Lana Del Rey - "Tropico" (Short Film)

Lana Del Rey’s new 27-minute short film Tropico works, more or less, as a glossy but bugged-out extended-length music video, a pretentious but sensationalistic dive into her center-free aesthetic. As directed by music-video veteran fantasist Anthony Mandler, LDR and male model Shaun Ross appear in a few very loosely connected vignettes. In the “Body Electric” segment, they’re in a dreamy Garden Of Eden amidst various icons: Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne, Jesus. The “Gods & Monsters” part takes place in a fever-dream vision of an L.A. gang-world. And for “Bel Air,” they dance through some idealized vision of the American countryside. The whole time, there’s a lot of zoned-out voice-over, including a bit where LDR recites the famous opening of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl over a strippers-and-guns montage. Be advised that the whole thing is mildly NSFW for stripper-related reasons. Watch the early leaked version of it below; it drops officially later this morning.

David Bowie - “I’d Rather Be High (Venetian Mix)” Video

In the recent Louis Vuitton-commercial short film L’Invitation Au Voyage, David Bowie sang a solo-piano version of “I’d Rather Be High,” a song from his comeback album The Next Day, at a Venice costume ball. And on the new deluxe edition of The Next Day, there’s a “Venetian Mix” of the song, which adds a ton of harpsichords to the album version. Now director Tom Hingston has put together a video for that Venetian mix, which combines World War 2-era stock footage with brief, ghostly glimpses of Bowie.

Big Ups - “Goes Black” (Official Video)

Sean Stout is a New York-via-Los Angeles-based videographer, director, and editor who has been creating videos under his TerrorEyes moniker since he was a teenager. His resume includes videos for the likes of Trash Talk, Death Grips, Chelsea Wolfe, Russian Circles, and he's been featured on Pitchfork, Complex, Vice, Fader, Billboard, Spin and NPR to name a few. - http://www.terroreyes.tv/

Speedy Ortiz - “No Below” (Official Video)

Major Arcana, the debut album from the Massachusetts DIY-indie band Speedy Ortiz, is one of our favorite albums of 2013, and a listen to the conversational, clangy, powerful “No Below” should give you a pretty good idea why. The song’s new video, directed by Boast Choan, shows the band, and various friends, hanging out in the woods, playing with knives and painting each other’s bodies and eating giant handfuls of what looks like peanut butter. You know, normal stuff.

Jon Hopkins - "Collider" (Official Video)

The British producer Jon Hopkins released the conceptual dance album Immunity earlier this year, and now director Tom Haines has effectively translated that album’s aesthetic into the music-video form. Haines’s clip for the thumping album track “Collider” features a girl who has an intense, hedonistic, club-night experience and who then relives that experience during the daylight hours. At least, I think that’s what’s happening.

bEEdEEgEE - "Flowers" (ft. Lovefoxxx) (Official Video)

bEEdEEgEE aka Brian Degraw of Gang Gang Dance and now has a new video. “Flowers,” which features Brazilian singer Lovefoxxx, is a sprawling jam that stretches and bends like the goo in a lava lamp. The video does roughly the same thing all under a lo-fi VHS-style filter.

High on Fire - "Slave the Hive" (Official Video)

We haven’t gotten any word on a new album from the world-wrecking Bay Area metal power trio High On Fire, but they do have a blistering new single called “Slave The Hive,” and now they have a video for that single. The clip centers around the practice of medicine in a nighmarish Orwellian rabbit-world, and it is metal as all fuck.

Metric - "Lost Kitten" (Official Video)

The Torontonian drag performer Tynomi Banks stars in the Canadian pop group Metric’s new video for “Lost Kitten,” a song from their 2012 album Synthetica. In the clip, shot beautifully by director Sammy Rawal, Banks vogues his way through Mexico City, looking for a mythical mother figure. Banks cuts a striking figure in the video, and his performance carries it even if I could make pretty much no sense out of the narrative.

A Tribute to Paul Walker (Fast & Furious)

A Tribute to Paul Walker. Paul Walker's family appreciates the outpouring of love and goodwill from his many fans and friends. They have asked, in lieu of flowers or other gifts, that donations please be made to Paul's charity Reach Out Worldwide (ROWW). Donations can easily be made through their website at http://www.ROWW.org/.

Behemoth "Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel" Official Video (NSFW)

There’s really no such thing as a “big” black metal band, but Poland’s Behemoth are probably as big as they come. The band has charted a fascinating arc since forming in 1991. Along with Vader, they more or less gave birth to Poland’s extreme metal scene, and they’ve produced a deep catalog of ambitious and audacious records that have also sold well enough to make them actual legitimate stars at home — frontman Adam “Nergal” Darski was at one point engaged to the singer Doda, aka the “queen of Polish music,” aka Poland’s Britney Spears. In August 2010, Nergal was diagnosed with advanced-stage leukemia — reportedly too advanced to be treatable with chemo — which more or less shut down the band entirely. But Nergal fought the disease and, with the help of a bone marrow transplant, beat it. Last year, with Nergal fully recuperated, the band headlined a massive North American tour also featuring the Devil’s Blood, In Solitude, and Watain. Those are three very good bands. But from every account I’ve heard (and based on the one show I witnessed), Behemoth absolutely blew them all off the stage, putting on one of the most transcendent and transformative shows I’ve ever seen. Anyway, Nergal and Behemoth are back for real next year, with the scheduled release of their 10th album (and first since 2009), The Satanist. It’s probably as much an “event” as any metal album will be in 2014, and based on the outstanding first single (and video), “Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel,” it’s going to be an event worth attending. Check out the track and its accompanying video (which is truly a thing to behold but absolutely NSFW).

