Chvrches - “Lies” (Official Video)

The Bones Of What You Believe, the emotively wide-open debut from the Glasgow synthpop trio Chrvcrhes, was one of this fall’s most immediately likable albums. Director Sing J. Lee‘s video for “Lies,” one of the album’s catchiest songs, has some vague story that involves virtual reality and illusory promises of love. But the real reason to watch is the visual aesthetic, which matches the song’s clean lines with its own.

Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band - “Bad Dancer” (Official Video)

Yoko Ono’s video for “Bad Dancer,” a track off her recent album Take Me To The Land Of Hell, might be the most diversely star-studded video of the year. Reggie Watts, Heems, Greg Saunier of Deerhoof, Ad Rock and Mike D of the Beastie Boys, Ira Glass, Questlove (slow dancing with Ono above), it just goes on and I’m still probably forgetting someone. While it does feature some pretty bad dancing, when you get this many people doing it all together (famous or not) it ends up turning out pretty cool. Watch the video, directed by Ben Dickinson.

Ty Segall - "The Man Man" (Official Video)

Bay Area garage rock don Ty Segall released his spacey, sinister stripped-back psych album Sleeper a few months ago. His new video for the album track “The Man Man” would’ve been perfect for Halloween, but it’s still pretty badass a few days later. In the LEAF-directed video, a quartet of terrifying monster-masked gunmen stalk Segall through a dark street.

Metric – “Synthetica” (Official Video)

The Canadian pop group Metric released their album Synthetica last year, and today they give us the video for the album’s slick title track. Director Justin Broadbent’s video focuses almost entirely on singer Emily Haines. But thanks to a split-screen and a mirroring effect, we get a quadruple-view of Haines the entire time, which effect gives the video a glossy kaleidoscopic feel.

Frightened Rabbit – “Holy” (Official Video)

Frightened Rabbit released their fourth album, Pedestrian Verse, earlier this year and now have a video for the track “Holy.” It follows a business woman who breaks down during a meeting and leaves to walk through the Scottish countryside, carry-on in tow.

Woods – “It Ain’t Easy” (Official Music Video)

The New York campfire-psych band Woods came out with their album Bend Beyond more than a year ago, but that LP has lost no luster in the time since its release; if anything, it sounds better now than when it came out. Artist Adarsha Benjamin, who directed or co-directed the band’s previous videos for “Cali In A Cup” and “Size Meets The Sound,” has a new video for the acoustic rampble “It Ain’t Easy.” And like those two previous videos, it’s all Super 8 footage of pretty things happening in California. This time around, it’s images of an outsider-art sculpture garden and of sunflowers swaying in breeze. And if your office is freezing fucking cold, like mine is right now, it’s a nice little burst of escapism.

Califone - "Frosted Tips" (Official Video)

Califone have released a video for their August-released single “Frosted Tips” and not a single person in the clip has the hair dye atrocity for which the song is named. Instead, the video features a falling flowerpot making its way to the ground from atop an extremely tall high rise, giving the viewer a glimpse into everything that’s going on in the building. There are people partying, dudes taking selfies, a couple doing an aerobics video together, and a cult meeting, among other things, some of which are not safe for work. 

Rick Ross - "No Games" (Explicit) ft. Future

The thunderous Future collab “No Games” is Rick Ross’s biggest song in a minute, and someone must’ve realized that a song like that needs a video that’s better than the shitty one that’s just a bunch of Scarface clips and footage of Ross rapping in a hotel. So now we get the real video: Mad Max car-chases, underground fighting rings, fireballs, girls whose white catsuits turn transparent in the rain, milk-colored assault rifles, Future looking like Blade. Colin Tilley, the current holder of the Hype Williams amazing overblown theatrical rap-video director crown, is the man to thank.

Juana Molina - "Eras" (Official Music Video)

“Eras” is the first track Argentine singer Juana Molina gave us from her new album Wed 21 and now she has released an accompanying visual treatment. The clip features a dinner party so out of the norm that you really just need to watch it in all its bizarre glory. But the image above should give you a good preview of food prep — yes, that is a masked figure sewing together lettuce leaves — and how the whole fantastical thing proceeds. Check it out below and read our Q&A with Molina here.

