at work in his video for “One For Me,” a collaboration with the ascendent R&B singer Tinashe. With the video, director Martin C. Pariseau documents a glamorous sort of life, filming Hemsworth checking into fancy hotels and driving a Lamborghini through Montreal and taking off in a helicopter. But Hemsworth and Pariseau went into it with the intention of making “the most boring music video of 2014,” and the clip focuses on the mundanities of that life: The everpresent laptops and smartphones, the isolation in eating room service food constantly. It’s too prettily filmed to be for-real boring, but it’s an interesting glimpse into a world that’s not as exciting as it makes itself out to be. Watch the video and read some words about it from Hemsworth and Pariseau below.

Hemsworth writes:
Martin approached me about making “the most boring video for 2014.” At this point in my life, I realized it would be a great thing to do because the Super Cool DJ lifestyle is one associated with being the life of the party and never having a dull moment. The truth is that it’s mostly made up of moments waiting around and hanging out by yourself. The track itself is already about walking through the middle of a crowd feeling alone. So driving around Montreal in a Lamborghini yawning felt like a good way of showing how awesome and equally solitary it can get sometimes.
Pariseau writes:
I’ve been looking to make the most boring video possible for a while now. I then approached Ryan and he talked to me about his life on tour, being a cool DJ, having fans and being more of a geek then a rock star. We were definitely heading in the same direction, so a week later, without any preparation, we shot the damn thing. It was the most relaxed video set I’ve been on yet, we basically shot what we wanted when we wanted and also played Diddy Kong Racing and Pokemon Snap.

Mastodon - “High Road” (Official Video)



Mastodon used to make videos about evil clowns and cannibal cavemen, but in making the clip for “High Road,” the first single from their new album Once More ’Round the Sun, they’ve gone a different route entirely. With this one, they tell the story of a skinny dweeb who gets beat up during a LARP battle, a nerd even among nerds. It’s one of those underdog stories, and its training montage is one for the ages. Roboshobo directs, and it’s just a ridiculously fun video.

Shamir - “Sometimes A Man” (Official Video)



The 19-year-old singer Shamir makes old-school disco-house with this awesome crumpling vulnerability that gives his songs real emotional weight. In Shamir’s vieo for “Sometimes A Man, a track from his new Northtown EP, director Antony Sylvester, who also did Shamir’s “If It Wasn’t True” video, follows Shamir through the caves and abandoned houses in the desert outside Shamir’s Las Vegas hometown. There are many, many psychedelic camera effects along the way.

Strand Of Oaks - “Shut In” (Official Video)



Strand Of Oaks’ HEAL single “Shut In” is about Timothy Showalter’s battle to break free of addiction, depression, and other assorted damage. Zia Anger’s video plays off the source material in a way that’s zany yet still moving, casting Showalter as an actual shut-in interviewed by a mock 60 Minutes-style news magazine program. Watch it.

The Roots - “Never” (ft. Patty Crash )(Official Video)



The Roots’ new album …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin is a conceptual art-rap affair, made without any real concern for the marketplace, and so it’s not much of a surprise that their latest music videos are conceptual allegory-type deals. They’ve already unveiled a stop-motion clip for “Understand.” And though the video for “Never,” the song that the band memorably performed on The Tonight Show last month, is live-action, it’s not the sort of thing where the band shows up to mime out the song. Instead, the video follows a young man as he tries to escape a desolate city block, while faceless ghouls pursue him.

Hundred Waters - “Murmurs” (Official Video)



Shimmery Gainesville, Florida synth-folk act Hundred Waters just released their lovely sophomore LP, The Moon Rang Like A Bell, and now they’re sharing the video for album cut “Murmurs.” Directed by Allie Avital Tsypin of BANGS, the haunting slow-motion clip features singer Nicole Miglis staring soulfully into the camera and singing as a horde of construction workers converges on a house.

JJ - “All White Everything” (Official Video, Extended Version)



The Swedish narco-pop experimenters JJ are coming back later this summer with their new album V, and first single “All White Everything” might be the most straight-up gorgeous thing they’ve ever done. The song’s new video is a compellingly strange vision, a story that takes place entirely in one of those repressive, over-prescriptive mental hospitals where everything is white and where wraithlike contortionist interpretive dancers stalk the hallways. Strange and magical things happen in the hospital, and it’s never entirely clear what’s going on, if we’re seeing hallucinations or what. If you watched the V album trailer, some of the images might look familiar, but it’s still a deeply weird viewing experience. Olivia Kastebring directs.

