Author: David Medsker (Page 57 of 59)

Friday Video – Andrew WK, “I Want to See You Go Wild”

July 2, 2010 / David Medsker

The reaction was decidedly mixed when Andrew “Party Hard” W.K. finally released his “lost” third album Close Calls with Brick Walls earlier this year, but after suffering years of pompous, humorless little shits who are far more interested in entertaining themselves than they are the public, the album was a welcome breath of fresh air. It’s not great, no, but it’s fun, damn it. The world could use more of that right now.

And what else would Andrew do with a song like the breakneck-speed “I Want to See You Go Wild” but give it an equally breakneck animated video, stuffed with enough Masonic and occult symbolism to give armchair conspiracy theorists an aneurysm? This is one of the most batshit crazy videos we’ve seen in a while, like a White Zombie album cover come screaming to life. The sound effects drown out the song at times, but see if this doesn’t get your weekend party started off on the right note. Happy 4th, everyone.

Music, Videos

Andrew WK Close Calls with Brick Walls Friday Videos Happy Hour I Want to See You Go Wild video of the week

Friday Video – The Like, “He’s Not a Boy”

June 25, 2010 / David Medsker

My, how these girls have grown.

They may have had a leg up on getting a record deal thanks to their parents – they’re the daughters of producer Tony Berg and Elvis Costello drummer Pete Thomas, and their original bassist calls producer Mitchell Froom daddy – but there will be no cries of nepotism when people hear their new single “He’s Not a Boy.” Hooking up with white-hot ’60s revivalist Mark Ronson, the Like have turned in one killer slice of ’60s pop, and shot a gorgeous black-and-white video to go with it.

The guys in the crowd look like the Strokes doing their best Beatles impression (for all I know, those are the Strokes), and the girls, well, that ’60s mod look is catnip for me. Lead singer Elizabeth “Z” Berg and keyboardist Annie Monroe in particular make me gooey. Isn’t it funny how girls are actually sexier when they show less skin? I’m personally burned out on the whole ‘stripper teen’ thing. This clip is a sight for sore eyes, on a number of levels.

Like the song? You can download it for free at ESDMusic.

Music, Videos

Elizabeth Berg Friday Video Happy Hour He's Not a Boy Mark Ronson Tennessee Thomas The Like video of the week Z Berg

Friday Video – OK Go, “End Love”

June 18, 2010 / David Medsker

When I posted the latest simple-but-awesome video from OK Go to my Facebook page, a friend joked, “No hot tubs? Bitches and hos? Gold chains/teeth? Money being thrown in the air?”

Exactly.

Truth be told, it’s hard to believe that all of those hip hop video cliches still exist. The money they’re throwing? Not real. Hot tub? Only if you want to contract hepatitis. The women? Well, most of them are ho’s, if that one woman’s tell-all book about her life as a video vixen is to be believed. Either way, none of those clips stand apart from the others, and if your video doesn’t stand apart, then odds are your song won’t, either.

OK Go clearly knows this, because they have made a game out of constructing music videos that are easy on the eyes – in that they don’t include a million jump cuts – yet impossibly complex. Their last clip, the Rube Goldberg puzzle “This Too Shall Pass,” set the bar impossibly high, but damned if “End Love” doesn’t rise to the challenge. Using the stop-motion photography that Zbigniew Rybczyński made famous in his clip for the Art of Noise’s “Close (To the Edit),” OK Go shoot a clip that appears to be taking place in real time…really lengthy real time, like 24 hours. And then, just to be cute, they include a couple of super slo-mo shots and at least one shot at normal speed. And check out the goose that follows them everywhere.

Music, Videos

Damian Kulash End Love Friday Video Happy Hour Of the Blue Colour of the Sky OK Go This Too Shall Pass video of the week WTF

Friday Video – The Divine Comedy, “At the Indie Disco”

June 11, 2010 / David Medsker

Neil Hannon is, for all intents and purposes, my boy. The sublimely literate frontman (only man, really) for ork-pop darlings the Divine Comedy, Hannon has been applying his acerbic wit to instantly memorable pop songs for almost 20 years. They actually sounded like R.E.M. when they first started. That’s just hilarious to me now.

After collaborating with Pugwash’s Thomas Walsh for last year’s Duckworth Lewis Method (my album of 2009 by a country mile), Hannon has donned the DC hat once again, and “At the Indie Disco,” the first single from the Divine Comedy’s new album Bang Goes the Knighthood, is as Hannonesque as they come. Funny bits name-checking bands from Blur to the Wannadies, combined with spot-on observations about the club culture (spending the night staring at each other’s feet while dancing), make for one of Hannon’s funniest songs yet. But will they play it at the indie disco? Let’s hope they have enough of a sense of humor about it to oblige.

Music, Videos

Divine Comedy Friday Video Happy Hour Indie Disco Neil Hannon video of the week

Friday Video – Metric, “Stadium Love”

June 4, 2010 / David Medsker

Who wants a hot blonde bouncing around in a tight dress? That’s what we thought.

We’ve been putting “Stadium Love” on playlists and mix discs since Metric’s (awesome) album Fantasies dropped last year, and the band finally made a proper music video featuring, surprise, all of the animals Emily Haines mentions in the song. Wait until you get to the shot of the python attacking the lion. Holy cow.

If we’re being honest, we could watch Haines dance all day long. Note to females everywhere: dance like this, and you will get noticed. Can’t wait to see her do it in person at Lollapalooza.