Rancid - “Collision Course,” “Honor Is All We Know” & “Evil’s My Friend” Video

Bay Area punk greats Rancid, my favorite band of all time, are back with a new album called Honor Is All We Know in one month’s time. The album is their first in six years; it follows 2008′s underrated “Let The Dominoes Fall.” And since it’s been so long, they’ve shared an in-studio video of the band playing three songs from the album. “Collision Course” is a full-bore sprint of a song. “Honor Is All We Know” is a melodic gang-chant singalong. And “Evil’s My Friend” ridiculously catchy ska.

Dean Blunt - “Trident” (Official Video)

The alluring “50 Cent” was the most recent single from Dean Blunt’s upcoming Black Metal, and before the album’s November release date Blunt will issue a 12″ “50 Cent” single in October. Today Blunt unveiled the video for that single’s B-side, the eerie non-album track “Trident.” After a lengthy instrumental intro that matches frigid synth drones with warm guitar noodling, the song veers into dark territory reminiscent of the second half of Talking Heads’ Remain In Light, refracted through the lens of bizarre outsider hip-hop. The video is essentially footage from a crime scene until the song proper starts, at which point it kind of ceases to be a video. The experience will leave you feeling like you’re trapped in some extremely ominous 1980s true-crime television programming.

Joey Bada$$ - “Christ Conscious” (Official Video)

Although it feels like he’s been around forever, the one-time teenage rap prodigy Joey Bada$$ (who’s still a teenager, BTW) has yet to release an official debut album. That record, the cleverly titled B4.DA.$$ (“before the money,” get it?) is allegedly on its way this fall, and its lead single is called “Christ Conscious.” It’s pretty good! The song finds Joey having fun ad-libbing and unfurling grimey bars about how he won’t stop until he reaches “Christ conscious,” which is either some kind of enlightened state or god-level rap skills — I’m not exactly sure. Either way, the clip ends with Joey ascending into outer space.

Cloud Nothings - “Now Hear In” (Official Video)

Cloud Nothings released a new album, Here And Nowhere Else, earlier this year, and gave us some great videos for “I’m Not Part Of Me” and “Psychic Trauma.” They’re back with a new one for “Now Hear In,” which was directed by Carpark labelmate Toro Y Moi’s touring guitarist Jordan Blackmon. The video is shot in fuzzy black-and-white VHS style and follows Toro Y Moi bassist Patrick Jeffords as he travels around various scenic California locales while wearing a paper mache mask.

Chromeo - "Old 45's" (Official Video)

In the seriously awesome video for White Women jam “Old 45′s,” Chromeo flirt with a sexy brunette and kick it with HAIM at an old-fashioned dive bar before Jon Heder shows up — apparently in character as an aged Napoleon Dynamite — to start a bar fight. It’s just as much fun as you’d think, and the song is yet another reminder that Chromeo are firing on all cylinders right now. Watch the Dugan O’Neal-directed clip.

Pharrell - “It Girl” (Official Video)

The famous Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami produced Pharrell’s video for “It Girl,” the bubblefunk groove that ends his G I R L album, but you would probably know that even if it wasn’t right there in the credits. The whole thing screams Murakami: the colors, the overstimulating image-barrage, the visual anime and video-game quotes, the generally pervy undertones. Fantasista Utamaro directed the video, in which a vision of Pharrell appears to a crew of anime schoolgirls, and then they all take off in a whale-shaped spaceship. Or something. It’s a thing to behold, anyway.

Arca - “Thievery” Video (NSFW)

Arca’s new video for “Thievery” is an astounding piece of work, and it effectively does for twerking what Aphex Twin’s “Windowlicker” did for late-’90s rap-video excess. “Thievery” was already a dangerous song, a streaked and ominous twist on current EDM trends; it’s the first single from the avant-dance producer’s forthcoming full-length debut Xen. And the clip, from FKA twigs collaborator Jesse Kanda, is a single shot of a naked CGI woman doing ass-clapping dances. There’s nothing sexual about the video, though. The woman is bald, with an immobile death mask for a face, and the lighting is that sickly sci-fi green. The video is mesmerizing in an extremely disquieting way. It’s one of those rare occasions when you can tell a video is an absolute classic the first time you watch it.

Watch Aretha Franklin Cover Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep” On Letterman

Aretha Franklin was the guest on last night’s David Letterman, where she performed her cover of Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep” that was released yesterday (which also contains a bit of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough). For the performance, she was joined by a choir and a decent-sized backing band. She also did an interview with Letterman after singing, where she talked about not getting to be on The Ed Sullivan Show, her new Diva Classics album, and how her father helped start her career.

TV On The Radio - “Happy Idiot” Video (Feat. Paul Reubens)

TV on the Radio “Happy Idiot” feat. Paul Reubens and Karen Gillan from Funny Or Die     

At this point, Funny Or Die is debuting music videos that aren’t even trying to be funny — and that’s fine, as long as they’re good videos. TV On The Radio’s new one for “Happy Idiot,” the first single from their much-anticipated new album Seeds, is a good one. The clip stars Paul Reubens, better known to the entire civilized world as Pee-Wee Herman, as a race car driver who sees visions while practicing his craft on an abandoned desert raceway. The Doctor Who/Guardians Of The Galaxy actress Karen Gillan appears as an apparition that appears to Reubens, and the band are in there, too, as white-suited phantoms. Danny Jelinek directed the video, and onetime cable-access phenom Jake Fogelnest wrote it. Below, watch the video and read some words about it from TVOTR frontman Tunde Adebimpe.

Adebimpe writes:

I had this idea for the video that I thought would never happen, of Paul Reubens as a race car driver who slowly loses his mind. I took it to Funny or Die and they said, “That’s great, let’s go for that.”
I got to speak with him over the phone about doing it and, in between being blindingly nervous that I was actually talking to an actor who had shaped a LOT of my world view and trying not to freak him out by saying so, he mentioned that he’s been a fan of the band for awhile. He liked the idea, and, somehow, here we are with Paul as a race car driver losing his mind.
Karen Gillan was absolutely great. We were really psyched to work with her, because she’s basically sci-fi royalty, and a great person. Full on geek fest in the desert.
It was really fun to do, love how it came out. I think our fans will like it. I hope so. The cool ones will anyway. The rest can suck it. I don’t exactly know what “it” is. But they can find it. And they can suck it.

(via Pitchfork)

Sam Smith - “Restart” (Official Video)

Sam Smith has released a video for In The Lonely Hour track “Restart.” It’s comprised of grainy shots of him on his tour bus, goofing off behind the scenes, and going to the beach. It runs the gamut of experiences in Smith’s whirlwind year-long rise to fame, including scenes of him picking up his own CD at a store and performing in front of thousands at festivals.

Tinashe - “Pretend” (Feat. A$AP Rocky) Video

Tinashe’s already given us enough today by releasing the fantastic Dev Hynes collaboration “Bet” earlier, but she’s also decided to drop a video for “Pretend,” her song with A$AP Rocky. The video features both artists giving each other deep, longing stares as they navigate their relationship with one another, and provides some breath-taking sweeping landscapes.

Grubs - “Dec 15th” (Official Video)

Grubs are a quasi-supergroup comprised of members of UK bands Joanna Gruesome, Trust Fund, King Of Cats, and Two White Cranes. Earlier this year, they released the ultimate bop in the form of “Dec 15th,” a beachy and carefree track with a cynical undertone, and they have some new visuals to go along with it. Directed by fellow UK musician Joey Fourr, the video sees the band chowing down on some hamburgers and getting their grub on (get it!?). It’s a whole lot of fun, as is the song, and you can watch.