Watch The YouTube Music Awards Feat. Performances By Arcade Fire, M.I.A., Earl Sweatshirt, & More

Grab some popcorn (but don’t dare smear butter on that keyboard) and cozy up in front of your laptop screen because the inaugural YouTube Music Awards are going down this evening live from New York’s Pier 36. Reggie Watts and Jason Schwartzman will host (crossing my fingers for an original-lineup Phantom Planet reunion), and Spike Jonze is presiding as creative director for the broadcast, which will feature a series of live one-take music videos by performers including Arcade Fire (performing “Afterlife”), Earl Sweatshirt with Tyler, The Creator (performing “Sasquatch” in a hot pink room full of fans and friends), and M.I.A. (whose video will feature what Jonze calls “a psychedelic mirror box”). An Avicii song will be turned into a short film with a script by Lena Dunham. Eminem and Lady Gaga are in there too. Also, apparently dubstep violin pixie Lindsey Stirling will be pulling some Gravity shit involving a jetpack.

Albert Hammond Jr – “Carnal Cruise” Video

Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr.’s solo EP AHJ was a welcome surprise. The Strokes were always a band where it was hard to see past the frontman, but Hammond steps out nicely and the video for “Carnal Cruise” is another reminder. The video simply shows him singing to the camera while walking through colorful smoke, but he’s so charismatic that it works.

A$AP Rocky – “Angels” Video

A$AP Rocky’s album Long.Live.A$AP is nearly a year old now, but Rocky’s still making videos for his tracks. And since Rocky’s videos are generally stylish and murky and fun, that’s good news for everyone. The latest video is for the album bonus track “Angels,” and Rocky co-directed it himself along with Disclosure collaborator Luke Monaghan. In the clip, we see A$AP Mob as a gang of hockey-masked, BMX-riding miscreants who maraud across the bodegas of lower Manhattan.

Dum Dum Girls – “Lost Boys And Girls Club” Video

We started the day with “Lost Boys And Girls Club,” a new track from recent S’gum interviewees Dum Dum Girls, but now the L.A. band has delivered a glossy — at least it terms of the styling — video for the cut. The video, which is a collaboration between the Dum Dums and H&M, depicts a group of leather-jacketed men and women (ostensibly the future members of the Lost Boys & Girls Club) positioned stoically while Dum Dum Girls frontwoman Dee Dee Penny sings from an Edenic fantasy land. Ultimately, she lures them to join her.

Portal – “Curtain” Video

No band in heavy metal understands the power of visuals or uses them to better (or more creative) effect than Australian tech-death weirdoes Portal. Their hallucinatory stage garb makes Ghost B.C. look like bad guys from Scooby Doo. Portal released a new album, Vexovoid, back in February, but appropriately waited till fucking Halloween to release the clip for the “single” “Curtain.” It’s an incredible piece of video — one of the best I’ve seen in a long, long time — nightmarish and beautiful and artful and just plain disquieting. Perfect fodder for All Hallows’ Eve. And many bad dreams to follow.

MGMT - "Alien Days" (Official Video)

The video for “Your Life Is A Lie” was probably the best thing to come from MGMT this year. It was a perfect combination of weird and goofy. Their new one is less goofy and more weird, but the sci-fi treatment fits nicely with “Alien Days,” a song that already sounded like a spacey B-movie take on the Zombies. Watch the Megha Barnabas and Sam Fleischner-directed video.

Mount Moriah - "Miracle Temple Holiness" (Official Music Video)

While Mount Moriah’s previous video for “Bright Light” could have taken place in space, their new one for “Miracle Temple Holiness” is concerned with far more earthly things, capturing the band interacting with the basic elements. Between shots of them burning paper and laying in the water, director Casey Cook captures imagery of wind blowing trees and sunlight bouncing off stones.

Atu - "Can Do It" (Official Video)

Atu is an Ann Arbor-based producer who makes dreamy R&B beats, the power of which are especially strong due to his background as a classically-trained pianist and musician. For “Can Do It,” from his spring-released EP Pictures Of Silence, the producer creates layers of sumptuous production which he layers, what sound like, obscured samples of 112′s bedroom heater “Anywhere.” It arrives here via this barroom courtship video, but instead of a typical let me buy you a drink scenario, a detailed dance routine ensues. Directed by Jonathan Orrell

Bleached - "Love Spells" (Official Video)

Bleached have released a holiday-primed video for their Ride Your Heart track “Love Spells.” The L.A. sister duo are known for their beachy post-punk, but in honor of Halloween, the girls have taken their usual carefree fare and added zombies and traded in house parties for a graveyard locale.