Purity Ring - “Push Pull” (Official Video)

Purity Ring’s sophomore album Another Eternity is easily one of the most anticipated records of 2015. Megan James and Corin Roddick teased “Push Pull” back in December before all the details for the album surfaced along with second single “Begin Again” a few weeks ago. Now they’ve debuted director Renata Kaksha’s visuals for “Push Pull,” which are something of a call back to the album’s artwork. In the clip, James is encased in gossamer threads and wheeling through cosmic landscapes, until the external light begins to come from within her, too. It’s a very Purity Ring aesthetic, continuing their exploration of the messy, complex relationship between the spiritual and physical realms.

Kanye West - “Only One” (Feat. Paul McCartney) Video (Dir. Spike Jonze)

UPDATE: The full “Only One” video is now up, in non-embeddable form, on Kanye’s website.

Kanye West debuted his videos for “Bound 2” and “Love Lockdown” on Ellen, and he seems to love showing up on her show every time he’s got some major new aesthetic shift going on. He’s on today’s episode of the show, and he used the appearance to preview his video for “Only One,” the ridiculously lovely Paul McCartney collab he released as the year turned over. Spike Jonze, Kanye’s old “Flashing Lights” collaborator, directed the video, and it’s as simple as that one was, albeit in very different ways. The whole video, or at least the minute-long clip of it that Kanye has shared, is Kanye and his daughter North West spending time together in a rainy field in what looks like Scotland. It looks like a home movie, and that’s clearly the idea.

Kanye is, of course, working on a new album, and word around the campfire is that McCartney co-produced some of it along with Kanye. (McCartney is also on the new single “FourFiveSeconds” along with Kanye and Rihanna.) But if you were hoping that Kanye would properly announce the album on Ellen, you’ll be disappointed. He said that he hasn’t even picked a title yet, so it could be a while yet before we hear this thing. In the interview, Kanye appeared relatively calm and subdued, and he talked a bit about how his new partnership with Adidas has allowed him to cool out and relax. There’s also a bit where Ellen raps nice things about Kanye. There are no earthshaking revelations in the interview, but you can watch two clips from it, along with the “Only One” preview, below.

Will Butler - “Anna” (Official Video)

Arcade Fire member Will Butler’s solo record Policy is shaping up to be mighty intriguing. Lead single “Take My Side” was a wiry blast of garage rock, a sound Butler veers far away from on the album’s second single. “Anna” is a propulsive new wave track laden with horns, synths, a striking piano figure, and an eminently danceable groove that Butler absolutely takes advantage of in the video. It’s a single unbroken shot of him shaking his body in a suit and tie, pimped out with a few minimal visual effects. Combined with the song, which is great, it makes for one of the most memorable videos of the year so far.

Menace Beach - “Tastes Like Medicine” (Official Video)

Leeds-based Menace Beach released their debut LP, Ratworld, a few days ago, and it’s hard to describe them as anything but a really fun band. The record is easy listening, but that doesn’t detract from the gauzy interplay of Ryan Needham and Liza Violet’s respective voices. “Tastes Like Medicine” is one of Ratworld’s first singles, and the video features decaying black-and-white footage of Menace Beach performing below a whimsically animated overlay.

Dirty Dishes - “Thank You Come Again” (Official Video)

The LA-based duo Dirty Dishes released their debut LP Guilty yesterday, a series of unpredictable and totally consuming tracks that are definitely worthy of your time if you haven’t listened already. Today, the band premiered the music video for the album’s shapeshifting lead-off track, “Thank You Come Again.” Directed and edited by comedian Pat Bishop, the video features Jenny Tuite repeatedly attempting to rob her donut-slinging band member Alex Molini and embarrassing the hell out of him in the process. It’s farcical and incredibly well-produced.

Young Guv - “Crushing Sensation” (Official Video)

Fucked Up’s Ben Cook will soon release Ripe 4 Luv, his latest LP under the moniker Young Guv, and earlier this month we heard the album’s first single, “Wrong Crowd.” Today, Cook shared another new song, the lo-fi power-pop tune “Crushing Sensation,” along with a low-budget video by Danielle Nemet.

Lxury - “Square 1″ (Feat. Deptford Goth) Video

Lxury is a young London dance producer with Disclosure affiliations, and we’ve posted his tracks “Pick You Up” and “Let Down.” On his new single “Square 1,” he joins forces with the downcast singer/producer Deptford Goth for a hard-thumping but atmospheric dance-pop jam. The song’s got a strangely hypnotic animated video from director Mau Morgo. It shows us CGI hands doing sign-language dances and twisting themselves up into impossible pretzels, and according to the YouTube description, it’s “an homage to the narrative we find in African funeral rituals, where the relationship between dead and alive is made through and dance not words.”

Zola Jesus - “Hunger” (Official Video)

Fresh off of playing outside in the snow, Zola Jesus has shared the video for “Hunger,” a track off of her shoot-for-the-mainstream record Taiga. The video, which was directed by BANGS (aka Allie Avital Tsypin), sees Nika Roza Danilova standing in a series of statuesque poses while the camera sweeps around her. “The video for ’Hunger’ is essentially a sculpture project … an exploration of a life form: both raw and refined. A negotiation between form and inner life, movement and stillness, desire and satiation,” BANGS explained in a press release. “Working with Nika is always an honest and satisfying collaboration … it was really fun to interpret the song and Nika’s aesthetic sensibilities through film.” The video features a new mix of the track, which will be featured on a new digital single along with a B-side called “Compass.”

Lion Babe - “Treat Me Like Fire” (Official Video)

Lion Babe are quickly becoming one of those names that crop up in conversations about artists poised to break out in 2015. The silky vocals of Jillian Hervey and minimal, jazzy production of Lucas Goodman hit a sweet spot between pop, electronic, and R&B. Maneuvering through those three realms can be a difficult balancing act, but these two make it look like a cakewalk. “Treat Me Like Fire” is on the self-titled debut EP they released last month, and the visuals feature Hervey and Goodman flickering in and out of the frame in stark black and white. Nothing against Goodman, but when Hervey is the focus of the shot it’s almost impossible to look away; as the daughter of Vanessa Williams she has certainly inherited plenty of her mother’s charisma. It’s labeled as “visual #2″ because a previous video for “Treat Me Like Fire” already exists, but the understated nature of this new one indicates a quiet maturity that suits them well.

Run the Jewels - "Lie, Cheat, Steal" (Official Video)

Run The Jewels’ RTJ2 was our favorite album of last year, and if they end up making videos for every song on the record, we will not complain. They’ve already made clips for “Blockbuster Night Part 1” and “Oh My Darling Don’t Cry,” and today they’ve debuted the clip for “Lie, Cheat, Steal,” the monster banger they performed on Conan earlier in the month. Director Ruffmercy’s clip is pretty simple: Just Killer Mike and El-P rapping in front of a tagged-up wall while trippy graphics fly around them. But it’s a great video for the same reason that a Run The Jewels live show is a total must-see: These guys have ridiculous levels of chemistry and energy, and it’s just a blast to watch them go.

The Sidekicks - “Everything In Twos” (Official Video)

The Sidekicks released their latest album Runners In The Nerved World last week, and when we premiered the album stream a few weeks ago, Chris mentioned that the first time he saw the Sidekicks was at a house show in their shared home base of Columbus, Ohio. The Sidekicks look and sound like the kind of band that you should first be introduced to in someone’s grody basement, overwhelmed by the smell of spilled beer and repugnant body odor. So it’s fitting that the video for “Everything In Twos” revolves around the band performing inside of what could be likened to a crusty version of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.