Lakutis - “Body Scream” (Official Video)

Art-rapper Lakutis just dropped a video for “Body Scream,” a track that he dropped last year and that showed up on his debut mixtape, 3 Seashells. The clip, directed by Adam Besheer, sees the rapper chilling in a bathtub in his underwear in the middle of a field of grass. That’s intercut with shots of him looking the camera straight-on, telling you that he can “make your body scream.” The whole thing takes a morbid turn at the end when the bathtub he’s laying in starts to fill up with blood.

Erlend Øye - “Rainman” (Official Video)

Erlend Øye has released a video for “Rainman,” off the upcoming album Legao. This is Øye’s first solo project since 2003′s Unrest. (He was supposed to release an all-Italian album called La Prima Estate in 2013, but that one seemingly never appeared.) His recent music was made with the still-touring Kings Of Convenience and the now-broken-up the Whitest Boy Alive. Much like his work with those acts, Øye’s solo stuff is acoustic indie-folk, appropriately complemented here by Cara Cebrian’s minimalist clip. The video animates the song through perpetually mobile illustrations, all tied together by images of a cartoon Øye dancing in funky shirts.

Haley Bonar - “From A Cage” (Feat. Justin Vernon) Video

“From A Cage” is one of the songs on Haley Bonar’s new Last War that features Justin Vernon as a guest vocalist. It’s a simple, beautiful song, and now it has an equally simple, beautiful video. It’s not conceptually simple, though: The clip cuts between Bonar delivering a haunting performance in the woods and scenes of an innocent young lady rapidly growing up in a rowboat. Eventually the two storylines merge, and while I haven’t quite pieced together the narrative, I can’t stop watching the thing.

YG - “Do It To Ya” (Feat. TeeFLii) Video

The Compton rapper YG released his debut album My Krazy Life way the hell back in March, and it’s still the best rap full-length of 2014, at least until RTJ2 comes out. The videos for My Krazy Life singles like “Who Do You Love” and “Left, Right” have been sunny throwbacks to the early-’90s era of West Coast rap videos, all lowriders and barbecues and golden-hour sunlight. The new video for “Do It To Ya,” a collaboration with the R&B singer and fellow DJ Mustard protégé TeeFLii, takes that aesthetic even further, filming its raucous pool party in smeary VHS-quality images. 

The Bug - "Function / Void" (Music Video)

British producer the Bug worked with South London directors Factory Fifteen and the Creators Project to create a stunning music video/short film that combines two songs — “Function” and “Void” — from his recent release, Angels and Devils. The black-and-white clip chronicles a man’s monotonous routine in a futuristic totalitarian society, until suddenly his world crumbles around him — literally. It’s a fittingly bleak narrative for a pair of thought-provoking and mournful songs. 

Young Thug - “2 B’s (Danny Glover)” (Official Video)

Early in the year, Atlanta cult-rap weirdo solidified his unlikely street-rap stardom with two absolute bangers, “Stoner” and “Danny Glover.” Both of those tracks got videos months late, and the “Danny Glover” video only just arrived. The track, which is apparently now called “2 B’s” (possibly for post-”Rosa Parks” legal reasons) appeared on the great Black Portland mixtape back in winter, and it was old even then. It’s hard to say the video is worth the wait, but it’s an appealingly nutso piece of low-budget horror-movie fakery. And it’s worth watching just to see what Thug’s wearing: The red nail polish! The frilly 1840s sea-captain uniform! The raccoon tail, or whatever that is! There’s also an interlude in which Birdman plays Phantom Of The Opera and insists that he doesn’t like using profanity. Be El Be directed the video, and you can behold it in all its glory below.

Mayer Hawthorne - “Crime” (Feat. Kendrick Lamar) Video

Mayer Hawthorne – “Crime” (Feat. Kendrick Lamar) Video (Dir. Rashida Jones)

Mayer Hawthorne’s Kendrick Lamar-assisted song “Crime” is over a year old, but it’s finally getting an official video. The clip is directed by Parks And Recreation actress Rashida Jones and sees Hawthorne making his way to a white-attire-only party, with Lamar checking in via cellphone for a rap pep talk. “I still can’t believe Rashida agreed to direct,” Hawthorne told Pitchfork. “We had so much fun making this. Her effortlessly cool sense of humor comes through so … uh … effortlessly.” Watch the video and read some words from Jones below.

The video is a parody of ridiculously exclusive parties which are made nearly impossible to get to but tout themselves as ‘the party of the year.’ I liked the idea of the video starting as a sexy getting-ready video and devolving into a messy, very unsexy, unexpected trek. And the final realization is that YOU are the real party! I’m just starting to realize that about myself (which is why I stay home most nights). I am a HUGE fan of Mayer, Kendrick and of the song “Crime” and it was an honor to work with Mayer.

Thom Yorke Releasing New Album Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes Via BitTorrent

UPDATE: You can hear the album now.

Radiohead caused a stir in 2007 when they announced they had completed a new album called In Rainbows and would release it 10 days later for whatever price fans wanted to pay. Now Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has pulled another distribution experiment, announcing that a new solo album called Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes is available via “a new version of BitTorrent.” In a note Yorke and longtime collaborator Nigel Godrich released to the press today, they explained that “The torrent mechanism does not require any server uploading or hosting costs or ’cloud’ malarkey,” and, “If it works well it could be an effective way of handing some control of internet commerce back to people who are creating the work.” Perhaps this is the mysterious white LP the internet has been feverishly speculating about? Read Yorke and Godrich’s note in full below.

As an experiment we are using a new version of BitTorrent to distribute a new Thom Yorke record.
The new Torrent files have a pay gate to access a bundle of files..
The files can be anything, but in this case is an ’album’.
It’s an experiment to see if the mechanics of the system are something that the general public can get its head around …
If it works well it could be an effective way of handing some control of internet commerce back to people who are creating the work.
Enabling those people who make either music, video or any other kind of digital content to sell it themselves.
Bypassing the self elected gate-keepers.
If it works anyone can do this exactly as we have done.
The torrent mechanism does not require any server uploading or hosting costs or ‘cloud’ malarkey.
It’s a self-contained embeddable shop front…
The network not only carries the traffic, it also hosts the file. The file is in the network.
Oh yes and it’s called
Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes.
Thom Yorke & Nigel Godrich

Mastodon - “The Motherload” (Official Video)

Mastodon released the album Once More ’Round The Sun this past summer, and now they’ve got a new clip for “The Motherload,” which is not your typical metal video. There are some fantasy-inspired set pieces, there are some cool shots of the band looking tough, but most of the video consists of women challenging each other in a dance contest. Mastodon aren’t the first band you’d expect people to twerk to, yet this video flows better than you could possibly have expected.

The Juan Maclean - “A Simple Design” (Official Video)

The Juan Maclean returned earlier this month with plenty of dance-music goodness on In A Dream, which also finds Nancy Whang consistently killing it on vocals.  Tom referred to the track “A Simple Design” as coming closer to roller-disco then he ever imagined the duo would. In the new video directed by Gabe Imlay and Juliet Rios, you won’t see any roller skating, but you will find some fascinating shots of the band performing behind glass that’s been clouded with paint.

Iron Reagan - “Miserable Failure” (Official Video)

Iron Reagan – “Miserable Failure” (Dir. Whitey McConnaughy)

This one’s actually more than a week old, but I somehow missed it last week. If that makes you mad, feel free to suddenly run up on me at a lunch counter and scream in my face about it. Bring a flashmob moshpit with you. It’ll be awesome.

Valentino Khan - “Make Some Noise” (Official Video)

Valentino Khan – “Make Some Noise” (Dir. Tim Hendrix)

If you don’t cackle with disbelieving glee the first time the alpaca shows up onscreen, the problem is not EDM cheesiness. The problem is you.

King Louie - “Live & Die In Chicago” (Official Video)

King Louie – “Live & Die In Chicago” (Dir. DGainzBeats)

“Live & Die In Chicago” is a love song to a dangerous place, a song about being unable to leave the place you’re from even though you know there’s a good chance it’ll kill you. On one level, this looks like any low-budget Chicago rap video. But on another, it’s an image of both the beauty and the danger of Louie’s hometown. There’s a reason why those DGainz videos — he did “I Don’t Like,” too — feel instantly iconic. The man knows what he’s doing.

