6/26/2013

Ducktails – “Under Cover” Video



Earlier this year, Ducktails, the Real Estate side project led by guitarist Matt Mondanile, released the sunny and extremely likable LP The Flower Lane, which worked as a kind of album-length tribute to the lush indie-pop that was coming out of New Zealand in the ’80s. The new video for the Flower Lane song “Under Cover” plays out as an extended dream sequence, with Mondanile imagining himself and his friends and bandmates out of grimy-ass Greenpoint and into some green and bucolic location, the sort of place where they can enjoy dominoes and badminton in peace. Charles Poekel directs.

Duck Sauce – “It’s You” Video



Last week, A-Trak and Armand Van Helden-duo Duck Sauce returned with zippy track “It’s You.” For its visual treatment, they’ve brought the song’s barbershop quarter sonics to life, quite literally. Not only do the two play barbers in the video, but many of the hairstyles come to life via animation to sing along and move to the song.

Slander – “Device” (NSFW)



Slander have perfected the seedy motel room video. Their clip for “Magnets/Ghosts” was a display of ascendant eeriness. This time around, they ditch black-and-white and opt to use a similar dingy locale for something a little saucier, splicing select scenes of salaciousness with ones of the band playing a sunny outdoor set. Serena Reynolds-directed clip.

Bloc Party – “Ratchet”



Music video by Bloc Party performing Ratchet.

“Ratchet,” It’s a solid new song that is equal parts dance and post-punk (dance…punk? Could such a combination even be possible?!) and it comes with a pretty strange music video. If you’re a dedicated fan, you may initially be confused because the video for “Ratchet” is exactly the same as “Octopus.” The only difference being that while “Octopus” became a little bizarre after the opening shot of drummer Matt Tong, this new one becomes absolutely deranged. What starts out with the band playing normally quick mutates into a strange glitchy display as Kele Okereke grows multiple heads, until eventually the band becomes one ever expanding fractal.

Hausu – “Kool Off”



"Will you love me now that I can dance?" This surreal clip from director Chis Ando (Talbot Tagora) is the first video for Total, the debut album by Portland four-piece Hausu.

Directed by Chris Ando
Edited by Chris Ando
Starring Dr. Patrick Atadeh

6/25/2013

The Weeknd - "Kiss Land" (Official Video)(NSFW)



Here's the video for the Weeknd's new single "Kiss Land", a heavily processed visual that picks up on where the pornographic single art left off, finding Abel Tesfaye thinking aloud in a den of iniquity.

When Abel Tesfaye, bka the Weeknd, dropped “Kiss Land” earlier this year, Amrit astutely pointed out markers of Tesfaye’s growth embedded into the track via a lighter, more celebratory touch in both the sound and the lyrics. But something else that is worth noting is that for anyone whose interests stretch throughout the blogosphere and heard something familiar with this tune, it’s unlikely your ears were deceiving you. Brooklyn producer Silky Johnson had a hand in crafting the track and its backbone can originally be heard on Main Attrakionz’s “Nothin Gonna Change.” The video version is slightly more lush than the original, but it doesn’t seem to be a case of foul play, anyway. Scratch that. There’s always foul play when it comes to the Weeknd, but only in his propensity for lustful deviance. And while the whole clip is shot to look like you’re watching fuzzy security camera tapes, it is still a bit unsafe for work.

 Watch the video for the Weeknd's collaboration with Wiz Khalifa, "Remember You":



Explosions In The Sky & David Wingo – “Wading”



David Wingo is a film composer, and Explosions In The Sky are a Texan instrumental post-rock band with a little film-scoring experience of their own. Wingo and EITS got together to score Prince Avalanche, a forthcoming Paul Rudd/Emile Hirsch indie comedy from director David Gordon Green. The video for “Wading,” a short two-minute piece of music from the movie, is a haunting image of trees trembling in time-lapse wind.

Washed Out – “Don’t Give Up” Lyric Video



Earlier this month, the former chillwaver Washed Out shared “It Feels All Right,” the lush and languorous first single from his forthcoming sophomore album Paracosm, as a flower-filled lyric video. Today, he’s done the same for “Don’t Give Up,” the album’s second single. And like “It Feels All Right,” this one feels like evidence of a stylistic shift, away from gently awed New Order-esque synthpop and toward the sort of rippling acid-head beach party that could only happen in our collective dreams. Check the song, and its lyric video.

M.I.A. – “Bring The Noize”



Last week, M.I.A. shared her rave-damaged new single “Bring The Noize,” this morning, she’s dropped the video, in which she looks absolutely glorious and tough as hell while flexing bright-pink hair and some seriously done-up nails. The clip seems to take place at the sort of London underground rave where everyone wears spotless white clothes and treats the dry ice rising from the ground like it’s some sort of healing balm. Like just about every M.I.A. video, it’s an intense and overwhelming piece of work, and like just about all of them, it’s pretty great.