Beech Creeps - “Sun Of Sud” (Official Video)

Brooklyn-based Beech Creeps will release their self-titled debut later this year, and we heard the album’s single “Times Be Short” at the beginning of the month. Beech Creeps’ name might refer to trees rather than the sea shore, but they still sound like psych-inspired surf rock, and their music video for “Sun Of Sud” features some jolted camera work documenting a trip to the coastline. Andrew Deutsch directs.

Yumi Zouma - “Catastrophe” (Official Video)

New Zealand trio Yumi Zouma introduced the world to their wispy dream pop on last year’s self-titled EP (Stream), and the plans to follow it up have already been set in motion. EP II will be out in March of this year, and today they’ve shared the video for their new single “Catastrophe.” Is anyone else getting strong Twin Peaks vibes from the diner scene coffee close-ups and the sleepy small-town minutia? By the time everyone starts succumbing to a mysterious force, it almost feels like a natural extension of the eerie vibes. The clip was directed by BANGS, who has previously done videos for the likes of Hundred Waters and Mutual Benefit. Also, it is apparently part one of a two part film — so the cliff-hanger ending will be resolved soon.

NiGHTMARE BOY - "Chivalry Is Alive And Well And Living In Glasgow” (Official Music Video)

NiGHTMARE BOY is Barrie-James O'Neill of the band Kassidy, best known for his collaborations with Lana Del Rey. (He's also her ex-boyfriend.) O'Neill co-wrote "Brooklyn Baby" on Ultraviolence and duetted with Del Rey on a cover of "Summer Wine".

The NiGHTMARE BOY album is due out later this year, co-produced by Rob Schnapf and Jim Abbiss. It features a duet with Del Rey called "Riverside".

"Chivalry Is Alive and Well and Living in Glasgow" was directed by Joe Rubalcaba and stars Holly Marilyn Solem (of the TV show "Hand of God").

Programm - “Like The Sun” (Official Video)

Toronto quartet Programm have shared a video for the title track off their upcoming debut EP Like The Sun, produced by Alexandre Bonenfant (METZ, Crystal Castles, Diamond Rings). It’s a rich, lushly spaced track with simple drum sequencing, low-end synth bass, and heavily reverbed electric guitar power chords, and director Amos Leblanc (with financial assistance from MuchFACT) gives it an equally rich, picturesque set of visuals. Beautifully shot in black and white, the video is filled with images of waterfalls, rocky cliffs, and luscious forests with a minimalist quality which perfectly accompanies the song.

José González - “Leaf Off / The Cave” (Official Video)

The Sunday Assembly is apparently a real thing: A nonreligious church congregation that exists to “celebrate being alive.” And with the video for his lovely new single “Leaf Off / The Cave,” the Swedish-Argentine singer-songwriter José González performs the song with a full choir in front of a Sunday Assembly service in Gothenburg, Sweden. Director Mikel Cee Karlsson also films some slow-motion portraits of some of the families in the congregation. Those are some happy people! It all looks really nice!

N.E.R.D. - "Squeeze Me" (from The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water) Video

"Squeeze Me"

Performed by N.E.R.D.

From "The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water"

(c) 2015 i am OTHER/Columbia Records

N.E.R.D. has gotten back together to contribute a few original songs to the soundtrack for the upcoming film Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water. We’ve already heard “Squeeze Me,” and now here are two unmistakably Spongebob-inspired tracks called “Patrick Star” and “Sandy Squirrel,” named after two characters from the show. They’re pretty disposable as N.E.R.D. tracks, but kind of fun if you have kids or are really into Spongebob. “If you want to draw a parallel, maybe think of what the Beatles did with Yellow Submarine,” is how Chad Hugo explained the soundtrack to Variety.

UPDATE: They’ve also just shared a video for “Squeeze Me.”

Ultimate Painting - “Riverside” (Official Video)

UK duo Ultimate Painting have shared a video for “Riverside,” a wobbly, daydream-like track off of last year’s self-titled debut. The video is made up of some home video-esque shots of a father and son, but it’s a little more heady than it appears. Director Elizabeth Skadden explains: “I was inspired by the theme of autonomy within the song to create this piece featuring a small child testing his independence on a day out with his single father. Shot on discontinued super 8 film, the pair wake up and have a run around a cemetery before dad carries our protagonist back home. We see the son riding a park train all by himself in the organ break, foreshadowing his future autonomous self.”

Jawbreaker Reunion - “My Own” (Official Video)

Since we named Jawbreaker Reunion a Band To Watch back in the summer, their debut full-length Lutheran Sisterhood Gun Club has aged like fine wine. It’s just getting a tape release now via Miscreant Records, and the band has made a video for album highlight “My Own.” Filmed during their performance at Philadelphia’s mausoleum-showroom-turned-venue PhilaMOCA on New Year’s Eve, we get to watch the band hang out before, during, and after the show, and ring in the new year with style.

Future - “My Savages” (Official Video)

Future just released a very good new mixtape called Beast Mode, but he’s still making videos for songs from Monster, the not-as-good tape he released back in October. The latest is the Cricket-directed video for “My Savages,” a ride-for-my-friends song with some surprisingly florid pianos. In the clip, Future spends quality time with big crowds of well-wishers in Memphis housing projects. He wears white jeans in the video, and if you’re watching and thinking you can pull of white jeans, I’m here to tell you that no, you probably can’t.

Ariel Pink - "Dayzed Inn Daydreams" (Official Music Video)

Together, Ariel Pink and director Grant Singer made two of last year’s best music videos. Pink and Singer’s clips for “Put Your Number In My Phone” and “Picture Me Gone” were fascinatingly creepy, mysterious pieces of Kubrick-damaged work. They’ve now teamed up again for the clip for “Dayzed Inn Daydreams,” another song from Pink’s pom pom album, and it’s a very different video. The video stars Rick Wilder, the almost impossibly skinny ex-frontman of late-’70s L.A. punks the Mau-Mau’s. As Singer explains it, Wilder plays the leader of a band that was around decades ago — another version of himself, basically — who’s trying to hold it together, existing in everyday life even though he should really be allowed to live as some sort of glam-rock alien. Pink appears in the video, though he really only gets a couple of cameos. It’s an oddly touching and beautiful piece of work.

Girlpool - “Chinatown” (Official Video)

The frenetic energy of Girlpool’s “Blah Blah Blah” and the deep, bluesy grooves of “Jane” originally drew my attention to the L.A. duo, but their new single “Chinatown” veers off in a different direction. The track has a slower, sweeping pace, and the video of Harmony Tividad and Cleo Tucker goofing off in the song’s namesake neighborhood of Los Angeles captures a specific feeling of wandering with no real purpose. Sometimes those unplanned hang out sessions end up being the memories we treasure most when we’re looking back.

“Do you feel restless when you realize you’re alive?” the pair wonder in the same interlocking harmonies featured on their debut self-titled EP, but there’s no despair in the asking. After all, it’s these kinds of vulnerabilities that characterize Girlpool’s strength. “Being vulnerable is perceived as this weak thing when it isn’t,” Harmony said of the duo’s music. “There’s strength in it, and all the music I truly love embodies this vulnerability.” On “Chinatown,” they prod at mundane annoyances like biting your nails when you’re nervous and sidle up to existential questions with the same honesty. W

Virgin Forest - “Dream” (Official Video)

When he’s not touring as the keyboardist for Phosphorescent, Scott Stapleton serves as frontman and songwriter for the Brooklyn-based band Virgin Forest, which also includes members of Deer Tick. After breaking his hand in a fight in Germany while on tour with Phosphorescent, Stapleton returned to his native Florida to convalesce, and, as these things go, he ended up writing a whole new album with his good hand. While the band’s first two records offered a dusty take on American rock and roll music, the upcoming VF3 finds Virgin Forest exploring some nocturnal electronic textures, described by Stapleton as “a meeting of early Massive Attack and Bertie Higgins.” The new video for the aptly titled song “Dream,” shot by Matthew Walker in hazy, dreamlike black and white, is a moody affair that wordlessly but powerfully documents the story of a drag queen and her ex-lover.