Watch The Life After Death From Above 1979 Documentary Trailer

The recent return of Death From Above 1979 reminded a lot of people how much they loved that band. Next month will bring the release of Life After Death From Above 1979, a documentary on them that chronicles their brief first run, their breakup, and their current return to the spotlight. You can watch the trailer below and grab the movie On Demand in October.

Tweedy - "Low Key" (Official video)

Here’s an incomplete list of famous people who appear in Tweedy’s new video for “Low Key,” a song from their new album Sukierae: Michael Shannon, John Hodgman, Conan O’Brien and Andy Richter, Chance The Rapper, Mavis Staples, Steve Albini. That is an extremely random group of people! There are probably other notable Chicagoans in there, too, and you can let us know if you recognize any of them in the comments section. Nick Offerman, who plays Ron Swanson on Parks And Recreation, directed the video, which tells the story of Jeff and Spencer Tweedy selling Sukierae door-to-door after their label loses its ability to do anything for them. The ending is simply magnificent.

Juicy J - “Ice” (Feat. Future & A$AP Ferg) Video

Yesterday, we heard “Ice,” the new conspicuous-consumption anthem from Three 6 Mafia veteran Juicy J. It has a beat from Mike Will Made-It and verses from Future and A$AP Ferg, and it’s kind of a banger. Now, it’s got a video, too. In the clip, we see all three rappers, along with Mike Will, shrouded in fog and rapping at the camera. As rap videos go, it does nothing new, but all these guys are fun to watch in any context. Also, Juicy wears a Brazzers T-shirt, which is maybe the most Juicy J thing ever. Motion Family direct.

JJ - “Dynasti” (Official Video, Extended Version)

By now it’s clear that Swedish duo JJ, who recently released their fourth studio album, V, know how to translate their languid brand of pop into otherworldly videos. The new clip for “Dynasti,” the second track on V, creatively personifies the shivering pop soundscape of the track. The video’s long introduction features JJ singer Elin Kastlander cloaked in red robes and carrying a torch, traversing rugged desert terrain until she finds a piano, which she sets ablaze to cue the entry of the music. The rest of the video consists of zoomed-in shots of the Kastlander’s glitter-covered, bedazzled face as she fumbles around in front of what appears to be some sort of satanic ritual. People in black jumpsuits writhe and dance as bright flames engulf structures arranged in a large circle around them. This may not have been the image you conjured when you first listened to the track, but it’s probably what will stick with you from now on.

Fear Of Men - “Tephra” (Official Video)

The Brighton indie band Fear Of Men made a name for themselves earlier this year with Loom, a confident debut album of muscular, focused dream-pop. Their new video for the LP track “Tephra” is shot like a horror movie, one full of flames and charred bodies. The band directed the video themselves, so nobody had to convince anyone to play a flaming snare drum.

Lower - "Daft Persuasion" (Official Video)

Lower first emerged out of the same Danish punk scene that gave us Iceage, among others, and they made waves internationally after their 2012 EP Walk on Heads. This past summer, the experimental post-punkers dropped their debut full-length, Seek Warmer Climes. Today, they release the video for album track “Daft Persuasion,” a tense, clipped song with a hurried tempo draped in Adrian Toubro’s echoed vocals. The video captures Lower’s hectic vibe with a hasty montage featuring: Toubro whisper-yelling the lyrics into a girl’s ear; a few anonymous people; some digital art; and a shot of Tourbro singing on a couch, which serves as a refrain throughout. The 2:30 of relentless, swirling images complements the group’s intense energy.

The New Basement Tapes - "When I Get My Hands On You" (Lyric Video)

A few months back, producer T Bone Burnett announced that he had recruited Elvis Costello, My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James, and Mumford And Sons’ Marcus Mumford to record unfinished songs from Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes sessions. The band calls themselves the New Basement Tapes and they’ve already put out versions of “Married To My Hack” and “Nothing To It.” They recently unveiled a new one, called “When I Get My Hands On You” with Mumford on vocals. It has a snazzy lyric video featuring a slouching girl walking past the words spray painted onto the side of buildings.

Idris Elba Preps Mandela-Inspired Album Feat. James Blake, Mumford & Sons

Last year, Idris Elba played Nelson Mandela in the biopic Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom. And in addition to being a ridiculously talented and handsome actor, Elba has a sideline playing goofy trance music in Ibiza hotel suites, as detailed in this GQ profile. So maybe it’s not a surprise that Elba’s experience playing Mandela would lead to a musical project. As Billboard reports, Elba is working on an album called mi Mandela that’ll feature British artists working with South African musicians. Apparently, the album will feature Brits like James Blake, Mr. Hudson, and Mumford & Sons, the latter of whom Elba knows because he directed and starred in their “Lover Of The Light” video.

Filter - "What Do You Say" (Official Video)

Director: Kyle Thrash
Producer: Jon Wolf
DP: Isaac Bauman

Music video by Filter performing What Do You Say. (C) 2013 Wind-Up Records, LLC

Rome Fortune - “One Time For” (Official Video)

Bluebearded Atlanta rap iconoclast has only been on the scene for a couple of years, but he’s already the godfather of a whole generation of his city’s stoned club-rap weirdos. He’s also the only person on his scene who’s made music with Four Tet, who produced his track “One Time For,” as well as another track called “Lights Low.” In director GoldRush’s new “One Time For” video, we see Rome and a bus full of very high friends on their way to some sort of dance music festival; it’s the rare festival-set video where the artist gets down in the sort of mud that paying attendees have to deal with. Four Tet, ILoveMakonnen, and Jacques Greene all make cameos.

Volcano Choir - "Tiderays" (Official Video)

Volcano Choir may have started out as Justin Vernon’s post-rocking Volcano Choir side project, but it became its own thing quickly enough. And Volcano Choir’s second album, last year’s Repave, can hang with either of Vernon’s Bon Iver efforts. Thanks to the efforts of the 551 Project, a big event that brought a number of artists to Milwaukee to make videos for Wisconsin artists, “Tiderays” now has a video, and it serves as a nice reminder of how incredible that song, and the others on Repave still sound. Directors Kyle Buckley and Andi Woodward made the video with a group of dancers from the Milwaukee ballet, filming them in oceanic silhouette as they move to the track.

Tricky - “Sun Down” Video (Feat. Norman Reedus)

In making the video for “Sun Down,” the funereal Tirzah collab from his new album Adrian Thaws, trip-hop godfather Tricky enlisted the help of the actor Norman Reedus, who plays Daryl on The Walking Dead. Tricky directed the video himself, and he stars alongside Reedus. The narrative is a little muddy, but the clip seems to involve Tricky and Reedus freaking out after Tricky kills his girlfriend. According to the YouTube description, Tricky and Reedus both play “fictionalized versions of themselves,” which is a little disquieting.

Say Lou Lou & Lindstrøm - “Games For Girls” (Official Video)

Last month, the Swedish/Australian duo Say Lou Lou linked up with Norwegian space-disco master Hans-Peter Lindstrøm for their “Games For Girls” single, a dizzy disco-pop nugget that really should’ve become a summer jam. The duo just unveiled the video for the song, in which they link up with director Dimitri Basil to play “pranks” around L.A. Those pranks are pretty low-impact: They deface a billboard of themselves and put a bust of one of them in an art museum. But the video takes a lot of advantage of both members of the group looking like bored European models in 1976, so there’s a decent chance you’ll enjoy it anyway.