Watain – “All That May Bleed” Lyric Video


As black metal evolves into newer and weirder sonic and thematic terrains, Sweden’s fearsome and amazing Watain continue to toil in the same poisoned ground from which the music first grew. The band offers swirling, suffocating, hook-driven black metal that draws from the very best in the genre’s history — Dissection, Immortal, Morbid Angel — with lyrics focusing on rituals, witches, devils, and demons. (Euronymous would surely approve.) They’ve become sort of infamous for their stage show — which involves animal carcasses and stinks to high heaven (er, low hell?) — but that infamy has overshadowed their songwriting, which uses classic elements to achieve astonishing results. Beneath the corpsepaint, Watain are meticulous craftsmen; their structural perfectionism seems almost uniquely Swedish. Their fifth LP, The Wild Hunt, is their biggest and most ambitious, even including two songs with clean singing (they sound a bit like late-period Bathory). First single “All That May Bleed,” though, is searing, blood-raising Scandinavian black metal. Of course it’s great.

6/24/2013

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Despair” Video



Patrick Daughters has directed a lot of great videos, but he’ll probably always be most famous for helming the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ iconic “Maps” clip. So it’s fitting that Daughters has once again linked with the YYYs, directing the video for their giddily emotive ode to friendship “Despair.” If Mosquito, the band’s very good new album, has a “Maps,” it’s “Despair.” And in making the clip, the YYYs have become the first band to film a music video on top of the Empire State Building. The video is framed as a drunken barroom reverie from Karen O, but once the band reaches the building’s summit, it’s a total endorphin rush of a visual, with Karen pinwheeling all over the observation deck and her two bandmates generally looking awed by everything around them. If you can watch this video without goosebumps, you are going about your life wrong.

Disclosure – “F For You” Video


Until now, all the videos for tracks from Settle, the great debut album from the brotherly British dance duo Disclosure, have been excellently fantastical affairs that mostly haven’t featured the group themselves. They had a cameo in their “You & Me” clip, but they were entirely absent in their “White Noise” and “When A Fire Starts To Burn” videos. That all changes with the new “F For You” clip. Disclosure’s own Howard Lawrence sings the track, and the video is a kinetic performance clip, showing both Lawrence brothers at their futuristic-looking controls, shot on a soundstage that’s like like a spacecraft from a trippy sci-fi movie. Ben Murray and Ross McDowell direct.

Bleached – “Dead In Your Head” Video



Earlier this year, LA’s Bleached released a great full-length debut, Ride Your Heart. We’ve already seen a video for “Next Stop,” now here’s the band’s prismacolor visualization of their hook-heavy single “Dead In Your Head.”

Robyn – “U Should Know Better” (Feat. Snoop Dogg)

 
Three years ago, Robyn released the mini-album Body Talk, Pt. 2, which included the ridiculously catchy Snoop Dogg collab “U Should Know Better.” Three years later, she’s made a video for the song. Why? It doesn’t matter why! She’s Robyn! She does what she wants! More to the point: Holy shit, this song still kicks so many different varieties of ass. The video features young gender-flipped British lookalikes of both Robyn and Snoop, neither of whom really looks that much like Robyn or Snoop. It is a fun, cartoonishly surreal affair, and you can watch.

Black Tusk – "In Days of Woe" (Official Music Video)



The video for their new song “In Days Of Woe” mostly consists of not-that-exciting studio footage, and it seems to exist just to prove that they record their shit live to tape (which, to be fair, is cool). But man oh man, those riffs!

Juicy J – “One Of Those Nights” (Feat. The Weeknd)



The Weeknd makes mournfully beautiful music about being overly self-medicated and having too much sex. Juicy J makes triumphantly thunderous music about being overly self-medicated and having too much sex. The two make a surprisingly seamless pair on Juicy’s single “One Of Those Nights.” And in its violent new video, Juicy and Abel Tesfaye both get to exhibit psychotic levels of cool during a nightclub armed robbery.

6/19/2013

Wavves – “That’s On Me” (Official Video)



Punk weirdos Wavves release another oddball clip with “That’s On Me.” This one is way less trippy than “Afraid Of Heights,” but still contains multitudes of absurdity. Whether it’s a suit seeking stress-relief via slicing up soda bottles or parody metal dude standing in for Nathan Williams, the video is filled with quirk.

JJ DOOM – “Bookhead” (NSFW)



In 2012, rap-weirdo legend DOOM teamed up with the quirky producer Jneiro Jarel to form the short-lived duo JJ DOOM and released the album Keys To The Kuffs. Nearly a year later, they’ve made a video for the album track “Bookhead,” and it shows DOOM going through a Kafka-style metamorphosis, joining forces with a bodega security mirror to become a human fisheye lens. He then goes shopping for used books. The street artist Steve “ESPO” Powers directed the video.

Tree – “Busters” (Official Music Video)



Tree just shared his video for the honking, soul-thundering mixtape track “Busters” this morning, but he must’ve taped it months ago, when Chicago was still frozen tundra. There are not too many things that look cooler than one guy rapping his heart out in the snow. Watch it below.

Kitty – “Ay Shawty 3.0″ (Feat. Lakutis)



video for “Ay Shawty 3.0,” and it’s sweet, too, all slow dissolves and sunstruck cinematography. Peter Wu directed the video

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin – “Nightwater Girlfriend”



A short documentary by Brook Linder. With new music by Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin.