Public Service Broadcasting - "Gagarin" (Official Video)

Public Service Broadcasting unveil the video for the first single from their upcoming second album, 'The Race For Space'. A brassy, funk-heavy superhero theme song for the most famous man in the world at the time, ‘Gagarin’ reveals a new side to the band – not least their considerable dancing skills.

Once again given access to newly acquired BFI footage, this time of the Soviet space race, PSB’s J. Willgoose, Esq. explained the rationale behind the song: “We didn’t want to be too literal in our interpretation of the material we were given – material that was full of heroic language and a sense of exuberance, with lines like ‘the hero who blazed the trail to the stars’, and ‘the whole world knew him and loved him’. It seemed more appropriate to try and re-create some of that triumphant air with a similarly upbeat song – and when it came to creating the video, the best way we could think of to communicate that sense of joy was to get our dancing shoes on.”

Contains footage from 'Voyage to the Stars', '10 Years In Space', 'Man Remains on Earth', 'Man Returns from Space' & 'Red Moon', all BFI National Archive and used with kind permission

Director: Alex Kemp

Choreographer: Kieran Donovan

Producer: Tony Powell

Assistant Producer: Vijay Sisodia

Director of Photography: Dominic Bartels

Editor: Lucy Badger

Grade: Joe Bicknell

Sound Designer: Adam Smyth

Production Designer: Amy Cooper Goodrich

Camera Assist: Chris Starkey

Steadicam: Jon Moy

Projections: Gerred Blyth

Graphic Designer: Leo Williamson

Costume: Jenny Schwarz

Cloakroom - “Starchild Skull” (Official Video)

Cloakroom released their debut full-length Further Out on Tuesday, and if you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, you should. The Indiana-based band boasts the kind of unsupportably heavy sound that makes any moment of lyrical clarity feel all the more illuminating. For the most part, Further Out sounds really dark, which is why Cloakroom’s video for “Starchild Skull” is such contradictory viewing material. The band sets out on a road trip and records amidst a variety of different landscapes — an open field, an empty well, a cave — all of which are visually astounding. Alex Henery directs.

Death Cab for Cutie - "Black Sun" (Official Lyric Video)

Death Cab for Cutie have shared the lyric video for "Black Sun" from their forthcoming record Kintsugi, the band's first since the departure of founding member Chris Walla.

Tobias Jesso Jr. - “How Could You Babe” Video (Dir. Grant Singer)

Tobias Jesso Jr. – “How Could You Babe” (Dir. Grant Singer)

It doesn’t happen very often, and even when it does happen, it doesn’t always work out. But every once in a while, a music video will give you the idea that you’re getting your first real look at a true star, at someone who’s going to be important for a long time. This is one of those videos.

Eminem, Royce da 5’9″, Big Sean, Danny Brown, Dej Loaf, Trick Trick - “Detroit Vs. Everybody” (Official Video)

Last year, Eminem rounded up all the nationally relevant rappers in his hometown — and there are a lot of them, even if they have nothing to do with each other otherwise — for a hometown-pride posse cut called “Detroit Vs. Everybody.” And in grand posse-cut tradition, we now have the video, and it’s a beautifully shot gritty black-and-white piece of work. The clip is jammed with shots of Detroit landmarks and of the city’s notorious urban blight; it was a stroke of genius to shoot Danny Brown in the lobby of an abandoned skyscraper. And even if the song isn’t that great, imagine how happy it might make you if you were from Detroit.

BADBADNOTGOOD & Ghostface Killah - “Ray Gun” (Feat. DOOM) Video (Feat. Left Brain)

The new album Sour Soul is a collaborative team-up from Staten Island rap legend Ghostface Killah and young Toronto jazz combo BADBADNOTGOOD. On the song “Ray Gun,” they bring in Ghost’s old friend DOOM, and it’s the first time these two have traded lines in way too long. Ghost and DOOM don’t show up for the new “Ray Gun” video. Instead, Odd Future producer Left Brain plays a metal-masked underworld figure who happens to look a bit like DOOM. Director Rob Schroeder’s video is modeled on a few different ’70s B-movie genres, and it abandons its crime-flick atmosphere as soon as the ray guns and flying saucers show up.

Mount Eerie - “Sauna” (Official Video)

In a couple of weeks, the cult-beloved lo-fi auteur Phil Elverum, who used to record as the Microphones and who now records as Mount Eerie, will release Sauna, an ominous foghorn of an album. His ambiguous, evocative video for “This” was one of the best we’ve seen recently, and he’s followed it up with another video for the album’s drone-hymn title track. It’s a spare, weirdly intense video, one that shows images of Pacific Northwestern industrial plants and Lynchian cowgirls. One of the cowgirls is Allyson Foster, who co-directed the video with Elverum. Elverum is also letting us hear “Dragon,” a stark, quiet folk song from the album.

Pond - “Man It Feels Like Space Again” (Official Video)

Aussie psych-rock band Pond have already released a bunch of videos off their sophomore album, Man, It Feels Like Space Again — “Elvis’ Flaming Star,” “Sitting Up On Our Crane,” and “Zond” — and today, they give us a set of visuals for the album’s trippy title track. At a little more than eight minutes long, the video plays like an ’80s vintage-treated short segment of Sesame Street on hallucinogenic drugs, complete with monsters, crude colorful animation, counting from one to five, short space odysseys, and even a stabbing. Get ready for a trip and watch.

Ryan Hemsworth - “Too Long Here” (Feat. Alex G) Video

Late last year, the Canadian producer Ryan Hemsworth released a collab-heavy mini album called Alone For The First Time that didn’t really get enough attention. The record was full of oblique, impressionist, gorgeous pop songs like “Too Long Here,” on which Hemsworth teamed up with the shambling lo-fi singer-songwriter Alex G. That song now has a pretty great video, so maybe people will take notice now. It starts out as a story about a young woman wandering around a city by herself, taking selfies. Like Hemsworth’s lovely video for “Snow In Newark,” it feels, at first, like a celebration of solitude in crowded spaces. But the video quickly takes a turn toward occult creepiness. Alex Girav, who confusingly is not the same person as Alex G, directs.

Interpol - “Everything Is Wrong” Video (Dir. Paul Banks)

Last year, Interpol frontman Paul Banks directed his band’s boxing-focused video for “Twice As Hard,” a song from their album El Pintor. He’s now made another one, a black-and-white video for “Everything Is Wrong.” The clip follows the three members of Interpol around New York as they get ready for a show. The twist: The other two guys are lovely and urbane young men who help old ladies across the street and draw adoring looks from supermodel-looking ladies. Banks, meanwhile, is an absolute scuzzball who hangs out with one of the boxers from the “Twice As Hard” video and who just annoys and creeps out everyone. He’s basically a Jeremy Renner character. This might actually be the first recorded instance of a member of Interpol being funny on purpose. I like to think this is the version of Banks that made Everybody On My Dick Like They Supposed To Be. The video is an unexpected delight.

Spirit Club - “Still Life” (Official Video)

In October of last year, Wavves frontman Nathan Williams announced that he will begin to focus on a series of side projects in 2015. One of these new ventures is Spirit Club, a band that Williams started alongside his brother Joel and Andrew Caddick (bka Jeans Wilder). Up until now, Spirit Club has only released one 7″, but today you can listen to their still untitled forthcoming album’s first single “Still Life.” We know that Spirit Club has a surprise in store for February 14th, but for now you can watch the found footage “Still Life” video directed by Jacob Turnbloom.