Mutual Benefit - “Auburn Epitaphs” (Official Video)

Earlier this month, Mutual Benefit reissued 2013′s Cowboy’s Prayer EP, the last record Jordan Lee made before the breakthrough Love’s Crushing Diamond. Cowboy’s Prayer’s watery opener “Auburn Epitaphs” has now been paired with a video directed by David Dean Burkhart, and the clip goes well with the song’s warm, faded tone. It stitches together old footage, most strikingly of floats in a parade long past. It’s a simple, beautiful bit of found footage that you should watch.

Connections - “Aylia” (Official Video)

Columbus band Connections do a spot-on parody of Hall & Oates’ “She’s Gone” video in their video for “Aylia,” off their latest album Into Sixes. The clip features The Mighty Boosh’s Rich Fulcher, Matt Jones (best known as Badger from Breaking Bad), Will Maier, and Wendy McColm. Watch and compare it to the original below.

S - “Losers” (Official Video)

For her new album Cool Choices, the former Carissa’s Weird member Jenn Ghetto teamed up with producer Chris Walla to craft a series of crisp, heartsick, unflinching piano ballads. One such ballad is “Losers,” an outsiders’ anthem of sorts. Ghetto co-directed its new video with Finch Wolfe, and it shows Ghetto and friends trying on different clothes and identities. The video is more affecting than something that involves a doofy pimp costume should be.

MYRKUR - "Nattens Barn" (Official Music Video)

Lately, Relapse Records has caused a minor shitstorm in the underground-metal community by signing Myrkur, an anonymous one-woman atmospheric black metal project, and by helping her keep her identity secret. As it turns out, Myrkur is not a witch who lives in a cave in the Norwegian woods and spends her evenings lighting candles and chanting to old Ulver demos. She’s Amalie Bruun, a Danish woman who lives in Brooklyn and works as a model and leads the glamorous indie band Ex Cops. (She revealed her identity last week.) If anything, I think those layers of obfuscation make her work more interesting, not less, and it’s impressive that she can do such accomplished work in such radically different genres. But some nerds are mad, and these nerds are not going to be any happier when they see the video for her beautiful song “Nattens Barn.” In the clip, Bruun stalks through some woods, keeps her face hidden behind hair, and pretty much pretends to be the witch I described above. Will J. Løkken and Aske Løkken directed the video.

SomeKindaWonderful - "Reverse" (Official Video)

Music video by SomeKindaWonderful performing Reverse. (C) 2014 Downtown Records

Director: Marc Klasfeld, Nima Nasseri and s77
Production Company: Rockhard
Visual Effects: s77

Oasis - "Don't Look Back In Anger" (Lip Sync Competition Compilation) Video

 Oasis - "Don't Look Back In Anger" (Lip Sync Competition Compilation) Video

Paul McCartney - “Meat Free Monday” (Official Video)

Meat Free Monday is a campaign to convince people who eat meat to skip eating it one day of the week to help reduce their carbon footprint. As any self-respecting Beatles fan knows (or Simpsons fan for that matter), Paul McCartney is a guy who skips eating meat seven days of the week. He once wrote a song titled “Meat Free Monday” to encourage people to take that pledge, and now it’s resurfaced with a new video. The campaign released a new lyric video for the track featuring photos sent in by fans who took the pledge. It was posted this week as global leaders flock to the UN headquarters in New York for the first major discussion on climate change since the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

Philip Selway - “It Will End In Tears” (Official Video)

Next month, Philip Selway will release the solo album Weatherhouse, the singles from which have featured a surprisingly simple, pretty sound, a far cry from Radiohead’s most recent album, 2011′s foggy digital miasma The King Of Limbs. “It Will End In Tears” was one of the nicest-sounding of those songs, and now it has received a stark video directed by Rammatik. The video looks like what would happen if a pair of synchronized swimmers were practicing on dry land and their choreographer also happened to be Ingmar Bergman on a break from directing Persona. That might sound like an abstract description, but trust me: That is exactly what this video looks like.

A Sunny Day In Glasgow - “Double Dutch” (Official Video)

Here’s an exceedingly literal video for A Sunny Day In Glasgow’s “Double Dutch.” Directors Jen Goma and Luisa Conlon set the Sea When Absent track — barely over a minute long — to images of hopping, skipping feet that seem to be doing jump rope tricks without the jump rope. There is also a lot of white powder.

Cloud Castle Lake - “Sync” (Official Video)

Cloud Castle Lake’s EP Dandelion is released today in the UK, along with the video for “Sync.” The emotionally expansive track pairs high, wailing vocals with a funky brass section to create an almost paradoxical sound. The video features a boy trapped in a green house who spends the majority of the video pawing at the window, half-dancing, half-squirming in the tight space. The jittery dancing swells with the music, becoming more uncontrolled as the song reaches its energetic peak. The boy’s movement matches the odd but not off-putting nature of the song itself.

SBTRKT - “New Dorp. New York” (Feat. Ezra Koenig) (Official Video)

“New Dorp. New York” is the first single from Wonder Where We Land, the new album from the masked British producer SBTRKT, and it’s one of the strangest first singles from an anticipated album in recent memory. It’s a shuffly, skittering thumper that has Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig half-scatting nonsense about New York, and there’s a good chance you either really like it or are completely baffled by it. You will probably feel the same way about the song’s brand-new computer-animated video. The opening seconds of director Fons Schiedon’s clip show a praying mantis, in silhouette, devouring a beetle. It goes on to show a mammalian predator stalking dark city streets, doing predatory things, its presence and actions basically unexplained.

Wand - “Flying Golem” (Official Video)

Wand is one of L.A. garage rocker Cory Thomas Hanson’s many fine entanglements; the list also includes Mikal Cronin, Meatbodies, together PANGEA, and Hanson’s own WHITE. For the video to “Flying Golem,” an airborne psychedelic joyride from Wand’s recent Ganglion Reef, the band enlisted animators Meghan Tryon and Garrett M. Davis to craft a warped mixed-medium fantasia.

Ariel Pink - Put Your Number In My Phone (Official Video)

Ariel Pink is nothing if not self-aware. A few weeks ago, he delighted in playing a trolling advocate for misogyny in an interview. And now he’s playing a failed pick-up artist in a music video. “Put Your Number In My Phone” is the queasy, creepy lead single from Pink’s forthcoming double album pom pom. And in its new video, from director Grant Singer, Pink literally dresses like Mystery from VH1′s The Pickup Artist. He stalks through a mall, wheeling an intense gas-masked Bane-looking individual in a wheelchair and approaching every pretty girl he sees, and he strikes out every time. It’s a very, very strange video, but it’s also a canny play on the image that Pink has been consciously evoking lately.

The Antlers - “Refuge” (Official Video)

The Antlers’ videos for songs from their latest album, Familiars, have been pointedly minimalist. The visuals for “Palace” consisted of fuzzy shots of house interiors, “Hotel” at least featured some out-of-focus band members, and the clip for “Refuge” is their most abstract yet. Slow-moving wisps of smoke fill the screen and melt into different shapes and colors, looking like a fancy version of one of those visualizer programs that come packaged with most media players.

Lil Wayne - “Grindin” (Feat. Drake) Official Video

“Grindin,” the single Lil Wayne and Drake released as they embarked on their co-headlining tour, is no match for “Believe Me,” the first single the Young Money brethren released together this year. (“Believe Me” is an excellent bridge between “Started From The Bottom” and “0 To 100,” whereas “Grindin” sounds like a dubstep remix of “The Language.”) But “Grindin” is the one that got a music video, a montage of footage from the aforementioned tour directed by Dj Scoob Doo.

The Black Keys - "Just Got to Be" (Official Video)

The Black Keys - "Just Got to Be" (Official Video)

Watch The Black Keys Cover Edwyn Collins’ “A Girl Like You”

Since embarking on their latest U.S. tour at the beginning of this month, the Black Keys have been covering Edwyn Collins’ early ’90s hit “A Girl Like You.” Collins’ punchy instrumentation on the orgiinal almost sounds like a proto-Black Keys production, so it didn’t take much tinkering for the group to adapt the song to their live set.

