Arcade Fire - Reflektor (Vevo Tour Exposed) Behind-The-Scenes Video Of Arcade Fire’s Reflektor Tour

Arcade Fire have been moving along on their massive tour with almost every night providing a new surprise, the most recent being a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven.” Now you can watch a short behind-the-scene documentary of the tour that Will Butler describes as being like a tightrope act “and the tightrope walker has had a couple scotches.” They cover each aspect of the show in detail, discussing the concept that went into the lights and sound and interviewing the designers and stage manager. Later Dan Deacon shows up to talk about their (and the audience’s) costumes and the way they loosen inhibitions. 

The Hold Steady - “I Hope This Whole Thing Doesn’t Frighten You” (Official Video)

The Hold Steady celebrated their 10th anniversary earlier this year with a show at the Music Hall Of Williamsburg. Footage from that special night makes up what you see in their new video for “I Hope This Whole Thing Doesn’t Frighten You,” the lead single off their new album, Teeth Dreams. It simply captures the band playing live to an insanely enthusiastic crowd, but as anyone who’s been a part of that crowd over the years can attest, the Hold Steady live is a lot more exciting than most music videos. Watch it at Rolling Stone.

Higgins Waterproof Black Magic Band - “Mad Lifeline” (Official Video)

TV On The Radio frontman Tunde Adebimpe is joining the long line of Brooklyn indie rock luminaries (Ed Droste, Amber Coffman, and TVOTR member Dave Sitek included) who’ve made a break for Los Angeles — but not before going on a short tour with his other group, Higgins Waterproof Black Magic Band. In the midst of those West Coast dates, Higgins has shared a video for “Mad Lifeline” from last fall’s Debut EP. Among other things, the clip features a strange introductory parking lot scene, dancing angels of death, and a lengthy intergalactic graphics sequence.

Sylvan Esso - “Play It Right” (Official Video)

Sylvan Esso is the side project of Amealia Meath of Mountain Man and Nick Sanborn of Megafaun. A few years back, Mountain Man released a folkier version of “Play It Right.” With Sylvan Esso, Meath revisits the track, but Sanborn plugs a synth-pop beat into the chorus. Now the band has paired “Play It Right” with a video, which reflects the updated track’s electronic sound.

(via Gorilla vs. Bear)

Tom Vek - “Sherman (Animals In The Jungle)” (Official Video)

The veteran British dance-punker Tom Vek just announced his imminent return with the new album Luck, and first single “Sherman (Animals In The Jungle)” is exactly the sort of serrated deadpan new-wave jam with which Vek made his name in the last decade. Director PAXI filmed the song’s video at London’s Town Hall hotel, lighting Vek and a couple of good-looking actors in ways that make them look spooky as hell, and then editing it for maximum weird-out impact. It’s a nice exercise in creep-vibes, and you can watch.

Watch Arcade Fire Cover Kansas’ “Dust In The Wind” In Kansas City

Arcade Fire’s Reflektor Tour rolled into the Starlight Theatre in Kansas City last night where the band performed a cover of Kansas’ “Dust In The Wind” during its encore. Will Butler let the dramatic serenade of the bobbleheads until Win cut him off: “Guys, that was really beautiful, but that’s a Kansas song and we’re in fuckin’ Missouri. That’s gonna kill when we play Lawrence, though.”

Watch Arcade Fire Cover Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven” In St. Louis

Cloud Boat - “Carmine” (Official Video)

Cloud Boat are a London production duo, and their new single “Carmine” is a mournful downtempo synthpop dirge with an archly minimal almost-R&B vocal. It’s a song with a particular sort of atmosphere, and its music video takes that atmosphere and runs with it. The video, from director Chris Toumazou, takes place in a grim London laundromat, and it shows us the song coming to possess the souls of all the ashen-faced customers gathered there.

Elbow - “My Sad Captains” (Official Video)

Former “new Radiohead” candidates Elbow have carved a long career out of mournful and ornate rock balladry; it’s amazing that it took them this long to title a song “My Sad Captains.” But they finally did it on the recent The Take Off And Landing Of Everything, and now that song has a video featuring footage from a young children’s dance class.