METZ - “Get Off” (Official Video)



The face-ripping Canadian post-hardcore power trio METZ released their awesomely punishing self-titled debut last year, and now their Sub Pop labelmate Chad VanGaalen has directed them a video for the surging, anthemic “Get Off,” one of that album’s standouts. It’s gross, nutso Heavy Metal-style animated comic-book surrealism, and it tells us of the fate of an alien dolphin-dog creature.

Arctic Monkeys – “Do I Wanna Know?” (Official Video)



Arctic Monkeys apparently haven’t gotten that whole stoner-rock thing out of their system yet. “Do I Wanna Know?,” the band’s new single, rides a souped-up fuzz-rock riff, and it seems custom-designed for high-school parking-lot bong-rip sessions. The band shared the new song this morning, pairing it with a lightly psychedelic animated video that features lots of wav-forms and almost-naked cartoon women.

The Postal Service – “A Tattered Line Of String” Video



The where-does-that-other-sock-go mystery has been solved in the video for the Postal Service’s “A Tattered Line Of String.” In the clip for the Give Up anniversary edition bonus track, we venture into the dirty clothes-filled alternate universe of an otherwise standard issue laundromat.

Local Natives – “You & I” Video



The Daniel Portrait of Kamp Grizzly-directed video for Local Natives’ “You & I” is truly upsetting until the last twenty seconds. Puppy enthusiasts be forewarned: This clip takes place in a future where dogs become extinct. Fortunately, in this terrible future there are also dog detectives (not like Wishbone, who is a dog that is also a detective, but actual human people who sleuth to find pups) and there is hope!

Small Black – “No Stranger” Video



Last month, Brooklyn’s Small Black released Limits Of Desire, an absolutely lovely album of starstruck small-stakes synthpop. Today, they drop a video for “No Stranger,” one of its highlights. The clip tells the story of a dude who sees a girl on a train, thinks about talking to her, chickens out, and then imagines how things might’ve turned out differently if he’d taken the leap. I feel for you, guy in the video. It’s a completely gorgeous and romantic piece of work, with a few vaguely NSFW bits; Mandy Mandelstein and Addison Mehr directed it.

6/18/2013

Sonny & The Sunsets – “Green Blood” Video



Sonny & The Sunsets have delivered a quirky animated video for their track “Green Blood.” The tune comes from their most recent album, Antenna To The Afterworld, which is about space and death, but here they explore interplanetary romance. Watch for the Crystal Pepsi reference.

Die Antwoord – “Cookie Thumper” Video



If you ever wanted to see Yolandi from Die Antwoord pee her pants, now is your opportunity with their new video for “Cookie Thumper.” This is the least troubling part of the whole thing, as the song is seemingly about being victimized by a recently-freed-from-jail drug dealer. I guess it’s better than black face? Major trigger warning.

Foals – “Bad Habit” (NSFW)


Foals last worked with director Nabil Elderkin on the seriously NSFW “Late Night” video. The band and director are paired up again for the “Bad Habit” clip, which is about as objectionable as the sleeve art for Rush’s Hemispheres. But a tasteful nude is still a nude, so be warned. “Bad Habit” is far and away my favorite track on Foals’ recent album, Holy Fire. It’s a rich, beautiful electro ballad with soaring climaxes and thousands of perfectly arranged near-microscopic details. It’s a song that I usually play three or four times in a row every time I listen to it, because its chorus gives me such an endorphin charge. Nabil (whose video portfolio includes Kanye West, Justin Timberlake, and Bon Iver, among others) gives the vid a vast, painterly feel, which is absolutely warranted by the music.

Twin Peaks – “Fast Eddie”



If you can wrap your mind around the idea that there’s a fucking band called Twin Peaks now, then you can hear that the Chicago teenagers who make up the band Twin Peaks make a confident old-school indie rock chug that should be beyond their years. We’ve already posted their song “Stand In The Sand,” and now we’ve got the video for “Fast Eddie,” in which director Ryan Ohm follows the band as they go lamping on a Lake Michigan beach. Spoiler alert: Nobody finds Laura Palmer’s body wrapped in plastic.

Fuck Buttons – “The Red Wing”



A mirror-imaged figure contorts in slow motion.

Filmed, Edited and Directed by Andrew Hung

Additional info:

Filmed, Edited and Directed by Andrew Hung
Choreography and Dance by Jacqueline Mitchell
Hair, Make-Up and Styling by Alison McLaughlin
Lighting by Niall Hannell

San Fermin – “Sonsick”



Yale alumni San Fermin craft family drama with their video for “Sonsick.” The chamber-pop track sounds easy-breezy, but the lyrics are just as heavy as the visuals. You feel the emotional pull from singers Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe (of band Lucius), especially in the multi-layered hook. Check it out below and purchase here.