Avi Buffalo - “Think It’s Gonna Happen Again” (Official Video)

Avi Buffalo’s “Think It’s Gonna Happen Again” is a clever little pop tune with a massive arrangement, and now it has a stylish video to match. Director White Buffalo sets the At Best Cuckold track to dimly lit mirror confessionals, steamy shower hookups, drunken hallway breakdowns, and illicit nighttime drives. It’s almost impossible to count the number of memorable shots in this video, and the song is a stunner.

Ex Hex - “Don’t Wanna Lose” (Official Video)

Mary Timony’s new power-pop power trio Ex Hex released their ridiculously fun debut album Rips last year, and their new video for their tough and charged-up single “Don’t Wanna Lose” does a near-perfect job showcasing everything that’s great about it. Just as their “Waterfall” movie riffed on ’50s sci-fi B-movies, the “Don’t Wanna Lose” video is a take-off on the cult-beloved 1982 punk rock musical Ladies And Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains. The members of the band rock teased hair and leotards, they roller-skate, and they show up on fake zine covers. It’s glorious to see this specific strain of ’90s punk rock energy back in effect; it’s like an issue of Ben Is Dead come to life. Lara Gallagher directs.

Deniro Farrar - “Burning Bills” (Feat. Lunice) Video

The raw, guttural North Carolina rapper Deniro Farrar has put in years of work on the underground, and last year, he leapt into the major-label universe to release his Rebirth EP. The EP track “Burning Bills” has a glittery, ominous beat form the producer and former TNGHT member Lunice, and now it has an equally ominous video. In the clip, we see Farrar on the run from murderous Klansmen. We also see him, shirtless and ripped, rattling junkyard chainlink fences while fires burn. The video alternates images of terror and power in some really resonant ways. Mike Marasco and Anthony Supreme directed.

Viet Cong - “Silhouettes” (Official Video)

Our current reigning Album Of The Week is the self-titled debut from the Calgary postpunkers Viet Cong. It’s an album that twists guitar soundss up in grand, epic ways, and it’s one you should really hear. The band already made a video for first single “Continental Drift,” and now they have another one for the driving, forceful “Silhouettes,” a song about an electric shock that frontman Matt Flegel once suffered onstage. The video tells the story of a spaceman who visits a haunted house. Director Brook Linder explains: “’Silhouettes’ came from blending iconography from old haunted house films and late ’70s, early ’80s sci-fi: So, pluck an astronaut from a spacewalk and set him in the House on Haunted Hill. The fun comes with playing those types off of each other, like mashing an old DOS-like computer interface up against the organic-looking galactic explosions.”

(via The New York Times)

Viet Cong - “Continental Shelf” Video (NSFW)

Next year, Viet Cong, the new band from the former Women members Matt Flegel and Mike Wallace, will release their self-titled full-length debut. Their new video for first single “Continental Shelf” is an ominous and creepy thing, a collection of context-free shots of masked women and angry dogs and disembodied werewolf hands. There’s nudity in there, too, so be advised. Yoonha Park directed the clip, which plays like a supercut of scenes from undiscovered Italian horror movies from the ’70s.

Franky Flowers - “Fell In Love” (Official Video)

Franky Flowers play the kind of sunny, delightful pop that’s easy to mimic and hard to get right. But get it right they do — over six songs on their debut Blue Eyes EP, this group of 17-year-olds from Los Angeles tap into something really great. Nowhere are their talents more evident than on “Fell In Love,” a wildly infectious track that serves as the centerpiece on that EP. “I fell in love with a ghost, I think I love her the most/ Floating all around the coast, I fell in love with a ghost.” All of the gooey pop they spend the better part of two minutes constructing bursts apart in the final seconds, devolving into a noisy and satisfying dissonance. The band’s made a charming video for the song, directed by Max Tulio.

Karen O - “Day Go By” (Official Video)

Karen O has shared a tender new video for “Day Go By,” a track from her debut solo album Crush Songs. It’s a simple love story, following two couples as they go about their day riding on a motorcycle and taking a dip in the pool. There’s even a shot (above) that serves as an homage to the album artwork. The footage is sun-bleached and woozy, directed by Wiissa, a creative partnership between Vanessa Hollander and Wilson Philippe. “I wrote this song when I was living in Los Angeles and my boyfriend was stuck freezing in New York — I really needed my fix of being with him but was miles away,” Karen O told Vogue. “Wiissa brings summer loving to everyone who’s braving a cold winter’s day.”

The Weeknd - “Earned It (Fifty Shades Of Grey)” (From The "Fifty Shades Of Grey" Soundtrack) (Explicit) Official Video (NSFW)

The movie adaptation of the novel Fifty Shades Of Grey comes out on Valentine’s Day, and the Weeknd contributed the song “Earned It (Fifty Shades Of Grey)” to its soundtrack, which might be the most on-the-nose thing Abel Tesfaye has ever done. The very NSFW new “Earned It” music video has that same chilly porn-at-a-remove aesthetic that the movie seems to have. It has Tesfaye singing in an empty theater as a troupe of nearly-identical burlesque dancers put on a show behind him. It also has Fifty Shades star Dakota Johnson — Don’s daughter! — stripped and tied up. Somehow, despite dripping with all these sex signifiers, the video comes across way more mechanical than sexy. Maybe that’s the point? Either way, you can watch it below.

Boxed In - “Mystery” (Official Video)

Oli Bayston got his start with Manchester indie band Keith, with whom he played for seven years until the band split in 2009. Since then he has written and produced for several UK acts including Steve Mason, Lianna Li Havas, and Lily Allen. Currently, Bayston has his own solo venture, which operates under the name Boxed In. He has released three singles and two videos for Boxed In’s self-titled debut, which has just been released in the UK. Bayston now gives us a video for the piano-driven album track “Mystery.” The song opens with a live drum loop before grand piano chords take the reins; Bayston also adds sparse bass guitar hits and atmospheric sweeps which swell and recede. The instrumentation is rich and the visuals are equally so. Much more involved effects-wise than Boxed In’s previous videos, director Steven Spencer’s “Mystery” clip finds Bayston walking with a stoic expression along a picturesque rocky coastline, then befriending a huge beached whale that floats into the air and disappears in the clouds. It may be hard to envision that plot being matched by any combination of sounds, but it works. Watch.

King Tuff - “Headbanger” (Official Video)

King Tuff’s third LP, Black Moon Spell, was released in September of last year; it was a work that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on a mixtape alongside some of the great rock bands of the mid-’70s. The video for “Headbanger” stars the Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones as the host of the fabricated television show Bottom Of The Pops. Director Jake Folgenest commented, “As soon as I heard the King Tuff album I said, ’Man I wish could watch a performance of them playing on Top Of The Pops in 1975.’ Since it would be impossible for that footage to exist, the next best thing was to call Steve Jones from The Sex Pistols and make it ourselves.”

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - "Blindlessness" (Official Video)

Later this month, Bonnie “Prince” Billy will put out a new 7-inch “Mindlessness” b/w “Blindlessness,” and he’s just shared a video for the B-side of that record. The video starts off with the singer performing with a blindfold on, sitting on a chair surrounding by bright lights. A cute dog looks around the stage curiously and barks occasionally in the background. The video expands slowly with close-ups of his eyes, dual images of him playing backed by dimly flashing lights, and shots of his face shrouded in shadow. It’s a mellow video, but a good one.