Poliça - “Raw Exit” (Official Video)



“Who’s ready to die alone?” isn’t getting any less effective as a refrain. So goes Poliça’s “Raw Exit,” the title track from the all-new EP that comes packaged with the deluxe reissue of last year’s Shulamith. Marijuana Deathsquads frontman Isaac Gale has given the song a seductive video featuring Channy Leaneagh in several scenarios and guises. It’s making me like the song even more, so, successful video.

clipping. - “Body & Blood” Video (NSFW)



We just named clipping.’s CLPPNG our Album Of The Week, and one of the record’s finest noise-rap dispatches is the booming “Body & Blood,” its second track and first proper song. Just a day after the album’s release, director Patrick Kennelly has delivered a “Body & Blood” video that matches the track’s ferocious bluntness with striking, sometimes harrowing images of the human body. These guys sure do know how to make simple, direct, intense music videos. This one is NSFW due to male and female nudity and implied torture.

Lydia Ainsworth - “Malachite” (Official Video)



If you missed Lydia Ainsworth’s recent single, “Malachite,” you’re in luck because the new video makes a perfect introduction. Ainsworth is a recent signee to Arbutus Records, the same place that spawned Grimes, Majical Cloudz, and Doldrums. “Malachite” was synth pop that constantly surprised in its sounds, using everything from ghostly choir vocals, samples that could have been culled from the sound chip of a really good Super Nintendo game, and Ainsworth’s haunting voice. Matthew Lessner’s video, meanwhile, takes a few finger lights, combines them with complicated choreography (by Princess Lockeroo) and extremely talented dancers, and makes something creepy, beautiful, and impossible to take your eyes off of.

Zeds Dead - “Lost You” (Feat. Twin Shadow) Video



“Lost You,” the Twin Shadow collaboration from Zeds Dead’s upcoming Somewhere Else EP, now has a very colorful video by Grandson & Son.

A$AP Mob - “Hella Hoes” (Official Video)



Danny Brown wasn’t thrilled to have his verse removed from “Hella Hoes,” the new A$AP Mob single, and it’s easy to understand why. For one thing, it’s unprofessional to delete a verse without telling the person who made that verse. For another, it’s a fun, splenetic song that would’ve only sounded better with Brown on it. I also wouldn’t blame Brown if he was annoyed about not being invited to the “Hella Hoes” video shoot, as the clip takes place at a house party full of strippers. (It’s lightly NSFW for stripper-related reasons, even though nipples are blurcled out.) It’s a standard rap-video setting, done in the weirdly artistic A$AP Mob style, and 2 Chainz and PeeWee Longway make cameos.

Sweet Apple - “Let’s Take The Same Plane” Official Video (Feat. Mike Watt)



J Mascis’ band Sweet Apple bring together a lot of alt-rock vets on their new album The Golden Age Of Glitter, as evidenced on the previously released “Wish You Could Stay (A Little Longer),” which featured Mark Lanegan. In the video for “Let’s Take The Same Place,” even more major names come into the fold. The song already featured Lanegan (again) with Rachel Haden of Rentals/That Dog, but the video also brings in Mike Watt, of the Minutemen and Firehose, as a kayaker. Watch.

The Garden - "Crystal Clear" (Official video)



LA neo-punk duo The Garden has just released 3 different 7 inch records all featuring the same single, 'Crystal Clear'. Director Greyson Sawyer

6/10/2014

Nicki Minaj - “Pills N Potions” (Official Video)



After her recent run of fiery badass rap singles, it was a bit sad to hear Nicki Minaj go for soft chiffon pop-R&B on “Pills N Potions,” the first official single from her new album The Pink Print. But if we were worried that Nicki would turn normal, it’s time to put those fears to bed. Nicki’s new “Pills N Potions” video, directed by Diane Martel, has plenty of the hallmarks of pop and R&B videos: Nicki in revealing outfits, Nicki cuddled up to rapper the Game (who will now rap about this video in every song forever), extremely bright colors. But it also has some delirious weirdness: Floods of CGI tears, melted cotton-candy landscapes, a crudely animated dancing rabbit. In fact, the only really normal thing about this video is the egregious Beats Pill product placement.