Freddie Gibbs - "Eastside Moonwalker"



The Gary, Indiana tough guy Freddie Gibbs is back on the rap underground after a stint on Young Jeezy’s CTE label. His new album ESGN arrives next month, and we’ve already posted the Problem collab “One Eighty Seven.” Now Gibbs has released the John Colombo-directed video for the hard-minded, hoarse ESGN track “Eastside Moonwalker.” It’s pretty much just low-budget rap-video posturing, but Freddie Gibbs is really good at low-budget rap-video posturing.

Kylesa – “Unspoken” Video



We’ve been playing the hell out Kylesa’s new record, Ultraviolet, around here. “Unspoken” was the first track to premiere from the album, and it’s absolutely one of the record’s highlights, and now it’s got a video. It’s an animated clip, directed by Brodie Rush and illustrated by Tyson Schroeder; it’s bleak and dark and fiery, and the images of dreamlike apocalypse nicely match the churning downtuned guitars and climactic vocal rushes.

Shabazz Palaces – “An Echo From The Hosts That Profess Infinitum”



Black Up, the first full-length from Seattle art-rap enigmas Shabazz Palaces, is two years old now, but they’ve only just released a video for the album track “An Echo From The Hosts That Profess Infinitum.” The stark black-and-white clip, from director Joris Grelet, stars a pair of stylish masked ninja figures, guys who wield katanas and molotov cocktails and who dress with more flair than anyone you know.

6/17/2013

Young Adults - “Spectre” Video



Earlier this year, Western Mass trio Young Adults released a new EP, Born In ’91, a noisy punk album full of shoegaze guitars and shout-a-long hooks. Now, the band has a video for the EP’s third cut, “Spectre,” produced by Loroto. It’s a cheeky commentary on stale office culture, corporate branding, the numbness induced by social media, and general societal constructs regarding success and normalcy.

Quilt – “Opens Eyes”



“Open Eyes” is a song by Quilt that appears on the A-side of the band’s recent split with MMOSS, New Hampshire Freaks. Below, watch a new video for the song. It was shot on 16mm film, and plays with lightness and darkness in striking ways. The “Open Eyes” video was directed by Kim and Luis Arnias. The duo also directed Quilt’s video for “Young Gold,” from their 2011 debut for Mexican Summer. Quilt just recorded a second record in Brooklyn, which is very exciting.

Okkervil River – “It Was My Season” Lyric Video



Will Sheff, frontman for literate Texan indie band Okkervil River, has lately been busying himself with the DIY synthpop project Lovestreams, but his main band comes roaring back in a couple of months with a new album called The Silver Gymnasium. This morning, we get to hear our first taste of the album: A slow-building, piano-led track called “It Was My Season.” The lyric video for the song shows a lady turning on an old projector in a dusty auditorium somewhere, and you can watch it and hear the song.

Chvrches – “Gun”



The Glasgow synthpop trio Chvrches made a name for themselves earlier this year with their Recover EP and with its ridiculously catchy title track. And now they’ve announced plans to release their debut album The Bones Of What You Believe this fall. Their new video for “Gun,” the similarly infectious first single from the album, turns the standard band-performance video format into a dizzy kaleidoscope of melting images.

6/13/2013

These New Puritans – “Fragment Two” (Official Video)



“Fragment Two” is the slow, stately first single from ambitious British postpunkers These New Puritans’ new album Field Of Reeds, and its new video seems fittingly epic. In the video, a camera pans slowly across an imaginary landscape, one that includes mountains and cathedrals and clifftops over gorgeous cityscapes, with the band appearing and reappearing throughout. Daniel Askill directed the video, and it’s a Creators Project production.

AlunaGeorge – “You Know You Like It”



Alongside Disclosure, the London space-soul duo AlunaGeorge helped make one of the year’s best singles in “White Noise,” and their own impending debut album Body Music has already yielded a few monster tracks of its own, like “Your Drums, Your Love” and “Attracting Flies.” They’ve got a new video for the insinuating bass music slow-burner “You Know You Like It,” and its video is an old-school sock-hop type of thing, with the duo and their friends partying in an empty swimming pool. It’s worth watching because it’s done with style and grace and because the charisma of singer and beautiful human being Aluna Francis carries it.

Low - "Plastic Cup" Video



Low present new video from their recent album, the Jeff Tweedy-produced The Invisible Way. “Plastic Cup” opens The Invisible Way — it’s a classic Low number, unhurried, dark, and warm, with Alan and Mimi harmonizing sweetly. The Ryley Fogg-directed black-and-white clip captures the band through a Golden Age-esque Vaseline-smeared lens, and those images are intercut with fucking weird shots of anonymous folks in elaborate white hoods, until the full scope of the narrative — and the relationship between the two parties — is revealed.

A-Trak (feat. Galantis) - "Jumbo"



Here's A-Trak's video for the Tuna Melt EP cut "Jumbo", featuring Galantis. It stars the producer as a one-man basketball team in a fun-house of a gym.

Pure X – “Thousand Year Old Child” Video



“Thousand Year Old Child” is a deeply pretty song from Crawling Up The Stairs, the new album by the gently expansive Austin fuzz-rock trio Pure X. And its new video, from director Malcolm Elijah, works as a study of the deep lines on the face of Bob Olson, the video’s lead actor. The beautifully shot black-and-white clip follows Olson’s quick transition from haggard farmer to cabaret star, and it finds Olson lip-syncing for helium-voiced Pure X frontman Nate Grace.

