Survival – “Tragedy Of The Mind” (Official Music Video)

Sometimes a good music video does just one thing really, really well. That’s the case with the Eric Wren-directed video for Survival’s “Tragedy Of The Mind.” Survival are the new and old band of Liturgy frontman Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, and it’s hard not to get excited for their debut album with every new song we’ve heard. The video for “Tragedy” is so simple (a single unmoving shot) yet its execution is as powerful as the music. Starting with a flaming mic cable, the band’s instruments are thrown one by one into a growing fire while occasional streams of gas help it grow; nothing else happens, and nothing else needs to happen.

Survival are a much more psychedelic band than Liturgy, and here they are perfectly complemented by these hypnotic flames. Guitars are smashed and burned; drumheads melt and peel apart. In a moment of (seemingly) natural chance a floor tom falls in a way so that we can see smoke building up and collecting inside — until the flames explode and shoot through like a fucking cannon. It’s a video that perfectly captures this band at this moment.

No Joy - "Hare Tarot Lies" (Official Music Video)

A colorful drug- and alcohol-induced trip ends poorly.

Empire Of The Sun - "Alive" Video

Empire Of The Sun’s sense of silliness was beyond apparent when they released the trailer for their sophomore album Ice On The Dune. We continue where it left off in the video for first single “Alive.” It features the band and others in a desert-jungle situation, many dressed as wild animals. But between the bawdy costuming and the digital orbs throughout, I am getting non-stop flashbacks to the Lonely Island’s “Space Olympics.” Day made.

Pet Shop Boys - "Axis" Video

Watch the video for “Axis,” from the upcoming Pet Shop Boys album "Electric", released July 15, 2013.

Mac DeMarco - "My Kind of Woman"

The Montreal Solo Artist Pulls On a Blue Dress in His New Video 

Cross-dressing and later undressing, off-kilter Canadian pop singer Mac DeMarco smears makeup and whipped cream over his face in the new video for lo-fi glam lullaby, “My Kind of Woman,” taken from his second album, 2. “We wanted to do something different, so changed the track’s original intention of being a love song between a man and a woman to become an ode between a man and himself—his feminine self,” says Alex Lill, director of the Newcomer Pictures-produced short. Singing under a spotlight in front of burgundy curtains, the 22-year-old protagonist brings to mind Isabella Rossellini’s noir nightclub performance in Blue Velvet, until the curtains are ripped away to reveal DeMarco wandering, bewildered, around a crowded, prop-strewn junkyard in La Brea, Los Angeles. The flamboyant musician and occasional psychedelic video artist has come a long way since the days he earned his money by paving roads and participating in medical experiments before the music started paying its way—he recently toured the US with Gallic indie superstars, Phoenix.

Two Door Cinema Club - "Handshake"

Two Door Cinema Club - Handshake (Director: Sam Pilling)

Calvin Harris - "I Need Your Love" ft. Ellie Goulding

Music video by Calvin Harris feat. Ellie Goulding performing I Need Your Love.

Fuzz – “Fuzz’s Fourth Dream”

Here’s “Fuzz’s Fourth Dream,” another track from Ty Segall’s new psych band Fuzz. Its black and white clip is pretty low-key, primarily just the trio performing together. But what makes it so great is seeing Segall get his Don Henley on and how amused he is by his own drumming. It’s hard not to smile with him.

Ruby Pins – “Chameleon”

When she’s not singing and drumming in Grass Widow, Lillian Maring also plays music by herself under the moniker as Ruby Pins. Her self-titled, self-recorded debut LP has been in the making for over a year; below, check out her first single, “Chameleon.” The full-length is out now via the always-excellent M’Lady’s Records.

Annie – “Tube Stops And Lonely Hearts”

You guys ever go to spin class? You guys ever get really bummed out when the spin class soundtrack is dominated by Black Eyed Peas and a poorly rendered dubstep refix of Britney Spears? Annie makes the kind of lovely pop that is not only infectious and endearing, but would be perfect to keep you motivated while doing push-ups on a stationary bike. For the video for “Tube Stops And Lonely Hearts,” she could have gone completely literal and done a clip featuring the love-thirsty on commuter rails — or, in line with the lyrics, ruminating on ’90s rave culture. Instead, she punctuates scenes of her singing in a bright hallway with shots of a rooftop spin class. It’s a little weird, but it works.