And here’s the original:

Alvvays - “Next Of Kin” (Official Video)

“Next Of Kin” is one of the many highlights off of Alvvays’ very pleasant self-titled debut album, and now it has an equally pleasant video to go along with it. Directed by Connor Gilhooly, the clip takes a collage-style approach, filled with what look like sun-drenched postcards from the beach, abstract watercolors, and lead singer and guitarist Molly Rankin dancing around in stop-motion jitteriness.

The So So Glos - “Diss Town” (Official Video)

Last year, Brooklyn punks the So So Glos released Blowout, an album so packed with winningly punchy melodic jams that they’re still making videos for them, almost a year and a half later. The latest clip is for “Diss Town,” and it mixes band-performance footage with a story about little kids playing war in what might be an apocalyptic future. They’ve got what appears to be a real live bomb with them, and it’s pretty messed up if you think about it.

The Raveonettes - “Killer In The Street” (Official Video)

Earlier this summer, Danish feedback-pop duo the Raveonettes released a new album called Pe’ahi with no advance notice. They’re now getting around to making videos for the album, and those videos are flirting with retro imagery and bloody violence. Like the “Endless Sleeper” video before it, the band’s enw clip for “Killer In The Street” plays around with pulp-novel imagery and shows people bleeding all over the ground. Both Raveonettes star in the new video, and director (and former supermodel) Rie Rasmussen spins a story about betrayed lovers who murder each other via finger-gun.

Nancy Whang & Audiojack - “Like An Eagle” (Dennis Parker Cover) Video

The former LCD Soundsystem member Nancy Whang is now half of the Juan Maclean, which means she’s largely responsible for In A Dream, your current reigning Album Of The Week. And on a new EP, she’s also tapping deep into dance music’s past. On The Nancy Whang Casablanca Reworks, Whang teams up with various dance-music producers to cover tracks that were released on Casablanca Records, a classic disco label that also had Kiss and Parliament on its roster. The EP opens with Whang and Audiojack taking on “Like An Eagle,” a 1979 disco nugget from Dennis Parker. In the video, we see images of various iconic New York landmarks as they drift out of focus.

Slim Twig - “All This Wanting” (Official Video)

Shot, Directed and Edited by Emily Pelstring

Puppeteers/Puppet-makers:
Tara Desmond
Graeme Langdon
Rebecca Saint John
Matt Smith

http://www.emilypelstring.com/

Ryan Adams - “My Wrecking Ball” (Official Video)

Ryan Adams’ new self-titled LP is one of the best things he’s ever released, and one of my favorite albums of the year, and even though its singles are really goddamn good, there are at least four songs on this thing that are better still. Hell, two of the three songs off the Jacksonville EP that dropped yesterday might be better than the two singles he’s thus far released from Ryan Adams. Again, not a dig at those singles! When I wrote up the album’s first single, “Gimme Something Good,” I called it “a total knockout”! Today, Adams releases a video for the album’s second single, “My Wrecking Ball,” which, I mean, is an incredibly beautiful, powerful piece of music. It brings me to the verge of tears almost every time. If this were the best song on Ryan Adams, the album would still probably be amazing and essential. But it’s so much better than that. 

Mazes - “Salford” (Official Video)

When Mazes released “Salford” from their new album Wooden Aquarium last month, we praised its plucky, energetic approach to jittery boy-girl sing-song. You’d think that would be a youthful trait — and Mazes are young folks, after all — but the video features a decidedly older contingent. It’s set in a pub where the walls are decked out with soccer memorabilia and classic rock posters, the clientele is uniformly middle-aged, and the band on stage is known to rock out like they’re headlining Glastonbury. Also, certain people in the clip have very strange mouths. It’s a fun little scene, and the song remains impressive, so press play.

Interpol - “Twice As Hard” Video (Dir. Paul Banks)

The latest video from Interpol’s El Pintor is directed by frontman Paul Banks himself. Banks uses the slow, dramatic head-bob “Twice As Hard” to soundtrack scenes of real-life boxers training at a New York gym called Mendez Boxing. Like the song itself, the video takes an effective idea and repeats it ad infinitum.


Director: Paul Banks
DP: Carlos Veron
Producer: Carlos Puga
Colorist: Damien Van Der Cruyssen

Special Thanks To:
Francisco Mendez and Mendez Boxing

And To The Fighters:
Jill Bliss
Lonnie Bradley
Akil Frederick
Ronica Jeffrey
Livingstone Joseph
Carson Joseph
Jason Lee
Gledwin Ortiz
Sebastian Rivas
Edgar Santana
Melissa St-Vil
Welley Wallo
Sebastian Rivas
Jill Bliss

M83 - “In The Cold I’m Standing” (Official Video)

The “In The Cold I’m Standing” video complements the ambient song and consists of a presumably naked man and woman moving in almost painfully slow-motion. In separate frames, he exhales smoke and she inhales — the action links the two, despite them not physically being in the same shot. Eventually they are side by side and inching toward a deeply intimate kiss, which is interrupted by a digital hawk flying through curls of smoke. The video reflects the contents of M83′s music — about young people in love and expressing said love … in this case, their slow-moving, smoky, naked (but SFW) love.

Rick Ross - “Elvis Presley Blvd.” (Feat. Project Pat) Video

Rick Ross already released one album this year, the orchestrally grandiose Mastermind, and now he’s planning on following it up with a new album called Hood Billionaire before the end of 2014. First single “Elvis Presley Blvd.” works as an extended homage to Memphis rap and features a verse from Memphis original Project Pat, who should really guest on every rap song. It’s an impressively guttural track, harder and more immediate than almost anything on Mastermind. And its new video, from frequent Ross collaborator DRE Films, is nearly as tough. It has Ross kicking around Memphis and hanging out with a bank-robbing Elvis impersonator, which seems like the thing to do when you’re in Memphis.

Preview New Weezer Song “The British Are Coming”

Sometime between the release of the teaser video for “Lonely Girl” and the release of this teaser, for “The British Are Coming,” I got my hands on an advance of the new Weezer LP, Everything Will Be Alright In The End. And while your mileage will surely vary, I’m all-in on the thing: IMO this is pretty easily the best Weezer record since Pinkerton. You hear almost none of “The British Are Coming” in this clip, but I will tell you this much: That title isn’t a misdirect; it’s a song about Paul Revere’s ride and the Revolutionary War. You don’t hear enough here to get an idea what it sounds like, so I’ll tell you this much, too: It’s a fucking great song, one of the LP’s best. What you see in this teaser won’t convince you of that, but you should check it out just the same.

Danny Brown - “Smokin’ & Drinkin’” (Official Video)

Danny Brown’s A-Trak-produced “Smokin’ & Drinkin’” is maybe the most raucous party song on the phenomenal 2013 LP Old, an album with a back half that’s practically nothing but raucous party songs. And the clip’s new video finds him in full hedonist mode, throwing back beverages at a house party filled with people who look very, very wasted. Alan Del Rio Ortiz directed the video, and the best thing about it is probably Brown’s Dead Boys T-shirt, which conclusively proves that Danny Brown is more punk than anyone you know.

Basement Jaxx - “We Are Not Alone” (Official Video)

People don’t really think of the British dance duo Basement Jaxx as a live act, but if you’ve ever seen the group’s live show, with its singers and costumes and general wild-out carnival air, you know it’s something special. The group’s new video for “We Are Not Alone,” a track from their new album Junto, intercuts footage of that live show with images taken from a space shuttle mission. That might slightly be overstating what an achievement their show is, but if you don’t brag, who’s going to notice? Cyrill Oberholzer directed the clip, which follows videos for Junto tracks “Unicorn,” “Sereia De Bahia,” “Never Say Never,” and “Galactical.”