Jimmy Napes - “Give It Up” (Official Video)

Jimmy Napes co-wrote Disclosure’s “Latch” and Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me,” and he’s worked with people like Jessie Ware and Mary J. Blige. He’s an important behind-the-scenes figure in the UK’s great recent soul-music wave, and he’s about to step out with a new solo EP called The Making Of Me. First single “Give It Up” is a silky and slinky thing, an of-the-moment song that’s right in line with the sort of stuff he’s been doing with those other artists. Its video, though, is something else: A bloody, grimy, weirdly exhilarating story about a guy who can’t stay sober. Luke Monaghan directed.

Charli XCX - “Doing It” (Feat. Rita Ora) Official Video

Charli XCX has shared a music video for her next Sucker single “Doing It,” which is one of the best tracks on a stacked album, and one that totally deserves the single treatment. The video features Rita Ora in a guest starring role as Charli’s partner-in-crime. (Having her sing a bit on the track too was probably a bad move, though.) “I wanted it to be like this badass Barbie Thelma and Louise-esque video,” she told Buzzfeed. “So we robbed a store with toy guns, rode a bucking bronco and nearly crashed a pink pick-up truck through the desert.” That pretty much sums it up. Like the rest of Charli’s videos, it’s sexy, smart, and a ridiculous amount of fun. And it glorifies Thelma And Louise in the same great way that the “Fancy” video took on Clueless.

The Go! Team - “The Scene Between” (Official Video)

The Go! Team have shared a video for “The Scene Between,” the lead single from their forthcoming new album of the same name. The video features glitched-out mountain ranges and aerial shots, and a choir that could easy pass for a bunch of cult members. “I was imagining things like aerial fly-bys, bad chromakey, Waco cable access, country versus the city, a choir in the wilderness,” Go! Team member Ian Parton explained in a press release. “The key thing was I was definitely imagining looking down on landscapes, rivers and forests, but I could hear a slightly menacing, kind of pagan, thing going on too and a definite schizo thing between the verse and the chorus.”

TOPS - “Outside” Interactive Video

TOPS snuck into our best albums of 2014 list with Picture You Staring, and “Outside” exemplifies the album’s appeal — like Berlin’s “Every Breath You Take,” but more playful. For the interactive video, director Fantavious Fritz shot lead singer Jane Penny dancing and singing from various angles and compiled the various perspectives into a movable video collage. Here’s how Fritz explained it:

“Outside” is one of my favourite tracks! It carries such sublime simplicity and unity, like a well-curated collage or painting of sounds. This website came out of a desire to experiment with the internet as a medium and visually portray this idea of collage with video / performance. In “Outside,” the internet serves as a canvas for play with colours, shapes and moving kinetic form, allowing for many different viewings of the piece.

Play around with the video here.

The Staves - "Black & White" (Official Video)

The Staves have shared another new track from their upcoming Justin Vernon-produced album, If I Was. This one’s called “Black & White,” and is accompanied by a great music video chronicling the end of a marriage between two local news co-anchors after the wife finds out the husband has been sleeping with the weather girl. All three Staves make appearances, one as the weather girl and the other two as crew members. It’s a surprisingly emotional ride for a story that plays out in just about three minutes.

Michael Rault - “Still Not Sad” (Official Video)

Canadian singer-songwriter Michael Rault has a knack for cooking up vintage rock grooves. But his true weirdness has now revealed itself in the video for “Still Not Sad,” in which the mustached Rault traipses around a dim parking garage in all his glitzy junkyard glory. There’s a trashed van and a crushed cigarette, but the unflappable Rault is still grinning. The black-and-white footage belies the song’s radiant psych touches, which cozy up to Tame Impala territory in the final stretch. It’s a succinct statement of Rault’s playful, promising melodicism.

Trust Fund - “Essay To Write” (Official Video)

Trust Fund follw up their beautiful dog-filled video for “Cut Me Out” with one for “Essay To Write,” the second single from their upcoming debut album No One’s Coming For Us. They take more of a literal approach to this one, following a girl who is trying to write an essay but who keeps getting distracted and coming up with better things to do: making some tea, going for a walk outside, riding her bike. The video feels very freeing, capturing the great feeling you get when you’re avoiding deadlines and getting away from your responsibilities.

Modest Mouse - “Coyotes” (Official Video)

“Coyotes” is the second song to be shared from Modest Mouse’s Strangers To Ourselves following “Lampshades On Fire.” It’s the Modest Mouse equivalent of a power ballad, and it arrives in the context of a video starring a coyote. Per fan site Interstate 8, “The video is inspired by the true story of a coyote that rode Portland’s MAX light rail train in 2002,” the same incident that inspired Sleater-Kinney’s “Light Rail Coyote.” The site also reports that “Coyotes” will be the B-side of a limited edition “Strangers To Ourselves” 7″ available with vinyl pre-orders and on release day at select retailers.

Majid Jordan - “Forever” (Official Video)

Majid Jordan, the Drake-signed duo that sang on “Hold On, We’re Going Home,” released their great A Place Like This EP last summer. The title track and “Her” both got videos already, and now so has “Forever.” Director Jamie Webster of Common Good filmed a slinky dancer doing his thing in a laundromat, lush greenery, and a hotel lobby to the song’s ultralounge-ready R&B-house hybrid. “Some things in life you just can’t un-see” goes the lyric, but really you can’t un-see anything, including this video.

Prince & 3RDEYEGIRL - “Marz” (Official Video)

Prince released two albums on the same day last year, and one of them, PLECTRUMELECTRUM, was a full-length collaboration with hi 3RDEYEGIRL backing band. Prince and the band have now teamed up to make a video for “Marz,” a quick two-minute funkabilly jam that appears near the end of the album. The whole video is just digitally distorted footage of Prince and the band playing onstage. And it’s probably still worth watching, since everything Prince does on a stage is worth watching.

The Smashing Pumpkins - "Being Beige" (Official Video)

The Smashing Pumpkins have shared a video for their Monuments to an Elegy track "Being Beige". The clip features a close-up of Billy Corgan spliced with shots of natural phenomena. 

Billy Corgan done did it this time! Last year, Corgan’s Smashing Pumpkins released their strong new album Monuments To An Elegy, and now they’ve made a video for first single “Being Beige,” a beautifully twinkly dream-rock anthem. The video has lots of what you might expect from a latter-day Pumpkins video: Extreme close-ups of Corgan singing, lunar landscapes that look familiar from the “1979″ video. It also has two naked twins, on fire, all intertwined in each other, sitting on a rotating block of rock that’s suspended over the ocean. If you have any theories on what that means, feel free to leave them in the comments section.

FIDLAR - “If It Makes You Happy” (Sheryl Crow Cover)

AKA Fuck It Dog, Life’s A Radically abrasive Sheryl Crow cover. FIDLAR have recorded their own version of Crow’s 1996 single “If It Makes You Happy,” complete with smooth, easy-listening verses and comically, violently loud choruses. It’s set to footage of the original video, which you can watch below for your enjoyment and edification.

The Amazing - “Picture You” (Official Video)

Last fall we shared the stunning nine-minute title track from the Amazing’s upcoming Picture You. Now here’s the video, directed by Shilling & Shilling, which follows actress Tamsin Topolski through a cityscape. Frontman Christoffer Gunrup told The Fader, “It’s about when dreams become nightmares. Wonderful feeling.”

Hot Sugar - "Not Afraid to Die" (Official Video)

With a song title like “Not Afraid To Die,” you should know going into it that Hot Sugar’s ready to explore some dark shit. The song is from the producer’s forthcoming new album God’s Hand, and it’s a compelling mishmash of stuttering beats and gorgeous compositions. The video starts out innocently enough with a childhood bedroom rendered in amateur 3D, all of it floating around in a pitch black void. Then everything goes full-on glitchy, disintegrating into a billion different colors while a Google image search for clipart of graves goes on in the background. The video only gets weirder from there as the child is pulled and stretched out into a vortex. Check it out below and read some words about the video.