Kvelertak – “Kvelertak”

Like Bad Company and Minor Threat before them, balls-out Norwegian metal ragers Kvelertak have named an absolutely kickass song after the band itself — an always-appreciated way of laying out exactly who the band is, of making a mission statement. Weirdly, the song doesn’t appear on the band’s 2010 self-titled debut but on Meir, its equally great new follow-up. That album has already given us amazing videos for “Bruane Brenn” and “Månelyst,” and now they’ve made a video for “Kvelertak” with director Stian Andersen, and this one is a band-on-the-road deal. We see the heavily inked dudes in the band ripping through sweaty clubs, drinking, riding motorcycles, and wearing owls on their heads, true vikings all the while.

Crystal Castles – “Affection”

The new video for “Affection,” one of the prettier songs from Crystal Castles’ 2012 album (III), is made up entirely of distorted digital footage that band members and friends shot during their recent South American tour. Stephen Agnew edited everything together, turning it into a forbidding blur, though the images of Alice Glass you see here are still way clearer than any view of her you’ll get from watching Crystal Castles live.

G-Dragon – “Go”

Once again: God bless K-pop. G-Dragon is one of South Korea’s biggest pop stars, and he came up completely within the country’s regimented and market-tested idol-factory system. But he’s apparently also the only person alive who believes that Missy Elliott’s brain-exploding videography didn’t go far enough. He’s here to fix that problem.

Colin Stetson – “Among The Sef”

The abstract saxophone world-creator Colin Stetson has already made one video for two of the songs from his new album New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light, and the dual video for “In Mirrors” and “And In Truth” focused on snow-capped mountainous landscapes. The new video for Stetson’s suffused-with-awe “Among The Sef” turns its attention toward another element, water. In the clip, we see gorgeous, beyond-comprehension black-and-white footage of seawaters churning, of enormous plumes of spray, of whales surfacing, with some deeply unsettling images of shadowy masked figures creeping in at the end. Isaac Gale and David Jensen directed the video.

Taken By Trees – “Only You”

Taken By Trees is the former Concretes singer Victoria Bergsman, and last year, she released Other Worlds, a truly gorgeous album of tropical synthpop that flew under a lot of radars. If you missed out on it, all the more reason to watch her new video for “Only You,” a love song with an immaculate Swedish-reggae float to it. In director Armen Harootun‘s video, she’s blindfolded at a strobe-lit party, and she’s the only person there who isn’t making out with somebody.

The Pastels – “Check My Heart”

Earlier this month, we got “Check My Heart,” a track from vanguard indie-poppers the Pastels’ Slow Summit, their first full-length since 1997. The band worked with Blair Young of the Forest Of Black on the album, who also directs the clip, which features a rec hall party where the DJ spins records and not from Serato.

Disclosure – “You & Me”

The crazy-exciting young British dance duo Disclosure released their new buoyant single “You & Me,” a collaboration with the singer-songwriter Eliza Doolittle, last week. And today, we get the video, a beautifully shot and edited story about a young couple traveling through Europe together. We see them making out, drinking, arguing, dancing, backflipping, getting lost, jumping into absurdly blue water, riding roller coasters, smacking each other with a dildo. It’s all just terribly romantic and inviting, and when the actual Disclosure show up near the end, it’s finally like: “Oh right, this is a music video.”

Sigur Rós – “Ísjaki” Lyric Video

Sigur Rós is gearing up to release LP Kveikur in June and here is “Ísjaki,” our second helping from the record. It comes with a lyric video featuring an ominous hooded character, a total dichotomy with the swoony, energetic track. It’s a conundrum! But a lovely one. It’s no wonder that the band is so beloved by oddball Danny DeVito.