Team Spirit - “Surrender” (Official Video)

In their consistently fun videos, Team Spirit have gone to hell and back, and in this new one they once again meet the devil. Of course he looks different than the animated Satan from the last video, but then again, they all do. That’s because, for this Alex Russek-directed clip, Team Spirit worked with Andrea Gilletti to create puppet versions of the band to tell their story. Here they ponder how to become successful, before Satan shows up and offers some surprisingly friendly mentor-like advice.

Christopher Owens - “Never Wanna See That Look Again” (Official Video)

Christopher Owens starts out his new video for “Never Wanna See That Look Again” wearing a cowboy hat and silhouetted in front of a prairie sunset. But it’s almost immediately that Owens isn’t in some Old West desert. Instead, he’s in a TV studio, with a guitarist, wearing very-tight clothes and posing in front of a cheap backdrop. In the video, we see Owens performing hard, falling to his knees and crawling across the floor while singing the upbeat, countrified song. Aaron Brown of Focus Creeps directed the video, which follows Owens’ “Nothing More Than Everything To Me” clip as the second one from the former Girls frontman’s solo album A New Testament.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - “Cellophane” 3D Video

The Melbourne psych-rock band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard recently released “Cellophane” from their upcoming album I’m In Your Mind Fuzz, and now they’ve released a 3D music video for the song, directed by Jason Galea. This isn’t the RealD Avatar nonsense you get in the movie theaters these days either; it’s good old-fashioned red/blue 3D (hey, if it was good enough for Friday The 13th III and Nightmare On Elm Street VI it’s good enough for you), so if you have a pair of those that you can fish out, you should do so before viewing. If you can’t find them, don’t worry — the video is still plenty of fun without.

Yacht Club - “Cold Wind From Fools?” (Official Video)

Yacht Club is a band featuring Ben Cook of Fucked Up who play music that sounds almost nothing like Fucked Up. It sounds like what you’d expect from a band called Yacht Club, actually, and their recent song “Cold Wind From Fools?” is a breezy serving of smooth rock. It now has an equally pleasant video that features dogs, sunsets, and shots of the beach. It’s all just slightly faded and warped, however. Appropriately the band’s Burnt Cream EP — from which this song is culled — is available on cassette and VHS tape.

Hiss Golden Messenger - “Mahogany Dread” (Official Video)

Last week, Hiss Golden Messenger released the beautiful amber-hued roots-rock LP Lateness Of Dancers, and we made it our Album Of The Week. The LP track “Mahogany Dread” is a sort of anthem about setting down and being a grown-up. In director Dan Huiting’s lovely new video for the song, the camera rolls over Southeastern landscapes, and we see M.C. Taylor, the man behind Hiss Golden Messenger, lamping through fields with his wife and kids.

Angel Olsen - “All Right Now” + “High & Wild” Video

I have to believe Angel Olsen could do a killer cover of “All Right Now,” Free’s 1970 classic rock staple. But “All Right Now,” one of five bonus tracks on the deluxe version of Olsen’s awesome Album Of The Week-winning Burn Your Fire For No Witness, is an original. Although Olsen started rocking out on this record, “All Right Now” is a callback to the hushed, smoldering intimacy of her early work, and it’s a gorgeous thing to behold. She also shared a self-made video for Burn Your Fire track “High & Wild,” one of those on-the-road travelogue montages that’s probably full of lots of inside jokes. Watch that on Vimeo, and hear “All Right Now”.

Holly Herndon - “Home” (Official Video)

The glitched-out composer Holly Herndon is onscreen in pretty much every frame of the new video for her busy, disorienting song “Home.” But in the clip, the Dutch design studio Metahaven, who directed the video, often hide Herdon’s face behind microphones or computer graphics or, more frequently, the icons of the National Security Agency. The song, in fact, is Herndon’s song to the NSA agent who she imagines is watching her, and the combination of song and video makes for a serious sensory overload.

Kevin Morby - “All Of My Life” (Official Video)

Today, former Woods and the Barbies member Kevin Morby releases the video for “All Of My Life,” off his forthcoming second solo album, Still Life. The video is a simple, haphazardly retro scene of a live performance on a low-budget TV set, which is actually no more than a backdrop built in a cluttered backyard. It opens with a cowboy hat-sporting announcer introducing Morby to a crowd that is never seen, and the bulk of the video is made up of slow-pans of Morby singing in front of a glittering background, and his drummer looking off lackadaisically into the distance while playing a damaged drum set. The video matches the folksy vibe of the song.

Robert Scott - “Vertigo” (Official Video)

Robert Scott logged time in two of New Zealand’s greatest, most influential bands, the Bats and the Clean. He just released a new solo album called The Green House, and today he unveils the colorful cartoon video for “Vertigo,” one of the intimate album’s most upbeat tracks. Director Katie Brockie’s highly entertaining clip tracks the fearful exploits of three wide-eyed characters in what appears to be a mountainous, monster-infested ice world. Max Howard-Martens did some wonderful animation here, and Scott’s song is maximal power-pop done right.

Pixies - “Ring The Bell” (Official Video) + Stream Pixies Indie Cindy

Earlier this year, the Pixies released their divisive new collection Indie Cindy and have been putting out music videos intermittently since the their first reunion EP. The latest is for “Ring The Bell” and it was directed by Lital Mizel and Adi Frimmerman, two Pixies fans who recorded a viral video of themselves lip-synching to “Hey” back in 2005. The band met the women at a show in Israel and let them direct and star in their newest music video. The clip for “Ring The Bell” sees them dumpster-diving and hanging out in graffiti-filled abandoned buildings before ending up at a circus-like party in a forest. 

Stars - “From The Night” (Official Video)

Last month we heard “From The Night,” the restrained-then-ecstatic lead single from Stars’ new album No One Is Lost. Now the band has shared a video that casts the song’s chorus, “I don’t care if we never come back from the night,” as a mantra for boozing ’til dawn. “We went out, like we always do, we got drunk, like we sometimes do, we saw friends that we don’t see enough and we filmed it all,” frontman Torquil Campbell told Spin. “Enjoy.” Darren Curtis directed. There is also a person in a bunny suit.

Stars - From The Night (Official Lyric Video)

Beyoncé And Jay Z Bang Bang Video, Part 1

Beyoncé and Jay Z have released the first part in a trilogy of short films called Bang Bang. The visuals were directed by Dikayl Rimmasch and appeared on screen during their On The Run joint tour, which wrapped up in Paris on Sunday. The clip was inspired by French new wave and Bonnie and Clyde, which has been a long-running theme in Bey/Jay’s relationship. In an interview with Nowness, Rimmasch recalled a conversation he had with Jay about the meaning of On The Run: “We’re not trying to do this literally, it’s not that we’re Bonnie and Clyde. We’re on the run from everything. On the run from becoming a cliché. On the run from doing the same thing again.” The next two parts of the trilogy will be released this week in the lead-up to the premiere of Beyoncé and Jay Z’s HBO concert special, which airs on 9/20.

SBTRKT – “Look Away” (Feat. Caroline Polachek) Interactive Video

The masked producer SBTRKT is about to release Wonder Where We Land, a new album of diffuse, jazz-damaged dance-pop, made with a lineup of all-star collaborators. We’ve already posted “Temporary View” with Sampha, “New Dorp. New York” with Ezra Koenig, “Higher” with Raury, and “Voices In My Head” with A$AP Ferg and Warpaint. For the album’s first video, though, SBTRKT has opted not to use any of those songs, and he’s built a strange interactive experience that really doesn’t play anything like a music video. For “Look Away,” a starry-eyed collaboration with Chairlift leader Caroline Polachek, SBTRKT has enlisted the design collective Resn to put together an animated video in which you use your computer’s camera to attempt to make eye contact with a mysterious, elusive CGI woman. The whole thing works best in Chrome, and you can try it out below.