Hooded Fang – “Bye Bye Land” Video



Regardless of media attention, though, Hooded Fang still like to keep things weird. In their newest video, for the jangly, fuzz-rock Gravez cut “Bye Bye Land,” a dance-off between rivaling gangs of young women wearing animal masks quickly turns into a rather brutal fist fight. Two particularly rowdy ladies battle to the blood; a ringleader in a chicken mask reveals an alarming, mystical twist; and the whole thing looks a little like the Ukraine circa 1981, except in Mexico. You’ll just have to see what I mean.

Destruction Unit – “Sonic Pearl”



I tend to associate Sacred Bones Records with spare, cold post-punk/electronic/noise — Pharmakon, Vår, Lust For Youth, Cult Of Youth … even Zola Jesus, really — but Arizona’s Destruction Unit don’t quite fit that description, even though they do fit pretty nicely on the Sacred Bones roster. Destruction Unit are basically a roots-based rock band whose hook-heavy psychedelic songs are delivered through terrifying feedback squalls and (presumably) several dozen cheap/broken effects pedals. Their closest Sacred Bones analogue is probably the Men, which especially makes sense, as Destruction Unit’s forthcoming Sacred Bones debut, Deep Trip (which follows a handful of limited-run releases), was recorded and mastered by a bunch of dudes also associated with the Men, including that band’s bassist/vocalist, Ben Greenberg, and their longtime engineers, Kyle Keays-Hagerman and Josh Bonati, along with Kris Lapke of Hospital Productions (at least half of whose output seems suited to Sacred Bones, too). Right now, Destruction Unit are out on tour with Milk Music and Merchandise, which is a pretty incredible bill, one of those things you’ll probably be bragging about having attended (or wishing you had attended) in two or three years. Also prior to the release of Deep Trip, Destruction Unit will drop a 7″ via the Suicide Squeeze Records Singles Series, called Two Strong Hits. That record’s A-side, “Sonic Pearl,” has been paired with a video, which we’ve got for you today. Not much happens in the “Sonic Pearl” clip: A bunch of dudes wander around the wilderness, barely visible through the warped-VHS-quality video and the blinding sun on the horizon. But the visual component strongly reflects Destruction Unit’s sound.

6/12/2013

The Lonely Island – “Go Kindergarten” Video (Feat. Robyn, Diddy, & Paul Rudd)



I hate looking at funny stuff in the office; I have no control when it comes to laughing so it’s always really obvious when I’m surfing Reddit or something. In that sense the Lonely Island’s new video is torture to watch if you’re at work because it’s easily the funniest thing to come from their new album. The recently released “Go Kindergarten” stars Paul Rudd and Sean Combs in a completely absurd ode to commanding club anthems. It appropriately features Robyn, who has put out some of the finest club anthems of the last decade.

Claire mentioned how non-sequitur-heavy the new track is, and possibly the best thing about the video is seeing every one of those insane things acted out with complete dedication. The jokes fly by so fast that it’s impossible to pick a favorite moment (I’m stuck somewhere between Combs teaching a little girl arithmetic and Robyn eating the banana) and I’m sure you’ll have a different one.

Hebronix – “Viral” Video


English trad-indie revivalists Yuck publicly parted ways with frontman Daniel Blumberg in mid-April, and less than 10 days later, Blumberg’s new solo project, Hebronix, released its excellent first single, “Unreal.” It remains to be seen what will be delivered by Yuck — who will indeed carry on sans Blumberg — but either way, Hebronix seems poised to satisfy fans of Blumberg’s old band. Hebronix’s debut album will (rather appropriately) be produced by Royal Trux’s Neil Hagerty, and we’ve got its second single now. “Viral” is a lilting, layered bit of summertime pop full of baroque instrumentation and choral elements, yet driven by a squealing electric guitar and Blumberg’s melancholy vocal; it feels both familiar and fresh in equal measure — a formula accomplished to wonderful effect on Yuck’s debut, too. The video, directed by Michael Reich, stars Stacy Martin (Nymphomaniac) and Sonja Kinski.

Poliça – “Tiff” Video (Feat. Justin Vernon)



You may remember Justin Vernon and Channy Leaneagh teaming up earlier this year for “Tiff,” the first single off Poliça’s upcoming sophomore album. “Tiff” was dark to begin with, but the newly released video is violently disturbing. Featuring Leaneagh as both torturer and victim, the video very bluntly –- almost clinically -– depicts her going through various horrific procedures. Waterboarding, smashing fingers with a hammer, heavy beatings; all are portrayed in graphic detail, as Leaneagh sings lyrics such as, “Body buildings sickly fed/ Need my TV, I need my meds.” Directors NABIL and Mike Piscitelli know what they’re doing and the video is more than just shock value. In fact one of the most unsettling things about the video comes before any of the violence; it’s all there in the disorientingly narrow aspect ratio, which frames the entire basement scene in a claustrophobic hysteria. Check it out if you’re okay with the violent content.

