Tag: Friday Videos (Page 18 of 20)

Friday Video – Midnight Juggernauts, “Lara Versus the Savage Pack”

October 1, 2010 / David Medsker

The Midnight Juggernauts are a strangely awesome Australian trio, melding big beats with progressive and psychedelic tinges, but smart enough to keep everything within a pop context. Their new album, The Crystal Axis, is a self-released effort, which would explain why it has less of the Daft Punk-ish thump that drove their 2008 debut Dystopia. It’s also a bit more challenging, opting for darker territory than they covered first time around. There is one standout upbeat pop moment, though, and it is the strangely titled “Lara Versus the Savage Pack.” Armed with one of those earworm keyboard riffs – this writer’s three-year-old son was singing the keyboard hook when the song recently played at dinner – and a positively explosive finale, “Lara Versus the Savage Pack” is the first song we’ve heard in years that made us want to go to a club just so we could dance to it with a hundred other people and watch them climb the walls at song’s end. Put on your dancing shoes, kids.

UPDATE: It figures that the week after I post this, the band finally releases the official video. So here it is.

Midnight Juggernauts – Lara Vs The Savage Pack from midnight juggernauts on Vimeo.

Music, Videos

Crystal Axis Friday Videos Happy Hour Lara Versus the Savage Pack Midnight Juggernauts video of the week

Friday Video – OK Go, “White Knuckles”

September 24, 2010 / David Medsker

Finally. We’ve been putting this song on mix discs and playlists from the moment that OK Go lead singer Damian Kulash was nice enough to send us the band’s new album Of the Blue Colour of the Sky after a phone interview last December, and at long last, the Princealicious “White Knuckles” (dig that guitar in the break) is a single. This may not be the most eye-popping of the videos the band’s made for this record, but it’s still another impossibly well-planned one-take video. Plus, we’re guessing the band will tell you that this one was the most difficult to execute, given that they shared the stage with, to use a LOLcats expression, goggies. Lots of very well-trained goggies.

Bassist Tim Nordwind handles lip syncing duties yet again, and if they keep this up, people are going to think he’s the actual singer (psst! Kulash is the one that kinda looks like Hugh Grant’s little brother), but good luck paying attention the band in this one. With the exception of the chair dancing bit (it’ll make sense when you see it), the dogs are the stars from the moment two of them do three laps around their feet. To say any more would spoil the fun. Watch, and watch again.

And, as a bonus, here is OK Go drummer Dan Konopka getting into a staring contest with Animal. Yes, that Animal. Cheers.

Music, Videos

Animal vs Danimal Friday Videos Happy Hour Of the Blue Colour of the Sky OK Go video of the week White Knuckles

Friday Video – Chromeo, “Don’t Turn the Lights On”

September 17, 2010 / David Medsker

Meet the new LCD Soundsystem. Same as the old LCD Soundsystem.

Allow us to explain.

LCD Soundsystem, from where we stand – and for the record, this writer is evoking the editorial ‘we’ here, so he is speaking for no one but himself – LCD Soundsystem is the most overrated band on the planet right now. They’re not terrible, mind you; they’re just derivative, with very little of their output rising above their influences. Yet somehow, they are the It Band. Some actress even gave Entertainment Weekly a quote about how she feels cool when she listens to them. We’re hoping that she’s in on the ridiculous hype surrounding this band and is having a laugh. But who knows, maybe she actually meant it, that she understands that people will think more highly of her if she tells them she listens to LCD Soundsystem. Either answer, frankly, scares us.

Which brings us to Chromeo. There is an LCD-type ground swell growing around this band, and we can see why. They play smoove synth funk, and who doesn’t love that? At the same time, are they really that good, or is it just the idea of a band like Chromeo that people are so enamored with? Be honest – they could be better.

Now, this song, this is one of the better ones. From their brand new album Business Casual, “Don’t Turn the Lights On” gets the balance just right. Catchy, funky and sexy…pity the rest of Business Casual doesn’t measure up to it. But this isn’t the Friday Album column, it’s the Friday Video column, so it counts. Plus, the video has lots of fun with, yep, turning the lights off. Get down with your bad self.

Music, Videos

Business Casual Chromeo Don't Turn the Lights On Friday Videos Happy Hour video of the week

Friday Video – Cee Lo Green, “Fuck You”

September 10, 2010 / David Medsker

Here’s how quickly the window opens and closes in pop culture these days: last week, when we first saw the clip for Cee Lo Green’s stupidly catchy and hilariously foul song “Fuck You,” the video only had a couple hundred thousand plays. As of this writing (three days before post), it was up to 1.25 million, which is our way of admitting that we probably should have posted this video last week. But Kaci Battaglia would not be denied. And really, who are we to say no to a girl with a bod like that?

Some friends of ours have complained about little things in this song, like the way Cee Lo’s focus shifts from singing to the girl to singing to the guy she’s with. Another friend complained that it perpetuates the stereotype of all women being gold diggers. Yet another joked that white people like this song because it allows them to say “nigga” in public. To the second point, we’d simply like to say that Cee Lo is saying that this girl is a gold digger, not all of them. To the first point: honestly, who cares? Catchy is catchy, and this song is Krazy-Glue catchy. As for that last point, well, he might be on to something.

We’ve complained in the past that the one thing that the digital revolution destroyed was the mass pop culture moment (Thriller, Madonna, Nirvana, etc.) How many of those were there in the last decade? Outside of “Hey Ya” and “Umbrella,” we’re at a loss to name one. But you can definitely add this one to the list.

Music, Videos

Ain't that some shit Cee Lo Green Friday Videos Fuck You Happy Hour video of the week

Friday Video – Kaci Battaglia, “Body Shots”

September 3, 2010 / David Medsker

When we last spoke with Little Miss Crazy Possessive, child pop star-turned club vixen Kaci Battaglia was laying down tracks for her first album, so we asked her who she’d most like to work with. After laying down the rule that dead people were exempt (her first reply: Judy Garland), she mentioned some rappers, namely Flo Rida, Ludacris, and Lil Wayne.

She can scratch one of those from her list.

If we’re being honest, Battaglia’s music doesn’t exactly speak to us, but then again, it’s not supposed to. It’s an anthem for girls gone wild, and if you’re lucky enough to get in with those girls gone wild, then this is the best song you’ve ever heard. Complete with step-by-step instructions on how exactly to do a body shot (you know, in case you’re unclear about the concept), not to mention a very amusing guest performance by Ludacris (“These girls wanna try some things, and I’m gonna be the one they try it on”), this clip has more girl-on-girl action than a late-night Skinemax movie. What you do with the volume is ultimately up to you, but you need to see this video. Kaci’s gorgeous, and you couldn’t wear less clothes without being naked. Boiiiiiiing.