Tomas Barfod - "Busy Baby (feat. Nina K)" (Official Video)



The Drive-core synthpop stunner “Busy Baby” is one of the greatest songs on one of the year’s most fully realized albums, Tomas Barfod’s Love Me. That album is out today, and with it comes director Laerke’s video for “Busy Baby.” The simple, striking clip plays off Love Me’s album cover, but with guest vocalist Nina Kinert in the frame instead of Barfod. It’s evocative without detracting too much attention from what a great song this is.

Kool A.D. - “Word O.K.” (Official Video)



Earlier this year, Kool A.D., formerly of Das Racist, released Word O.K., the latest and arguably the strongest mixtape of his solo career. And the run of music videos from that mixtape — for “Open Letter,” “Tight,” “I’m On A Plane,” and “Word” — has absolutely been the strongest he’s been involved in since the early days of Das Racist. He’s now added to that string with the sloppiest and wooziest of the bunch, for the album’s title track. But with its digital distortion and drug-cult imagery and Bruce Springsteen album-cover reenactment, the video almost uses sloppiness as an aesthetic choice. Nick Knight directs.

6/09/2014

The Phoenix Foundation - “Bob Lennon John Dylan” (Official Video)



“Bob Lennon John Dylan,” from the Phoenix Foundation’s recent Tom’s Lunch EP, conjures sounds from rock history, but not so much the ones referenced in the song title. The New Zealand nerds have a whiff of Devo about them, but they approach their spasmodic post-punk with a krautrock undercurrent, the playful cuteness of Aussie indie-pop outfit Architecture In Helsinki, and Stepdad’s shameless nostalgic goofs. Directors Puck And Paul put the band in some sort of wild futuristic tunnel filled with ethereal light, and it’s quite a sight to see.

Blood Orange - "You're Not Good Enough" (Official Video) (Dir. Gia Coppola)



Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes did the music for director Gia Coppola’s new adaptation of James Franco’s book Palo Alto; now Coppola has contributed a video to go with one of Blood Orange’s best songs. Cupid Deluxe jam “You’re Not Good Enough” already had a lyric video featuring Hynes’ dancing shoes, but Coppola has pulled back the camera a bit for a deconstructed, documentary-style clip featuring Blood Orange and a team of dancers performing in a rehearsal space. There’s also a private dance interlude similar to the “Time Will Tell” video, and Samantha Urbani is rocking one serious jacket. It’s part of Urban Outfitters’ UO Music Video Series, and you can watch it below.

PSY - "Hangover" feat. Snoop Dog (Official Video)



PSY - "Hangover" feat. Snoop Dog (Official Video)

According to Psy and Snoop Dogg's new music video, "Hangover," here are five ways you can cure a hangover:
  1. By swimming in a fountain filled with Mountain Dew.
  2. By performing a catchy sax solo.
  3. By causing a massive car crash.
  4. By singing karaoke.
  5. By drinking more.
God bless science.

Europa Europa & The Knife - “För Alla Namn Vi Inte Får Använda” (Official Video)



Judging by everything that they’ve done in the past couple of years, the Knife’s two favorite things on earth are leftist activism and modern dance, and so of course they’ll take any possible opportunity to fuse the two. The Swedish avant-garde electro greats have contributed music to Europa Europa, which comes from the writer and director Nasim Aghili and which identifies itself as a “political activist cabaret.” And in a new video for “För Alla Namn Vi Inte Får Använda,” a song that the group contributed, we see a group of dancers doing what they call a “political macarena,” apparently an abstract response to European immigration laws. This is a confusing description, but the track itself is badass, and the video is full of powerful imagery. Roxy Farhat directed the video.

Chainz - “They Know” (Feat. Cap 1 & Ty Dolla $ign) Official Video



Last month, 2 Chainz released Freebase, and EP-length mixtape that skewed street rather than pop, and it pretty much ruled. That tape yielded the “Trap Back” video, which was also great. And now, 2 Chainz has made another video for a Freebase track, and in this case, it’s the Cap 1/Ty Dolla $ign collab “They Know.” The video itself isn’t much — rappers and models and bare sets — but it might be worth checking out if you haven’t heard the song yet. It’s a good song.

