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

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?”

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.

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.