Fat Tony – “Hood Party” (Feat. Kool A.D. & Despot) (Official Music Video)



Today, the sharp and fluid Houston rapper Fat Tony releases Smart Ass Black Boy, his new album, and he also gives us a video for the early single and album standout “Hood Party.” The track’s two guest rappers, former Das Racist member Kool A.D. and El-P associate Despot, both live in different places, and the video comes up with a smart shortcut: It’s constructed as a Google Hangout, with the three rappers and producer Tom Cruz checking in from various different shindigs. Bonus points for the NBD Bun B cameo, and stick around for the M. Night Shyamalan ending.

Cloud Control - "Dojo Rising" (Official Video)



Here's the fresh new video for "Dojo Rising," from Cloud Control. Shot on location in Bolivia. Directed by Ian Pons Jewell

6/11/2013

Alexander Von Mehren – “La Chanson De Douche” Video


“La Chanson De Douche,” the first, francophonic single from Norwegian singer-songwriter-producer-composer Alexander Von Mehren and his forthcoming Aéropop LP. The track’s dapper, Serge-on-Stereolab lounge-fusion has a video now, set in a golden ski-lodge type retreat, with footage of outdoors lamping and indoors performing captured viaSuper 8 and Canon 5D, for a nice mix of the halcyon and pristine.

Haim perform 'Forever' on Letterman



With “Falling” and now “Forever,” sisterly act Haim are on some other shit, nailing a strain of soulful, syncopated, and clean LA studio pop with just the right touch of fashion, finesse, and familial alchemy, and their fanbase has grown by degrees wich each of those modifiers. This is a band we can get behind, let alone one to watch, in both pure musical and also pure visual terms. As such, last night on Letterman was a proper showcase for their charms, and as such, they charmed.

Washed Out – “It All Feels Right” Lyric Video



It’s been interesting watching the progression of the class of ’09 artists — including Washed Out, Toro Y Moi, and Neon Indian — lumped together under the genre-tag that shall not be named™. Either that storm got under their skin, or they were all coincidentally and preternaturally mercurial, but in any event, they’ve proven the most difficult to consistently label from release to release, let alone as an aggregate group. Here then is young Washed Out’s newest guise, with “It All Feels Right.” The artist born Ernest Greene has always had a way with feelings, but here he honeydips that sanguine sensitivity in overtly psychedelic garb; that’s to say, Washed Out’s sound on “It All Feels Right” has more in common with Tame Impala than hypnogogic anything, give or take a flanged guitar. Not to put too fine a point on any of this, the single comes to you via a lyrics video with kaleidoscopic flowers in bloom, and all the quotes for any budding blog-hippie in need of a new ethos to build around.

Kisses - "Huddle" (Official Video)

 
For the Adrian Buitenhuis-directed video for L.A. new wavers Kisses’ “Huddle,” the duo adds a pint-size percussionist into the mix, who also seems to function as the band’s voice of reason — at least for the sake of the clip’s narrative. It utilizes an Off-To-College theme, where the band expects to all stick together at community college instead of only spending one more summer together and dispersing. Alas, someone in the group has gotten accepted elsewhere and sorrow-ensues. The muted colors, provided by Director Of Photography Ben Loeb, suit up with the song’s somber tone and the murky storyline. Will Kisses make it to the fall?

Young Galaxy – “New Summer”



The clip features mammoth smoke clouds and large-scale explosions littering a metropolis in slow-motion. It’s as if they’ve been decelerated, cooled down almost, by the song’s frosty synth blips and spirit-like vocals, and the effect is chilling. “Hey, it’s a new summer/ Can we live there like it’s our last one?” begs vocalist Catherine McCandless in the song’s hook – and if the video is any indication, it looks like we will have to.

Angel Haze – “No Bueno” Video (NSFW)


Angel Haze’s new single “No Bueno” is, among other things, a furious display of fast-rap acumen. So credit director Frank Borin with finding a long parade of goofballs willing and able to lip-sync the entire song at the camera, pantomiming so hard that nobody minds Angel Haze’s complete absence. The cast includes drag performers, BDSM types, elderly white people, a cowboy couple, and at least a couple of people willing to get so naked that YouTube has already taken the video down. (There’s also a fair amount of white people dropping N-bombs, so be warned.) But thanks to the good people at Worldstar, you can still watch the NSFW video.

Black Sabbath – “God Is Dead?”



Black Sabbath – “God Is Dead?”

6/10/2013

David Lynch & Lykke Li - "I'm Waiting Here"


Last week, iconic director and musician David Lynch announced his new solo album, The Big Dream. The announcement included a stream of a collaboration with Swedish singer-songwriter Lykke Li, "I'm Waiting Here" (above). Now, "I'm Waiting Here" has an accompanying video, which cruises a desert road with as the sun goes down, turning dark along with the song. The video was conceptualized by Lykke Li with artist Daniel Desure. .