Julianna Barwick - "The Harbinger" At The Andy Warhol Museum



When listening to Julianna Barwick’s music, especially her excellent 2013 album, Nepenthe, it’s easy to forget that nearly everything you’re hearing comes from her voice, impressionistically looped and layered. Fortunately the Louisiana-born, Missouri-raised, and Brooklyn-based experimental siren’s live shows get that across as she builds glacial and blissful songs right in front of you. Barwick recently shot a live session at the Andy Warhol Museum in New York City, and you can watch her perform one of her best songs, “The Harbinger,” from that below. If you’re in the NYC area catch her tomorrow night performing with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus at Roulette.

The Soft Pink Truth - “Black Metal” (Venom Cover) Video (NSFW)



The Soft Pink Truth is a sort of conceptual pop project from Drew Daniel, one half of Matmos, and his new album Why Do The Heathen Rage is a collection of slippery electro covers of old black metal songs, a sort of paradigm-exploding investigation of what it’s like to be a gay fan of a strain of metal that can be virulently anti-gay. We’ve already posted the Soft Pink Truth’s cover of Venom’s genre-defining classic “Black Metal” (as well as a version of Sarcófago’s “Ready To Fuck” with Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner singing). And below, you can check out director Max Eilbacher’s video for that “Black Metal” cover, which offers the you-don’t-see-this-everyday image of people vogueing in corpsepaint. NSFW for fake dicks.

6/05/2014

Dum Dum Girls - “Under These Hands” (Official Video)



Earlier this year, Dum Dum Girls dropped their new album, Too True, and recently shot a session for clothier All Saints’ London Sessions series. Below you can watch them play the album cut “Under These Hands” in the Dalston bar Shacklewell Arms. It’s a moody black-and-white video, which fits right in with the band’s style.

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Dum Dum Girls are no strangers to the intersecting worlds of art, high fashion and music. So we were hyped up when they recently blessed us with their presence to collaborate on a new London Sessions around their UK tour and promotion of their latest album, the excellent Too True.

Sessions are set in iconic venues in East London, where the space is as much a character on camera as our brilliant musical partners. Following productions at Wapping Power Plant, Truman Brewery and our own rooftop in Shoreditch, we shot the Dum Dum Girls at Dalston's local kick-ass music hub/pub, the Shacklewell Arms, host to many of today's most engaging & relevant artists.

Our approach to capturing the sultry energy of the Dum Dum's standout track, "Under These Hands," was to bring in a live audience and allow for the band to emote within such an intimate space. Reaching out to both the band's social channels and our own, and using custom designed tickets as gateway to entry, a solid crew of fans turned up to pack the venue and form our audience of moving bodies.

The result is a surreal, moving performance highlighting the Dum Dums' provocative stage personas, as well as front-woman Dee Dee's revealing, intimate lyrics.
Discover more from AllSaints Studios here: allsaints.com/studios

The Antlers - “Hotel” (Official Video)



The Antlers’ new album Familiars is a couple of weeks away from release, and they’ve already shared a dark, murky video for one of its songs, “Palace.” Today, they’ve got another one, for the expansive single “Hotel.” Derrick Belcham directed this one, which shows the band members walking expressionless through dusty, out-of-focus corridors.

American Football - “Never Meant” (Official Video)



Given the ever-increasing influence of late-’90s emo math-rockers American Football, if you didn’t know “Never Meant” was the first song on their recently reissued 1999 self-titled LP, you could be forgiven for assuming this brand new video was the work of one of their many imitators. But no, it’s a new video for an old song, a charming Midwestern music-nerd love story with high production values American Football probably couldn’t have afforded back in their heyday courtesy of director/editor Chris Strong.