Not Afraid To Die portrays a bleak portrait of a modern child isolated in his bedroom with no exposure to the outside world beyond his computer. Suffering from boredom, depression, comfort and dependence, the light of his desktop monitor has replaced the sun and the infinite knowledge of the internet is his room’s only window. With no contact to the outside world, and no perceived primitive threat, the child drifts between delusion and reality. Regardless of whether its voluntary or accidental, he ultimately succumbs to his secluded lifestyle and lets himself melt into the void he chose to exist in.

I’m a fan of amateur 3d rendering and I wanted to tackle a heavy concept with what is generally perceived to be a crude and childish style of animation. The animators at Wolfshirt play with abstractions are into the deterioration of 3d models so I knew they were right fit to execute the concept. The models and character in the video are connected & influenced by the different instruments in my song so by the end of the video it feels like the track is stretching him into shards of data.

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

Woman’s Hour have shared a video for “Devotion,” a track off of their debut LP Conversations. The video uses a few different pairs of identical twins to examine at the relationship that these pairings have. It shows them comforting each other, supporting each other, and, at times, looking as though their staring at a mirror image of themselves. “We used minimal props and staging to make the focus on the subjects, almost as still life portraits. As well as looking identical, they have a constant lifetime loyalty to each other that’s unlike any other relationship,” vocalist Fiona Burgess told Dazed. “Their movements are subtle so that the viewer’s focus is on the tinniest movements. That seemed to compliment the song. It’s often the smallest gestures that speak volumes.”

Ibeyi - “Ghosts” (Official Video)

Ibeyi is the duo of two twin sisters, the French-Cuban daughters of Buena Vista Social Club percussionist Anga Díaz. Their video for “River,” which we posted last year, was the sort of simple, haunting piece of work that sticks with you. The band’s self-titled debut arrives next month, and with their new video for the meditative-but-joyous “Ghosts,” they once again link up with “River” director Ed Morris. Morris uses inky black-and-white and double-exposure to make it hard to tell where one sister ends and the other begins, as if they were both each other’s ghosts.

Parkay Quarts - “Pretty Machines” (Official Video)

A few months ago, sardonic New York postpunkers Parquet Courts capped off a really, really great 2014 by releasing the quickie album Content Nausea under the name Parkay Quarts. The album, a bit punchier and more casual than the great Sunbathing Animal, is still full of the sort of sidelong hooks and endlessly quotable lyrics that make this band so great. Their new video for the album track “Pretty Machines” shows band member Austin Brown, who co-directed the video along with Johann Rashid, going about the mundane details of his day while wearing a terrible fake mustache. The video sometimes uses double exposure to make him look like a ghost. More than anything, it’s a good excuse to take another listen to a very good song that might’ve flown under your radar.

Mammut - "Resiste" (Official Video)

RESISTE (Dirigido por: Martín Boulocq)

The Prodigy - "Nasty" (Official Video)

VIDEO CREDITS

Director: Oliver Jones
Producer : Oliver Jones & Brandon Kahn
Production Company : Better Feeling Films

Bass Drum of Death - "Better Days" (Official Video)

Bass Drum Of Death are launching a tour of the Western US next week in support of last year’s Rip This. Much of that album is the raucous garage rock that has become the band’s trademark, but “Better Days” trims down Bass Drum’s approach to passionate vocal howls, fervently strummed acoustic guitars, gnarly electric lead parts, and (belying the band name) barely any drums at all. It’s kind of the Bass Drum version of a campfire singalong, the closest this band comes to gentle. That said, director Rachel Remz manages to work quite a few punches to the face into the boxing-themed video.

Celestial Shore - “Weekenders” (Official Video)

Celestial Shore’s video for Enter Ghost track “Weekenders” is inspired by Stanley Kubrick and office drudgery. Against a backdrop of Celestial Shore’s floaty, ephemeral psych-pop, Ava Nicolai stars as a bedridden patient who is transported to a surreal church sanctuary inhabited by mimes who subject her to such vices as drink, smoke, and glitter. I’ll let band member Sam Owens and directors Patrick Gilfether and Max Kopelowicz take it from here. First here’s Owens’ take on the clip:

I met Max and Patrick at a bar in Oberlin. They were talking about Lynch and Kubrick. We talked about the moon landing, and the NASA lens that Kubrick used to film the candlelight scenes in Barry Lyndon. Patrick had recently acquired a film camera, so I asked them to make a video for one of our songs. I wrote weekenders shortly after seeing Barry Lyndon, a fool-as-hero tragedy filled with empty accomplishments. At the time, my day job was grinding me into a Midtown curmudgeon. It all sort of came together in that song.

Now for the directors’ statement:

Our process was pretty kaleidoscopic, we kept proposing images to one another that were conjured while we listened, and slowly the video began to take form and developed a narrative as we went through the variations. We both saw these two lovers, one on their deathbed and the other promising them everything. The empty promise before one’s own demise has this tragic and uplifting duality to it where it shows that the person cares and wants to help so badly even though they are ultimately rendered useless by the inevitableness of the situation.

Weyes Blood - “Bad Magic” (Official Video)

Weyes Blood’s video for The Innocents track “Bad Magic” was shot almost entirely with a drone, and it’s absolutely stunning. See, drones aren’t all bad! (#NotAllDrones?) Hooking a camera up to one of them allowed director Joey Frank to capture some breath-taking, epic shots that almost look like someone filmed it from inside of a cloud. It’s a fitting tribute to the music, which is just as sweeping and beautiful as the video. Singer Natalie Mering traveled to the Far Rockaways and the Hamptons to capture the footage, and you can see her skipping rocks into the ocean and walking along the beach. “The song is so slow, and the drone footage is very hypnotic and slow. The rhythm of the ocean looks like how the song sounds,” Mering told FADER.

Watch The Full Video Of Ben Gibbard Covering Alvvays’ “Archie, Marry Me,” His Favorite Song Of The Year

During a benefit show last year, Ben Gibbard covered Alvvays’ breakout track “Archie, Marry Me,” but we only saw a very short clip of the performance. Turns out that the whole concert was being recorded in high-quality as a joint venture between KEXP, Starbucks, and STG, and they’ve recently shared the whole thing. Before he starts playing, Gibbard calls it his “favorite song of the year.”

FKA Twigs - “Pendulum” (Official Video)

FKA twigs is maybe the most reliably great music-video artist currently working; her clips for the LP1 tracks “Two Weeks” and “Video Girl” were among last year’s best. But she’s never directed one of her own music videos below, though she did helm her Google Glass commercial. Twigs’ new clip for her woozy, beautiful “Pendulum” is the first she’s ever made for herself, and she knows what the fuck she’s doing. As with so many of her videos, this one draws heavily on her training as a dancer. It shows her tied up and suspended from ceilings in ways that look deeply uncomfortable, projecting sexual vulnerability and power in equal measures. She also communes with a digital blob and wears a contraption that turns her long braids into, like, antlers. It’s a tough video to describe, but as with everything she does, it’s an absolute must-watch.

Moon Duo - “Animal” Feat. Richie Jackson (Official Video)

Space-rockers Moon Duo are back in March with a new album called Shadows Of The Sun, and their new video for first single “Animal” is a very strange and ridiculously entertaining piece of work. The clip stars a waxy-mustached and wild-eyed hesher — the pro skateboarder Richie Jackson, who also directs — strutting around, fashioning makeshift skateboards out of pieces of garbage, and then executing some impressive tricks on those skateboards. Watching it, I really want to attempt some of these absurd maneuvers on my own, though this is most certainly a terrible idea.