Anthony Bourdain Breaks His Legendary Silence In The Rock Vs. EDM Debate

The celebrity chef and travel-minded TV epicurean Antony Bourdain has never made any secret of his tastes, culinary and otherwise, and he featured musicians like Fucked Up and the Black Keys on his old show No Reservations. Bourdain now hosts the CNN show Parts Unknown, and a new episode dedicates itself to the fair city of Las Vegas. One segment of that show focuses on the way the old institution of the Vegas show is giving way to the new institution of the Vegas superclub. Vegas is home to the rich, craven epicenter of the recent EDM boom, and you’ll never guess how Bourdain feels about that. Just kidding. You’ll guess exactly how he feels about it. If you’ve watched enough Bourdain, you might be able to guess that his spiel on it includes the exact phrase “ye lords and princes of douchedom.” Check out the segment.

Ramona Lisa - “Dominic” (Official Video)

Chairlift leader Caroline Polachek has taken on the side-project alter-ego Ramona Lisa, and she recorded all of her new album Arcadia by herself, on her laptop. She’s already made a video for the album’s title track, and now she’s followed that one with a new self-directed video for “Dominic,” another hazy track from the album. In this one, Polachek pilots a rowboat through some picturesque marshlands in Florida’s Everglades National Park, and she seems way calmer about all the alligators surrounding her than I would be. Also, she’s got a new haircut, and I really like it.

Dum Dum Girls - “Rimbaud Eyes” (Official Video)

Dum Dum Girls released “Rimbaud Eyes” way back in January, right before they dropped their newest album, Too True. Four months later, we’ve got a shiny set of visuals to go with the vixenish tinge of “Rimbaud Eyes.”

The video, directed by musician and visual artist Tamaryn, features lead singer Dee Dee Penny waltzing through a sex shop-lined alleyway looking like a neon siren. Soon, she’s joined by the rest of her pastel-clad bandmates in a performance on a floating heart. Their cartoonish coloration is fully realized, turning the band into some kind of surreal kaleidoscopic dream.

GONGA (Feat. Beth Gibbons) – “Black Sabbeth” (Black Sabbath Cover)

It’s been a while since we heard Beth Gibbons’ ghostly voice, but this week she showed up in a unique setting. Instrumental metal band GONGA recorded a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Black Sabbath,” inviting Gibbons to take the place of Ozzy on vocals, and renamed the thing “Black Sabbeth.” Gibbons fits the song perfectly, and her voice is as pretty and sinister as it was on Portishead’s incredible reunion album Third several years back. Watch the spooky, but totally fun.

We Are Scientists - “Sprinkles” (Official Video)

Veteran pop-rockers We Are Scientists have a new album out called TV En Français. In keeping with that title, they’ve made a video for single “Sprinkles” that features the band traipsing around Europe playing rock shows and having the time of their lives. Incidentally, I played pool with these guys and Oxford Collapse backstage at Stubb’s once during SXSW and can confirm that they’re actually chill bros as depicted. The song is multi-tiered and richly harmonic, and its groove is as freewheeling and fun as director James Perou’s video.

Veruca Salt - The Museum Of Broken Relationships

Veruca Salt - "The Museum Of Broken Relationships". Directed by Gary Kordan

Duck Sauce - “NRG” (Official Video)

A-Track and Armand Van Helden of Duck Sauce inject their sense of humor into their entire collaboration, and the duo’s new infomercial-inspired video for “NRG” is no exception. While the group’s dance track plays, an infomercial demonstrates the many uses for a fake “Everything Gel” product. Surely some insane entrepreneur is already preparing such a product/infomercial to go to market right now, no?

Neneh Cherry - “Everything” (Official Video)

Neneh Cherry returned earlier this year with the Four Tet-produced Blank Project, her first full-on solo album in 18 years. Now, she’s reunited with one of her old music-video directors, the veteran French fashion photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino, who first worked with Cherry on her “Manchild” video in 1989. Mondino did Cherry’s video for the seven-and-a-half-minute workout “Everything,” and the entire thing is one shot, a long, exceedingly slow zoom-in on Cherry as she frantically dances her way across a gigantic white room. It’s a fitting tribute to Cherry’s berserker charisma.

Pharrell - “Marilyn Monroe” (Official Video)

Now that “Happy” has conquered the known universe to the extent that even your mom is starting to get sick of it, Pharrell has finally gotten around to making another video. It’s for “Marilyn Monroe,” the opening track from his deeply enjoyable new album G I R L, and it works overtime to get Pharrell into various rooms with as many women as possible. There’s a lot of dancing in this video — in a rehearsal studio, on a candy-colored set, on a fake Broadway stage. And only some of that dancing is there to get gratuitous butt-shots of stretching women in there, though god knows this video isn’t hurting for gratuitous butt-shots. I’m pretty sure the woman dancing with P at the end of the video is his wife Helen Lasichanh, which means she’s presumably cool with this whole thing. It’s a bright, colorful video.