Kevin Drew - “You In Your Were” Video (Feat. Zach Galifianakis & Feist)



For a certain sort of indie-rock fan — specifically people who were in college when Broken Social Scene’s You Got It In People came out, people like me — the sight of Kevin Drew and Leslie Feist playfully singing together in an empty ballroom is enough to make your entire week. Funny Or Die’s video for Drew’s Darlings jam “You In Your Were” delivers on the front while weaving in a comedic storyline about Zach Galifianakis choreographing a dance routine to help Drew have a hit on par with “The Macarena” and “Gangnam Style.” That whole ordeal is pretty funny, and when Feist shows up, her chemistry with Drew elicits some serious tingles. In other words, the video is overflowing with positive emotions. Do yourself a favor and watch it.

How To Dress Well - “Face Again” (Official Video)



When a music video ends with “to be continued,” we’ve been conditioned not to believe it, but Tom Krell is the sort of person who follows up on things. Krell records as How To Dress Well, and his staggering new album “What Is This Heart?” will be along in a couple of weeks. His recent video for “Repeat Pleasure” followed a young couple through heartbreaking circumstances, and the new video, for the album track “Face Again,” follows our two heroes as they disappear into the desert. Krell himself plays some kind of mysterious hermit who may also be a healer, and Johannes Greve Muskat once again directs. It’s the second video in a trilogy, so we’re not done with these kids yet. As for the song itself, it’s sweeping inward soul music that will wreck your heart, and it’s another sign that you should be excited for this album. 

DJ Dodger Stadium - “Never Win” (Official Video)



DJ Dodger Stadium is the duo of L.A. dance producers Jerome LOL and Samo Sound Boy, and we posted the video for their sweeping, emotive techno track “Love Songs,” in which a drone camera slowly took in a majestic Los Angeles landscape. Their new video is for “Never Win,” a restless and intense banger that has that same old-school sampling sensibility. And its video, which Daniel Pappas once again directs, follows the same concept, giving us an image of an L.A. park at the break of dusk.

Chuck Inglish - “Legs” (Feat. Chromeo) Official Video



The Cool Kids rapper/producer Chuck Inglish released his solo debut Convertibles earlier this year, and on “Legs,” the album’s first single, he collaborated with Chromeo. “Legs” is less a Chuck Inglish song with a Chromeo chorus than a Chromeo song with Inglish rapping on it. And in the song’s new video, from director Andreis Costa, Inglish goes all the way in on Chromeo’s whole ’80s-kitsch hornball aesthetic. Excellent use of gull-wing doors in this one.

Designer - “Bye Bye Bible” (Official Video)



The toxic noise rock of Boston’s Designer was infectious enough to land them a spot on our list of the 40 Best New Bands Of 2013. They’ve now shared “Bye Bye Bible,” from their upcoming 7-inch, and in under 90 seconds, it gets across everything great about them while walking the line between being really catchy and making you just want to smash stuff.

Future - “Blood, Sweat, Tears” (Official Video)



Not too long ago, Future released Honest, his powerful and multi-faceted sophomore album. One of the LP’s most affecting tracks is “Blood, Sweat, Tears,” a thoughtful song about what it takes to make something of yourself and the exhaustion that can come from all that exertion. In the song’s new video, Future is the only person onscreen. He spends the video walking down lonely roads, and it’s not the most exciting video ever. But Future’s presence has real weight, and if the video succeeds, it’s thanks to his performance.

Woman’s Hour - “Conversations” (Official Video)



Woman’s Hour are putting out their debut album, Conversations, this summer, and now have a video for the previously released title track. With its black-white-and-gray palette, it almost feels as if the artwork that paired so well with their early songs has moved into full motion.

Jack White - “Lazaretto” (Official Video)



Jack White’s “Lazaretto” is a beast, and its video features one. Specifically, there’s a raging bull involved in the black-and-white clip by Jonas & François, which also features a lot of glass breaking thanks to the sheer power of such good old-fashioned American artifacts as bullets, baseballs, and analog sound. Additionally, White wears a terrible suit, his shadow plays a guitar solo, and a man with a Jack White chest tattoo shows up.

Guided By Voices - “Bad Love Is Easy To Do” Video (Feat. Katy Goodman)



“Bad Love Is Easy To Do,” the lead single from Guided By Voices’ Cool Planet, now has a video featuring comedians Rob Corddry, Brian Huskey, and Rich Fulcher plus La Sera’s Katy Goodman among others. Produced by Funny Or Die and shot around the site’s Hollywood office, it’s a tribute to/parody of Simon & Garfunkel. Mike Postalakis — with whom I used to be in the rotating cast of the great Columbus band the Kyle Sowashes — directs.