Watch Future Islands Play “Seasons (Waiting On You)” On Austin City Limits

Future Islands "Seasons (Waiting on You)"
Future Islands perform on Austin City Limits.

Flying Lotus - “Coronus, The Terminator” (Official Video)

Flying Lotus has had an incredible run of videos for You’re Dead tracks “Never Catch Me” and “Ready Err Not,” and that streak continues with his visuals for “Coronus, The Terminator.” Continuing his fixation on death that was so prevalent in those two videos and on his album, we open with a man on his deathbed surrounded by his family, and follow him into the afterlife, which is filled with ghostly men — one of whom is FlyLo himself — that hang out in parlor rooms and dance under highway overpasses. “For me, Coronus is one of the most important moments on You’re Dead! and holds ideas I’m planning to explore in my future work,” FlyLo said. “I’m happy that the visual encapsulates the meaning of the record and this ambition.”

Shura - “Indecision” (Official Video)

Shura’s been coasting on the strength of “Indecision” for a few months now, and with good reason: The spry, 80s-influenced track is probably the strongest thing she’s released so far, and it serves as a great example of why we named her an Artist To Watch. She’s just shared a video for the track, an understated and tasteful look at going out for the night. “This was the first treatment that really gently alluded to (the song’s themes) but was in and of itself a moving story about a journey and change,” Shura told Dazed. “Obviously you can ask all sorts of questions about the video – is he gay? Does he just like dressing up? – but it’s open to interpretation. It’s done in a really subtle way I think.” Shura’s involvement in the video is kept to a cameo appearance, and everyone that appears in the party scene are her real-life friends and also were in the video for “Touch.”

A-Trak - “Push” (Feat. Andrew Wyatt) Video (NSFW)

A-Trak’s new video for “Push,” a house track with a vocal from Miike Snow singer Andrew Wyatt, is a beautifully absurd piece of work. It depicts a party in which various different rich and stylish people, in varying states of undress, enjoy each other’s company at the sort of fancy dinner party that features guns and live tigers. It looks like a pretty good time! Ramon Ayala directed the video, and it’s got a ton of nudity. That nudity may be blurcled out, but I would not consider this thing to be especially save for work. Below read some words of explanation from A-Trak.

A-Trak writes:

My approach to dance music has always been a bit left, so the last thing I wanted was one of those sparkler bottle “Lets make this night live forever!” videos. Instead, I wanted to make something with the opulence of a rap video, but shot like a renaissance painting. I got my boy TM88 (from 808 Mafia) to play the lead role, we shot it in a castle in France. It’s kind of like Eyes Wide Shut meets Burning Man. I also really wanted a tiger and a squid, I was very specific about that.

(via FADER)

Nedelle Torrisi - “Don’t Play Dumb” (Official Video)

In the grand Kevin Bacon game that is indie-rock, Cryptacize co-founder Nedelle Torrisi is the connective thread between Sufjan Stevens and Ariel Pink. (She appears on Sufjan’s new Carrie & Lowell and used to live with Haunted Graffiti member Kenny Gilmore.) “Don’t Play Dumb” — from Torrisi’s self-titled 2013 LP, soon to be reissued on vinyl under the title Advice From Paradise — illustrates that connection, landing somewhere between the digital distress of The Age Of Adz and the soft-rock bloodletting of Pink’s “Picture Me Gone.” In retrospect, the track’s processed, MIDI-esque take on synthpop feels like a precursor for the whole PC Music thing. (Btw, one of those background vocalists is Julia Holter.) For the video, Torrisi posed as a Target employee — and she director Travis Peterson were kicked out of Target twice while filming — who also watches Family Guy on her laptop and dances at the club all by her lonesome.

Jeremih - “Don’t Tell ‘Em (Remix)” (Feat. Ty Dolla $ign & French Montana) Video

It is rare you see an R&B crooner wear more chains than a rapper in a video, but Jeremih one-ups both Ty Dolla $ign and French Montana in the video for the remix of Jeremih’s summer hit “Don’t Tell ’Em.” The video is a peek into the lavish life, set in a decadent mansion and filled with images of a lingerie-clad woman, top-shelf alcohol, scattered rose petals, and of course chains galore. Ty Dolla $ign begins the tour of the mansion in a small, extravagantly decorated room, rapping a verse in the same melody as the original hit. Jeremih sings his verse to the aforementioned woman in the bathtub and bedroom, and French Montana wraps up, spitting his verse clad in a classic red-and-black Biggie lumberjack flannel and Cuban-link chain, sitting between two women swaying to the beat.

Fear Of Men - “America” (Official Video)

Fear Of Men put out a great but kind of slept-on release with Loom last year and, if you never got around to checking them out for whatever reason, now is as good a time as any. In fact, their shambling and spry pop may be a better seasonal fit in winter than it was when it was released in the spring. “America” is a simple video made up of footage from the band’s U.S. tour supporting the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, but it fits particularly well here given the song’s title and sentiment. The video goes all over, including stops in our nation’s capital and in front of the Twin Peaks sign (damn good coffee!), and is a charming look inside the Brighton band’s daily tour life.

2:54 - “Crest” (Official Video)

British sister duo and one-time 2:54 put out their sophomore record The Other I last year, and they’ve just shared a video for album track “Crest.” The black-and-white video sees them performing with a full band against a rapidly flashing strobe light, and was directed by Charlie Robins, Chris Hugall, and Daniel Castro.

California X - “Hadley, MA” (Official Video)

Today marks the release of Nights In The Dark, the second album of fuzzed-out anthems from the misleadingly named Massachusetts punk band California X. In celebration, they’ve shared a new video for third single “Hadley, MA,” a bittersweet ode to their Western Mass. home complete with a fist-pumping J Mascis-style guitar solo. The video cuts between footage of the guys jamming out in their jewel-encrusted rock’n'roll cave and scenes of a mysterious cloaked figure lurking in the woods.

Mount Eerie - “This” (Official Video)

Leave it to Phil Elverum to describe his new Mount Eerie video better than I ever could: “The song and the video are seemingly surreal and ambiguous, but actually it is an attempt at a straight-up accurate depiction of this every-moment mental experience,” he told NPR. “An orange traffic cone in a weird place, a pumpkin smashed on the rocks, a sword in the sky; all mental images piercing through layers of dream, all aiming for some kind of lucidity.” There we go. “This” is a beautiful new track from the forthcoming Mount Eerie double album, Sauna, which is due out next month, and watching the accompanying visuals is the best way to hear the song for the first time.

Split Single - “Fragmented World” (Official Video)

Back in April, indie rock veteran Jason Narducy — he of the sexiest elbows in rock — teamed up with Spoon’s Britt Daniel and Superchunk’s Jon Wurster to release Fragmented World, an infectious album of sunny power-pop tinged with lyrical sadness. The new video for the title track, directed by Joe Losurdo, finds Narducy on the run from some nefarious gentlemen in suits. Somehow, even when we’re watching a torturer performing some very impromptu oral surgery, the video manages to maintain its sense of goofy fun. (And Narducy’s glorious elbows are on full display, if you’re into that sort of thing.)