Kurt Vile – “KV Crimes” Video



Kurt Vile has already pulled off the near-impossibly feat of making a Philadelphia accent sound cool, and now he seems determined to do the same with the rest of his hometown. In director Tom Scharpling‘s new clip for “KV Crimes” — after “Never Run Away,” the second great video that Vile’s excellent new album Wakin On A Pretty Daze has yielded — Vile parades through town in a plastic crown on a cardboard Renn Faire throne. He bestows golden guitar picks upon little kids and feasts on hoagies on silver platters, and he generally comes off like his city’s new Fresh Prince.

6/06/2013

The xx – “Fiction” Video


Director Young Replicant‘s new video for “Fiction,” the spindly slow-burner from the xx’s Coexist, is a visually ravishing black-and-white affair that finds Oliver Sim moodily wandering through an expensive-looking hotel area, like Stephen Dorff in Somewhere. First, he’s stepping over slumbering bodies, those of his bandmates among them, in an indoor suite. Then, he’s out in the woods for some intense swaying. Nothing much happens, but it’s all very pretty and stylish.

Sigur Rós – “Kveikur” (Live show visuals)


Icelandic sprites Sigur Rós get uncharacteristically visceral on their new album Kveikur, and this morning, we get to see the video for that album’s title track. After “Brennisteinn,” it’s the second track from the LP to get a video, and it’s honestly not much of a video. Rather, the band has just shared the footage that’ll project behind them at their live shows — blurry images from the British Film Institute archive, which director Sarah Hopper has put together. Mostly, it’s an opportunity to immerse yourself in the song’s studio version, which sounds closer to White Pony-era Deftones than you probably ever imagined Sigur Rós could get.

Father John Misty – “Funtimes In Babylon” Video



Father John Misty – “Funtimes In Babylon” Video

VHS-styled, ruin-filled, and rather grim music video for “Funtimes In Babylon,” a sun-baked track from his debut release.

Mykki Blanco – “Initiation” Video


Los Angeles’s financially beleaguered Museum of Contemporary Art seems to be pulling through, at least on the endowment front, and the parting clouds of economic hardship are dovetailing with this deft commission: MOCA had Mykki Blanco make a video for “Initiation,” the second single from the Betty Rubble: The Initiation EP. Directed by Ninian Doff, it features the always scenery-chewing performer as a CGI-enhanced insect-man delving into the seedy underbelly of insect-man cage matching. It’s a dystopian clip for a sinister song, and you can watch it here.

Kool A.D. – “Jaleel White” Video


Earlier this year, the former Das Racist rapper Kool A.D. released two solo mixtapes, 63 and 19, on the same day. And in the new Weird Days-directed video for the 19 track “Jaleel White” — named for the guy who played Urkel on Family Matters — Kool A.D. does nothing but lie on a floor and blow vast clouds of weed-smoke at the ceiling. That’s literally all he does. Sometimes he’s double-exposed.

The Lonely Island – “Spell It Out” Video


The latest of the Lonely Island’s comedy-rap Wack Wednesday offerings is a solo showcase for group member Andy Samberg, who spends the entire very short song spelling out his latest alter-ego. You’re going to want a keyboard handy when you’re watching this one. It’s work! The end result, though, is worth it. This is minor Lonely Island, but minor Lonely Island is still well worth a couple of minutes of your time.

Waxahatchee – “Coast To Coast” Video



Directed by Ryan Russell
Edited by Josh Mikel

Deerhoof – “Breakup Songs” Video


Last we saw Deerhoof, they were running around Japan in their video for “We Do Parties.” They’re absent from this clip, the Pieter Dirkx-directed, dark visuals for their current album’s title(-ish) track “Breakup Songs.” Instead, a plague doctor visits a town that is afflicted with something that causes an array of rainbow-colored vomit. Fun! But this physician, appropriately attired in a cloak and beak mask, turns pestilence into a dance party.

Gauntlet Hair – “Human Nature” Video



In the video for Gauntlet Hair’s fluid “Human Nature,” the band runs through their hometown Chicago, mostly through train stations, as well as into some subtly wild house party scenarios. The track is a fitting soundtrack for a montage of late night, possibly troublesome, antics, so director Ryan Ohm’s visualization of the song is spot-on.

Prodigy feat. Domo Genesis - "YNT" (Young and Thuggin)



A few years ago, the veteran Mobb Deep rapper Prodigy linked with the producer Alchemist to release Return Of The Mac, a deeply excellent album of wizened soul-sampling New York tough talk. Prodigy and Alchemist have once again linked for a new collaborative album called Albert Einstein, and on the prettily slow-rolling track “YNT,” they link with low-key Odd Future rapper Domo Genesis, who released his own Alchemist-produced full-length No Idols last year. And in director Jonathan Andrade’s video for the track, P and Domo dodge some ski-mask-clad female assassins.

6/04/2013

Joe Goddard Ft. Mara Carlyle - "She Burns" (Official Music Video)



Singer/songwriter Mara Carlyle is prepared for her funeral.

Kate Boy – “The Way We Are” Video

 
Like the video for “In Your Eyes,” the visuals for Kate Boy’s “The Way We Are” are shadowy, black-and-white, and feature lead singer Kate Akhurst utilizing the minimalist dance moves. The arm-heavy choreography here almost feels like slow motion, deconstructed voguing.