Young Widows - "The Last Young Widow" (Official Video)



Last month, Louisville post-hardcore trio Young Widows released their fourth album, the excellent Easy Pain, a howling, hammering eight-song/40-minute suite of coal-black noise/hardcore from the renowned Jesus Lizard/Mclusky school. That album’s first single/apex, “Kerosene Girl,” might be the best song of 2014, but everything that surrounds it hits nearly as hard. Today, the band has delivered an appropriately noir-ish Ethan Roberts-directed video for Easy Pain’s slow-building closing number, “The Last Young Widow,” to promote their upcoming tour with White Reaper.

Washed Out - “Weightless” (Official Video)



Last year, Washed Out released the beautifully gooey sophomore album Paracosm. Now, David Altobelli has directed a gorgeous seven-and-a-half-minute video for “Weightless,” telling a story about teenagers and longing. The video’s actual narrative is almost pedestrian, and it plays out exactly the way you think it will. But the cinematography is so pretty that you almost can’t believe it, and it has all these great dream-logic cutaways to slow-motion hummingbirds and bodies suspended in air, and the whole thing amounts to a blissfully sad viewing experience.

Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - “Deeper” (Official Video)



The gifted Indiana rap knucklehead Freddie Gibbs and the head-blown Oxnard producer Madlib have been collaborating for a few years, and back in spring, they teamed up to release the collaborative album Piñata. Now, Gibbs stars in the video for the Piñata track “Deeper,” which Madlib and Gibbs first released as a single last year. Director Jonah Schwartz follows Gibbs in and out of prison, through a drug-house hookup and a liquor-store beatdown, using a cinematic sense of style to tell a pretty and resonant simple relationship story.

The American Analog Set - "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (Official Video)



It has been nearly a decade since the American Analog Set released a new album, but soon they’ll reissue their 2001 LP, Know By Heart, with a huge collection of unreleased demos. You can listen to the intimate and stripped-down “Journey To The Center Of The Earth” now, which is paired with a nostalgic video pieced together of grainy footage of birthday parties. Though most of the songs on the release are demos that eventually found an official recording, “Journey” is a completely unreleased song.

Kimbra - “90s Music” (Official Video)



Kimbra’s “90s Music” is among the wildest singles of 2014, and now it has one of the wildest videos. In keeping with the song’s title, the clip feels like all the most cartoonish live-action videos from the late ’90s mashed together into one surreal blast of moving colors. I’m talking Jamiroquai, Missy Elliott, Bjork, Busta Rhymes, “Barbie Girl” and many more than I can even begin to list.

Parquet Courts - “Black And White” (Official Video)



Today Parquet Courts release their anticipated new album, Sunbathing Animal, and to mark the occasion they’ve released a new video for the single “Black And White.” True to the song’s name it’s a black-and-white video with several screens dissolving into one another showing various New York streets.

BANKS - “Drowning” Video



The American-born, British-based singer BANKS exists on that distinctly London present-day point where pop and R&B and experimental, architectural bass music all overlap, and her recent single “Drowning” is a fine example of what she can do. In director Mike Piscitelli’s new video for the track, she slinks through a room full of mirrors and lightbulbs, making very intense eyes at the camera.

6/02/2014

T.I. - “About The Money” (Feat. Young Thug) Video



T.I.’s new video for his new Young Thug collab “About The Money” is a classic example of a director — Kennedy Rothchild, in this case — doing too much. It’s a busy video: Haphazard switching between color and black-and-white, words flashing onscreen, a wolf and a lady vampire showing up for some reason. Tip’s recent “Turn It” clip, with its helicopter and its walls of fire, was way better. Still, the song bangs, and these two are fun to watch even in the worst circumstances.

Bob Mould - “I Don’t Know You Anymore” Video (Feat. Colin Meloy)



Bob Mould is a punk rock legend still bashing out remarkably vigorous and effective anthems. (My co-worker Michael says he’s making the best music of his career right now, which is lunacy, but the mere fact that someone could think that right now is amazing.) But legend status and good songs don’t necessarily guarantee a healthy income, and that’s the idea of Mould’s new video for his driving new song “I Don’t Know You Anymore.” Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy stars an an oily douchebag version of himself, and he helps Mould and his bandmates Jason Narducy and Jon Wurster figure out how to sell things on 2014. (Fake Apple logos help, apparently.)