Karen O - “Ooo” Video (Feat. Elle Fanning) (Dir. Spike Jonze) + Stream Karen O Crush Songs

Spike Jonze is arguably the greatest music video director of all time, but he’s mostly retired from the art form. But he just made a quick exception for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs leader Karen O, who just released her debut solo album Crush Songs, an album of quiet acoustic home recordings. The video for the album track “Ooo” is strictly an impromptu affair for Jonze — recorded on the spur of the moment, and possibly without Karen knowing about it, while Jonze and the actress Elle Fanning were preparing to stage a one-act play at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House as part of Fashion Week. The video is just Fanning dancing and mugging across the stage and the backstage area at the Met, and yet it is still somehow unmistakeably a Spike Jonze video. Watch it and read some words from Jonze below.

Jonze writes:

On Sunday we made a one-act play for my friend Humberto’s company, Opening Ceremony. The idea was to do a play instead of a regular fashion show during Fashion Week, and, miraculously, we were able to do it at the New York Metropolitan Opera House. (Thank you, Peter Gelb and everyone at the Met!) Also, this week my dear friend Karen is putting out her first solo album of precious, personal love and heartache gems titled Crush Songs. They are songs made so intimately and spontaneously alone in her bedroom a few years ago that they feel more like unguarded whispers from her heart than a traditionally produced album. So on Sunday, during a ten-minute break as we were rehearsing and lighting at the Met, we made a very impromptu “music video” for Karen in the spirit of her album. It just seemed like if you have the Opera House, that song, and Elle Fanning together, you shouldn’t let the opportunity go by. So we made this as a surprise gift for Karen to congratulate her on her album. She is going to see this for the first time as you do. I hope you enjoy.

(via Vice)

Jack White - “Would You Fight For My Love?” (Official Video)

Jack White has a new haircut, and he made a music video to show it off. It’s a relatively bold look, a short-on-top pompadour with some serious muttonchops. It looks good! And it feels like the star of White’s new video for “Would You Fight For My Love?,” the unfulfillment anthem from his Lazaretto album. Robert Hales directed the clip, which stars White and his bandmates as ghosts brooding in a fancy old-timey cocktail bar. The video has an old-school glamor that not many even try to pull off anymore, and it does some cool things with lighting during the bridge.

The Dead Milkmen - “Pretty Music For Pretty People” (Official Video)

’80s joke-punk legends the Dead Milkmen reunited in 2008 and dropped a new album called The King In Yellow in 2011, and now they’re coming back again with a new one called Pretty Music For Pretty People. The title track is a piece of demented satirical circus music about an awards-show acceptance speech. Brian Siano directed its video, and it’s more of a making-of document than anything else, depicting the band recording the song all together in what looks like a living room. But it’s worth watching, anyway, since it’s weirdly inspirational to see these aging goofballs still knocking this stuff out.

Jessie Ware - “Say You Love Me” (Official Video)

Jessie Ware’s recent single “Say You Love Me” was bigger and bolder than anything we’d yet heard from her. The new video for that song takes a similar approach with its directness. Ware sits atop a large fake stone on a set, and the camera simply films her in extended takes. There’s nothing else, but you’ll see that there really doesn’t need to be. Ware’s expressiveness is overwhelming, and she reacts to each line as if she were in the middle of a conversation. It’s a stunning performance and you should watch.

Tacocat - “Bridge To Hawaii” (Official Video)

Seattle punk rockers Tacocat put out their new album, NVM, earlier this year, and already dropped one excellent video, with “Hey Girl.” Now they’ve got another with this clever clip for “Bridge To Hawaii,” which mixes black and white video with color. They describe the video as being about the desire to escape from the Seattle weather and their neighborhood becoming increasingly condo-ified. That definitely comes across, but it’s also just a ton of fun to watch.

Lucki Eck$ - “Hidden Place” (Official Video)

Last month, one Mixtape Of The Week went to the young Chicago rapper Lucki Eck$ and his transcendently zooted tape Body High. Maybe the greatest track on that tape was “Hidden Place,” on which Eck$ raps over “A Hidden Place,” the forever-classic opener from Björk’s Vespertine. In the new “Hidden Place” video, we see Eck$ rapping in front of a kaleidoscopic backdrop of psychedelic imagery. It’s not as mindbending as Björk’s original video, but it’s fun regardless. Jimmy Regular directs.

Death From Above 1979 - “Trainwreck 1979″ (Official Video)

“Trainwreck 1979” is the searing new single from Death From Above 1979′s guns-blazing new album The Physical World, and it’s also the album’s best song. Today, the day after the band played the song on Letterman, they’ve shared its video. The clips switches back and forth between sweaty live-show imagery and footage of one female fan who, in between skate sessions, attempts to learn the song’s bass riff. It works, after a fashion, as a portrait of fandom.

Starring: Moriah Katz
Directed by: Alexa Karolinski
Cinematography by: Drew Bienemann
Art Direction by: Zoe Latta
Produced by: Maegan Houang
Production Company: American Painkillers (www.americanpainkillers.com)

Death From Above 1979: "Trainwreck 1979" - David Letterman

Free Time - “Guess Work” (Official Video)

Free Time already brought to mind the chill vibes of Real Estate, so it felt appropriate when they got RE’s Martin Courtney to join in with them on the recent B-side “Guess Work.” Now that song has its own video, which captures the spirit of the music. Shot in black and white and directed by Johann Rashid, the video moves through a series of laid-back candid shots of people throughout the city.

Boots - “Mercy” (Official Video) + Stream

Just a few days ago, Jordy Asher dropped “Mercy,” the first new Boots track since the release of WinterSpringSummerFall, and the Beyoncé-affiliated producer sounded infinitely more energized and confident than he did on his debut mixtape. He just released a video for the track, and introduced it with the message “no more hiding.” It’s the first time Asher steps into the spotlight and takes on a starring role in one of his videos, and he stares at the camera dead-on the whole time, looking battered and bruised.

Black Bananas - "Creeping the Line" (Official Video)

I re-watched the video for Black Bananas’ “Physical Emotions” before writing this to see if it really was as awesome as I remembered. And yes, that’s still a total blast. Now Jennifer Herrema has put together a video for “Creeping The Line,” directed by Jess Holzworth, which achieves just the same trippy, carefree brilliance. It features Herrema riding on the shoulders of a giant stuffed teddy bear, playing with cats, and it features some hypnotically slow and physically challenging moves from a pole dancer. There’s also that trio of dogs pictured above.

Tony Allen - “Go Back” (Feat. Damon Albarn) Video

Earlier this year, acclaimed Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen shared “Go Back,” a warm ballad featuring guest vocals from long-time collaborator Damon Albarn. Now there’s a video to go along with the song, and it’s a beautiful and evocative portrait of an African town. It’s composed of steady and sharply defined black-and-white shots that mostly focus on people’s faces, letting you see every emotive detail.

Thundercat - “Tron Song” (Official Video) (Dir. Eric Andre)

Well, the video for Thundercat’s “Tron Song” is probably going to be one of the weirdest ways you spend three minutes all year. It starts out with a giant stuffed tiger wearing a wig, moves onto Thundercat digging around in some kitty litter and finding a gun, and only gets more surreal from there. Marked by random bursts of violence and a lot of cats, the video includes nods to autoerotic asphyxiation and police brutality, and ends with a head blowing up and a Mortal Kombat reference.

We Were Promised Jetpacks - “I Keep It Composed” (Official Video)

Scottish band We Were Promised Jetpacks are putting out their third album, Unravelling, next month, and it includes the single “I Keep It Composed.” That song sounded like it could soundtrack a good video, and the one they’ve come up with is pretty damn impressive. The video mostly consists of a top-down shot of one survivor from an airplane crash dragging his way through the wreckage to get to the box of flares on the other side of the screen. It’s an edge-of-your-seat kind of clip, which is only enhanced by tone of the song.