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds - “Ballad Of The Mighty I” (Feat. Johnny Marr) Official Video

“Ballad Of The Mighty I” is a surprisingly dancey Johnny Marr collaboration from Noel Gallagher’s upcoming album Chasing Yesterday, one that matches a hi-hat-heavy drum track and infectiously snaky guitar parts with a soaring symphonic background. It’s an unprecedented sound for Gallagher, and its video is just as unexpected. Gallagher has been outspoken about how much he hates making music videos, and this one plays on that reputation, tracing his interactions with a pompous director who hilariously addresses him as “Liam” and seems way more into the filmmaking process than Gallagher himself. All in all it’s the most fascinating thing Gallagher’s done since the dissolution of Oasis, so press play.

Title Fight - "Rose of Sharon" (Official Video)

Title Fight have shared a video for “Rose Of Sharon,” a new track from their forthcoming album Hyperview. It starts off with some warbled, old-timey radio music and a little boy holding a toy gun while watching a black-and-white movie on TV before switching over to Title Fight’s freshly rebranded form of punk that they’ve adopted since signing to ANTI- last year. The band plays in a room that makes it look like they’re underwater, watched over by three blinking eyes.

Pond - “Zond” (Official Video)

Pond’s new album Man It Feels Like Space Again is coming soon, and today the Perth psych-rockers released an immensely goofy video from it. The title “Zond” itself suggests a slightly tweaked version of Pond, and indeed it’s one of the group’s zaniest-sounding tracks to date, with a video to match from director Johnny Mackay. A frantic new-wave funk tune spiked with guitar lacerations is paired with wildly colorful oddball visions that make grand use of basic video effects, costumes, and inflatable objects. It’s a blast, so watch.

Shabazz Palaces - “Forerunner Foray” (Official Video)

Seattle art-rappers Shabazz Palaces only ever make great videos, and their new clip for the Lese Majesty track “Forerunner Foray” is a fine entry into a growing body of work. The singer-songwriter and animator Chad VanGaalen put together the video, which uses the racial and astral themes of Shabazz Palaces’ music and turns them into a supremely bugged-out psychedelic collage. The video has no narrative connective thread, but it should keep you riveted regardless. The 2001 floating space-fetus might be the most normal thing we see during this clip. Suffice to say: This is a video where Magic Johnson rides a giant pizza slice through the galaxy

THEESatisfaction - “Recognition” (Official Video)

Seattle avant-rap duo THEESatisfaction’s video for “Recognition,” the half-chanted first single from their forthcoming EarthEE album, places the group within a historical black-bohemian continuum. The song was already a community affair, with contributions from contemporaries Shabazz Palaces and Erik Blood. But the video takes things further. In the clip, the members of the group visit Langston Hughes’ ashes in Harlem, as well as the former residences of late icons like John Coltrane, Sun Ra, and Marian Anderson. The artist Xenobia Bailey also makes an appearance. Tiona McClodden directed the video.

Childish Gambino - “Sober” Video (Dir. Hiro Murai)

As I figured out when I put together my list of last year’s 40 best music videos, Hiro Murai has arguably succeeded Nabil as the greatest director currently working in the music-video field. He made Flying Lotus’ “Never Catch Me,” my favorite video of the last year, and he was on that list more than any other director. One of his better videos from last year was the creature-feature clip for Childish Gambino’s “Telegraph Ave,” and now he’s reunited with Gambino to helm the clip for “Sober,” a non-rapped synth-funk track from Gambino’s recent Kauai EP. In the video, we see a supremely intense and zonked-out Donald Glover doing whatever he can to impress a disinterested young lady in a diner. It’s a bit like Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel” video, with the creepy undercurrents brought to the forefront. Great video, and Glover deserves a lot of credit for his physically intimidating performance and his alien facial expressions.

Sia - “Elastic Heart” Video (Feat. Shia LaBeouf & Maddie Ziegler)

The day after Sia was announced as the musical guest for the 1/17 episode of SNL, she has revealed a new music video starring fellow grocery bag enthusiast Shia LaBeouf and “Chandelier” star Maddie Ziegler. “Elastic Heart” is a not-particularly-memorable track from last year’s 1000 Forms Of Fear, but Sia and co-director Daniel Askill have turned it into one of the most memorable music videos I’ve seen in a long time. It’s a dance-battle cage match between LaBeouf and Ziegler, and it’s entertaining enough (and Shia enough) to go insanely viral. The Sia/Shia connection!

Elvis Perkins - “Hogus Pogus” (Official Video)

The no-longer-in-Dearland Elvis Perkins has a new solo album called I Aubade coming out next month, and he’s just shared the video for “Hogus Pogus,” its quirk-driven solo-acoustic lead single. The clip consists almost entirely of ancient-looking black-and-white footage of a rugged French outdoorsman named Arnaud Cornillon. It also has subtitles, for some reason. Perkins co-directed the video with Ashley Connor, Zia Anger, and Cornelia Livingston.

The Afghan Whigs - “The Lottery” (Official Video)

The Afghan Whigs’ new video for “The Lottery” serves as a tribute to their monitor engineer Ryan O’Hara, and is completely made up of footage of him dancing and singing along to the song in front of the soundboard while the band performs the track live over a few different nights. “He wakes up everyday with a smile on his face and something positive to share with you. Every night during the gig he performs a parallel show behind the board and it’s phenomenal to watch,” frontman Greg Dulli wrote. “Occasionally, I’ll forget to sing because I’m watching him turn into Bez from Happy Mondays. But that’s rock and roll for you. It keeps you young.”

Mirror Kisses - “Keep A Secret” (Official Video)

Mirror Kisses released his spiraling track “Keep A Secret” back in December, a song that shows off George Clanton’s unique, capacious voice and makes his as-yet-untitled debut LP something to look forward to in the new year. Today he’s presented us with a self-made video for the track made up of a collection of fragmented scenes from the 1995 Angelina Jolie film, Hackers. The scenes are inter-spliced with hand-drawn animations and heavily edited footage of Clanton himself, who could easily be mistaken for a character in the film.

Future - “Mad Luv” (Official Video)

Future has shared a video for “Mad Luv,” a track taken from his Monster mixtape that was released last fall. The video was directed by Rick Nyce and shot around Future’s hometown of Atlanta: “I wanted to go back to my roots before I started this journey of creating album music. So I came back to Atlanta, Lil Mexico—Kirkwood—to be specific, to shoot ’Mad Luv,” Future explained to FADER. Rae Sremmurd and Mike WiLL Made It have cameo appearances in the video.

Kate Pierson - “Bring Your Arms” Lyric Video

Kate Pierson’s first solo single, “Mister Sister,” voiced her support for the trans community (although some in that community deemed it problematic). “Bring Your Arms,” the second single from Pierson’s Guitars And Microphones, takes on a different issue: animal rights. Executive producer Sia and Chris Braide wrote the song after Sia and Pierson witnessed the rescue of a sea turtle, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. I wonder if every song on this album is topical? Watch the song’s severely corny lyric video below.

LVL UP - “DBTS” (Official Video)

LVL UP made one of the best albums of the year, and one of the many instant-classics populating the tracklist is “DBTS,” an anthem for Brooklyn DIY venue David Blaine’s The Steakhouse, where two of their members live. So it makes sense that the video is a living tribute to the space, shot inside and on the roof by Adam and Rob Kolodny, who run the production company House Of Nod. The video features footage of the band playing the song intercut with cameos from the Double Double Whammy extended fam, and ends with all of the band members getting hit in the face with food. It’s a fun time!

Atmosphere - “January On Lake Street” (Official Video)

Minneapolis rap duo Atmosphere have put out a ton of videos for their last album, Southsiders, and they’ve just released another one for “January On Lake Street,” which came out (appropriately) on the first day of the month. The video is made up of a series of shots of people staring out into space that don’t make much sense until the reveal at the end of the video that all of the shots were taken right before an asteroid crashed into Earth. With that context, the video gets a whole lot more interesting.