TOPS - "Change of Heart" (Official Video)



From TOPS' "Change Of Heart / Sleeptalker" 7".

Morrissey - “Earth Is The Loneliest Planet” Official Video (Feat. Pamela Anderson)



The Borat Movie can no longer claim the “randomest Pamela Anderson cameo” crown. Lately, Morrissey has been releasing short spoken-word videos for songs from his grand-return album World Peace Is None Of Your Business. We’ve seen him plaintively reciting his lyrics for the album’s title track, for “The Bullfighter Dies,” and for “Istanbul.” And in the latest of these, for “Earth Is The Loneliest Planet,” Moz is on some deep California shit, standing atop the famous Capitol Records building during a beautiful L.A. sunset and sharing a quiet bonding moment with a fellow animal-rights activist who also happens to be the star of Barb Wire.

Charli XCX - “Boom Clap” (Official Video)



Right now, it’s hard to tell whether Charli XCX is at that career point where it’s impossible to tell whether she’s a star in the making or whether she’s already there. She does, after all, sing the chorus on the #1 song in these United States. Either way, it’s fortuitous that the movie The Fault In Our Stars, which features Charli’s lovestruck single “Boom Clap,” is about to come out. Charli’s video for “Boom Clap” just came out, and it’s one of these soundtrack videos that haphazardly alternates movie footage with footage of its star. But the video still has a ton of Charli dancing around Amsterdam and looking mad charismatic, so it’s still good.

Foo Fighters Sonic Highways: Announce Tease (HBO)



Last month, HBO announced that Dave Grohl would produce his own series for the network that would serves as an extension of his Sound City documentary. While recording their eighth album in different cities across the country, Grohl was also interviewing the artists and engineers that work in each studio they went to. The show’s called Sonic Highways and Grohl calls it “a musical map of America.” No word on when it’s premiering (probably sometime in the fall) but here’s a quick 20-second teaser to hold us over.

Ab-Soul - “Stigmata” (Official Video)



Last week, Ab-Soul shared “Stigmata,” a track that’s most likely on his upcoming third album. The full version features Action Bronson and Assad but the video drops the two guest rappers and serves more as a promo for the new album than an outright music video. The video itself is interesting enough though, featuring Ab dragging a cross through the desert with some shades on and a crown of thorns on his head. It could also strike up a little controversy with some religious groups, which could be fun!

Ryan Adams - “Neutron Dance” (Cover The Pointer Sisters) Video



This year is the first Code Conference, formerly known as the All Things Digital Conference, and they’ve gotten a few very special guests including Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine, Google’s Sergey Brin, and maybe most importantly Ryan Adams. He started out with a tech joke to win over the audience: “I got some time to kill; I tried to pay my hotel bill with bitcoin” before starting off with a cover of the Pointer Sisters’ “Neutron Dance.” 

And the original: 

Ariana Grande - “Problem” (Feat. Iggy Azalea) Official Video



We, as a community, may never agree on this, but I hold that Ariana Grande’s honking Iggy Azalea-featuring pop-R&B sunburst “Problem” the the greatest potential summer jam that has yet emerged in 2014. The “Problem” video just hit the internet, and it is a big, dizzy energy-jolt with a lot of contortionist breakdancing and a ton of early-’60s mod design. Iggy wears the Emma Peel Avengers jumpsuit, which is going a lot way toward me eventually being OK with Iggy Azalea. Nev Todorovic directs. You could take a stand for the purity and importance of true independent music, or you could watch the video. Pick one! You can’t have both!

Disclosure - “The Mechanism” (Official Video)



Disclosure has never half-assed a music video so far, whether it’s something high-concept like the manic preacher breakdown of “When A Fire Starts To Burn” and the desk job skewering of “Grab Her” or more low-key affairs like the striking lyric video for Mary J. Blige-assisted version of “F For You.” They continue the trend on the video for “The Mechanism,” their one-off with British producer Friend Within. It’s a beautifully animated and captivating video that follows the gears in a machine and features several of Disclosure’s signature faces.