Joey Bada$$ & Pro Era – “Like Water”



In the haunting new video for the PEEP The aPROcalypse track “Like Water,” Steez’s group pays him tribute, ascending a building in a bombed-out downtown BK to paint a mural of Steez on the rooftop. Director Jonah Schwartz imagines a post-armageddon version of the borough, CGI’ing its most familiar landmarks into decay, and he finds real beauty in the rubble. The video works as a pretty powerful eulogy.

Thirty Seconds To Mars - "Up In The Air"



Thirty Seconds To Mars performing "Up In The Air" the short film by Bartholomew Cubbins.

WARNING: This video has been identified by Epilepsy Action to potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised.

Thom Yorke - “Rabbit In Your Headlights” At Atoms For Peace Tour Rehearsal



Atoms For Peace are currently in rehearsals for a full band tour beginning next month, and Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich have been sharing video clips from them on YouTube. The latest features a performance of UNKLE’s “Rabbit In Your Headlights,” for which Yorke provided vocals on 1998′s Psyence Fiction.

6/03/2013

Vampire Weekend – “Diane Young” Video (Feat. A Whole Bunch Of People)



Vampire Weekend already got plenty of attention for “Diane Young,” the frantic first single from their truly great new album Modern Vampires Of The City, when they burned a couple of Saabs in the lyric video. And now they’ve made a proper video for the song, setting it at an anarchic dinner party and filling it with indie-universe celebrities in cameo appearances. The party’s guest list includes Santigold, Sky Ferreira, both members of Chromeo, Dirty Projector Dave Longstreth, Walkmen frontman Hamilton Leithauser, Despot, and quite possibly a couple of others I didn’t catch, as well as a mysterious ski-mask-clad figure. Primo Khan directs, extending Vampire Weekend’s unbroken streak of fun, energetic music videos.

The-Dream – “High Art” & “Pussy” (NSFW)



This week, the sorta-lost genius hitmaker Terius Nash was in NYC to perform and celebrate the release of IV Play, which is his fourth album and also a sex-pun because if y’all haven’t heard, The-Dream is into sex! Consequently, “Pussy” is about the thing you think it is, though its nonstop lubed-bikini-booty video is even less SFW than you’d imagine. Take that into consideration when you watch below, where you can also pull off a The-Dream video double-feature thanks to the clip for his Jay-Z-featuring track “High Art.”

TEEN – “Carolina” Video


The title-track to TEEN’s Carolina EP gets a video today, directed by and starring the performance art/body expressionist Megha Barnabas. She also directed TEEN’s outstanding “Electric” video (alongside Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors filmmaker Sam Fleischner), so there is a strong history already, but this one’s decidedly more Megha-centric. The results are, rosy: Flowers decorate her dress and bundle in her arms as she visits NYC’s symbolic sites and epicenters, offering blossoms to suits, coasting on “Carolina”‘s kraut-laced reverie until a climactic psychedelic freakout in Times Square, behind a sidewalk-strewn bouquet, in front of a backlit US flag. Honestly, the only thing that’s weird about it is that more people don’t have that reaction. It’s mesmerizing, symbolism abound.

Disclosure – “When A Fire Starts To Burn” Video



At this point, whomever’s it is investing in Disclosure is obviously well aware they have a special thing on their hands: two cute brothers steeped in UK garage making emotional, sincere, artful — and in the case of “When A Fire Starts To Burn,” outright banger — dance music that is incredibly smart but never suffers for it. They’re like what James Blake could have been, if he was more interested in filling dance floors rather than making them think. Also this is a good week for you if you like Disclosure, as the “When A Fire” video is our sixth post on them since Monday. So all of those things said, director Bo Mirosseni right with this clip, which is replayable as Disclosure is repeatable: an enviably diverse congregation sweats in an imagined church where the preacher morphs into the song’s vocalist, and each congregant feels the spirit goofily enough to warrant playbacks to focus on each. If Disclosure actually broke in the ’90s instead of just sounding like it, they’d have tapped Spike Jonze for this video.

Suede – “Hit Me” Video



Big year for Suede: The reunited Britpop icons dropped a new album Bloodsports. From the album is the track “Hit Me” for which the band has released a video full of museum-ravaging.

Cayucas – “East Coast Girl”



Zach Yudin’s Cayucas project pays tribute to an “East Coast Girl” in the sunniest, most SoCal way. The track is bright and punchy, an odd tone for a tune about subway rides in city that can be pretty dismal for half of the year. Its video is equally colorful, with Yudin and his band wearing all-white short suits.

Katy B – “What Love Is Made Of”



Katy B’s back! Or at least making overtures toward being back! This weekend she performed with Jessie Ware on a song they did for last year’s Danger EP, and earlier this month she unveiled a stand-along rave-pop track called “What Love Is Made Of,” presumably the precursor to a new LP. It’s got a video now which, speaking as someone who’s never seen a Fast & Furious, is something I imagine would appeal to someone who’s excited to see the new installment Fast & Furious. YOUTHS AND HOT RODS.