Robert Plant - “Rainbow” (Official Video)

Robert Plant continues to show absolutely no interest in playing any more Led Zeppelin reunion shows. He would rather just continue to crank out meditative rock songs like “Rainbow,” the lead single from his new solo album Lullaby And… The Ceaseless Roar, and more power to him. But he didn’t exactly put a ton of work into the “Rainbow” video. The clip is a dreamlike CGI montage of stars and equations and Science Stuff, with Plant’s voice only occasionally flickering on a passing screen.

Sinkane - “How We Be” (Official Video)

There aren’t too many joys in the world simpler or more basic than watching people who are really, really good at dancing. And that’s what makes the video for “How We Be,” the ebullient new soul song from the former indie rock hired hand Sinkane, such a blast. The whole video idea for the video is about as basic as it gets: It’s footage of dancers — ballet dancers, breakdancers, a step team — throwing down in various outdoor New York locations. But these people are really good at dancing. The video is put together beautifully, and it fits the song with a sort of effortless grace. After watching it, I’m immediately in a better mood; it’s that type of video. Nick Bentgen directed.

Lemonade - “Durutti Shores” Video (NSFW)

Lemonade released their third LP, Minus Tide, today and put out a video for album track “Durutti Shores” to mark the occasion. It’d be disingenuous to call the video sunny, though it does take place in a beautifully sunny place, because there’s a dark pall that resonates over the whole affair. From some gross-out images on the beach to everyone beckoning/telling people off with weird hand gestures, there’s a lot going on that makes for some surreal imagery.

Megan Washington - “My Heart Is A Wheel” (Official Video)

Last month, we premiered the video for Australian pop singer Megan Washington’s bouncy song “Limitless. She’s back with another well-produced video for “My Heart Is A Wheel,” another track from her sophomore album There There that will be out later this year. It takes the idea of bubblegum pop literally while adding some sinister touches: a gun makes an appearance, as does an axe and some “this is your brain on drugs”-style eggs. There’s barely a frame that doesn’t have a touch of bright pink.

Ejecta - "Silver" (Official Video) (NSFW)

Ejecta have put out a new video for “Silver,” a song off of last year’s overlooked but pretty great Dominae. The video reinvents a modern Garden Of Eden, with vocalist Leanne Macomber starting off naked in a backyard before dressing up in a stylish oversized coat and black pants. She travels around the city and explores the sights with a sense of wonderment before returning to nature and stripping back down again into her natural state. It’s all gorgeously filmed by director Emir Eralp, with some rainbow-tinted hues that cloud the frame.

Andras Fox - “Pontoon” (Official Video)

Andras Fox is about to release his new EP for Mexican Summer, and already there have been some very appropriate visuals to go with its songs. “Ankle Snapper” ran images through a whole mess of colorful filters, and now the video for “Pontoon” looks like it was transported straight from the early ’90s. It’s filled with vintage synths and an oppressive VHS-style quality, but also heavily features iPhones, which in this context become some sort of retro-futurist device.

Julian Casablancas + The Voidz - “Where No Eagles Fly” (Official Video)

Irrespective of how you feel about the songs we’ve thus far heard from Julian Casablancas + The Voidz, one thing that seems pretty undeniable is Casablancas’ visual aesthetic, which has been on-point and unerring since the first “Modern Age” EP. Yesterday, we heard the second single off JC+TV’s upcoming LP, Tyranny, and today, that track, “Where No Eagles Fly,” is paired with both a single sleeve (which you can see above) and a video, directed by Jeramy “Beardo” Gritter and edited by Andy Sonnefeld (which you can see below), and both are fucking awesome, bringing back some really cool ’80s textures and styles.

Field Report - “Home (Leave The Lights On)” Video

Field Report will release their new album, Marigolden, next month, and they have already dropped two singles that mix folk music with shiny electronic. Now they’ve put out a video for “Home (Leave The Lights On),” which takes a Ford truck — that icon of America — and examines it with almost fetishistic attention.

Tribute Album The Art Of McCartney Includes New Covers By Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Brian Wilson, The Cure

It’s not like the world needed another Beatles tribute. There’s an entire industry devoted to letting you know that the Beatles were the most important band of all time and that Paul McCartney was one of the most important songwriters. But even with that in mind, the lineup of the new McCartney tribute set The Art Of McCartney is pretty staggering. The tribute album is coming out this fall, with 34 songs spread out over three CDs or four LPs. And many of the contributors are the type of people who routinely get their own tribute albums: Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Billy Joel, the Cure, Willie Nelson, KISS, Roger Daltrey, Smokey Robinson, B.B. King, Alice Cooper. (There are also younger performers like, um, Owl City. No Kanye, though.) McCartney producer and superfan Ralph Sall put the tribute together, and many members of McCartney’s backing band play on it. Below, check out the tracklist and watch the Cure recording a version of “Hello Goodbye” with McCartney’s son James on keyboards.

TRACKLIST:

01 Billy Joel – “Maybe I’m Amazed
02 Bob Dylan – “Things We Said Today”
03 Heart – “Band On The Run”
04 Steve Miller – “Junior’s Farm”
05 Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) – “The Long and Winding Road”
06 Harry Connick, Jr. – “My Love”
07 Brian Wilson – “Wanderlust”
08 Corrine Bailey Rae – “Bluebird”
09 Willie Nelson – “Yesterday”
10 Jeff Lynne – “Junk”
11 Barry Gibb – “When I’m 64″
12 Jamie Cullum – “Every Night”
13 KISS – “Venus And Mars / Rock Show”
14 Paul Rodgers – “Let Me Roll It”
15 Roger Daltrey – “Helter Skelter”
16 Def Leppard – “Helen Wheels
17 The Cure – “Hello Goodbye” (Feat. James McCartney)
18 Billy Joel – “Live And Let Die”
19 Chrissie Hynde – “Let It Be”
20 Robin Zander & Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick – “Jet”
21 Joe Elliott – “Hi Hi Hi”
22 Heart – “Letting Go”
23 Steve Miller – “Hey Jude”
24 Owl City – “Listen To What The Man Said”
25 Perry Farrell – “Got To Get You Into My Life”
26 Dion – “Drive My Car”
27 Allen Toussaint – “Lady Madonna”
28 Dr. John – “Let ‘Em In”
29 Smokey Robinson – “So Bad”
30 Airborne Toxic Event – “No More Lonely Nights”
31 Alice Cooper – “Eleanor Rigby”
32 Toots Hibbert with Sly & Robbie – “Come And Get It”
33 B. B. King – “On The Way”
34 Sammy Hagar – “Birthday”
Bonus tracks on the deluxe box set editions:
01 Robert Smith – “C Moon”
02 Booker T. Jones – “Can’t Buy Me Love”
03 Ronnie Spector – “P.S. I Love You”
04 Darlene Love – “All My Loving”
05 Ian McCulloch – “For No One”
06 Peter, Bjorn & John – “Put It There”
07 Wanda Jackson – “Run Devil Run”
08 Alice Cooper – “Smile Away”

The Art Of McCartney is available 11/18 in a number of different formats; check it out here.

Perfume Genius - "Grid" (Official Video)

Perfume Genius is, among many other things, one of our great working music-video artists. His video for “Queen,” the first single from forthcoming album Too Bright, was a surreal masterpiece, and his new “Grid” video isn’t far behind. The clip, from director Charlotte Rutherford, finds a glammed-up (and eventually bloodied) Mike Hadreas surrounded by dancing, silver-bodysuited demons, then made to serve as the centerpiece of a bizarre dinner party. The video is a tough thing to parse but an even tougher thing to shake. Its atmosphere is knife-edge intense, and its images burn their way into your brain. As for the song, it’s a stunner, too. Hadreas might be known for piano ballads, but this one is practically a Suicide-influenced rockabilly number, with a pulsating synth at its core. It still leaves plenty of room for Hadreas’ vocal flights, though. The whole thing is just mesmerizing.