A$AP Mob – “Trillmatic” (Feat. Method Man) Video

A$AP Rocky is already a star, A$AP Ferg is already a cult hero, and next year, we’ll hear from the rest of the A$AP Mob. The crew’s as-yet-untitled compilation album will be out in a few months, and first single “Trillmatic” is almost entirely a solo showcase for crew member A$AP Nast. But the ’90s-style boom-bap track also has a verse from Method Man, and Meth sounds nasty on this thing. The video sticks with the Timberlands-era aesthetic, going hard on the dudes-rapping-in-project-hallways style that used to dominate the Box and Rap City.

Lorde - “Team” (Official Video)

To close out the year of our Lorde, the newest superstar on the block has released a video for the followup single to the massive “Royals.” If you haven’t picked up Pure Heroine yet, “Team” is a worthy successor and will put to bed anyone doubting Lorde’s success beyond a one hit wonder. The video (which actually broke Vevo for a while — kudos) sees the popstress surrounded by water-guzzling acolytes, singing from a throne of sorts in the middle of an overgrown and abandoned ruin. Watch the video and read some words from the Kiwi star below.

From Facebook:

WE’RE ON EACH OTHER’S TEAM

this video was borne from a dream i had a few months ago about teenagers in their own world, a world with hierarchies and initiations, where the boy who was second in command had acne on his face, and so did the girl who was queen. i dreamt about this world being so different to anything anyone had ever seen, a dark world full of tropical plants and ruins and sweat. and of this world, i dreamt about tests that didn’t need to be passed in order to be allowed in: sometimes the person who loses is stronger. enjoy xx

Young Galaxy - “Hard To Tell” (Official Video)

Back in October, Young Galaxy released a video for their single “Privileged Poor” off of the this year’s Ultramarine. The Canadian band has a solid track record of making quirky animated videos to accompany their sonic melancholia, and this is the second time that Young Galaxy have worked with painter/illustrator Carine Khalifé. “Hard To Tell” is a pretty charming cut-and-paste illustrated animation featuring a lot of different animals walking through the woods wearing cerulean suits. The song was re-released today on the group’s Hard To Tell EP.

Linda Perhacs - “Freely” (Official Video)

Linda Perhacs hasn’t released an album in 44 years, but her one record, Parralellograms, is an outright classic. When I saw her play her first New York show a few months ago at the Mexican Summer Anniversary it was absolutely breathtaking. Perhacs talked about how she was finishing her long awaited sophomore album at the show, and now it finally has a release date. The Soul Of All Natural Things will come out March 4th on Sufjan Steven’s label Asthmatic Kitty. The album features contributions from Julia Holter and Ramona Gonzalez, artists on whom Perhacs has had a massive influence. One of the songs Perhacs played that night was the lovely “Freely,” the studio version of which you can hear in this new video.

Justin Bieber - "All That Matters" (Official Video)

Music video by Justin Bieber performing All That Matters. ©: The Island Def Jam Music Group

Vic Mensa & Clams Casino - “Egyptian Cotton” Official Video

As part of a recent promotional push, HP Computers hired the Chicago rap youngster Vic Mensa and visionary producer Clams Casino to head into the studio together and make a song. They had two days to make a song and a video and to decorate the studio, and they streamed the entire process on YouTube, taking notes from YouTube commenters, who are known to be endless spouts of wisdom. The end result is “Egyptian Cotton.” The video looks like money being piled on your computer screen, and the song sounds pretty good, with Mensa nonchalantly riding a quasi-Middle Eastern Clams beat. But really, all you needed to know was “Clams beat,” right?

Devendra Banhart - “Mondo Taurobolium” Official Video (Feat. Rose McGowan)

Devendra Banhart: Mondo Taurobolium on Nowness.com

Devendra Banhart’s deeply strange, oddly compelling video for “Mondo Taurobolium,” a song from his 2013 album Mala, is a trippy animation that takes place entirely in a world of cartoon ducks and wolves. Banhart voice-acts the main role, as a disaffected movie-star duck, while actual movie star Rose McGowan plays his girlfriend, and both get the opportunity to do drugged-out, hard-boiled voice-overs. Galen Pehrson directs, taking inspiration from the ’60s exploitation-animation genre known as Mondo.

Forest Fire – “Passengers” Video

New York City’s Forest Fire released their third album Screens back in September. Now released a video for poppy track “Passengers.” It features black and white footage of artist Maurice Thomassen working on a large painting, as well as brief scenes where he appears to be painting the band members individually. “Passengers” kind of feels like summer; as vocalist Mark Thresher harmonizes with bandmate Natalie Stormann in the chorus, her cheerful flute playing and surf rock guitar riffs give the song the easy-going vibes of warmer seasons