Music Videos

When three bands that can be categorized as experimental or avant-garde team up for a tour, it is easy to expect there to be an artsy fartsy, pompous vibe at a show. Luckily, that was not the case when the wondrous Parenthetical Girls, Extra Life, and Sam Mickens rolled into Los Angeles last Thursday. While all are known for blending all sorts of musical elements together in unexpected ways, the bands created a night at The Echo full of camaraderie, for many reasons. All of the bands have been friends for many years and the Pacific Northwest background that Sam Mickens and Parenthetical Girls share has led to many collaborations. Even LA locals Abe Vigoda, the headliner for the night, [...]

Calgary-based musician Chad VanGaalen is one talented dude, and his artistic skills are just as prominent as his musical skills. How fortuitous that he is in a position to animate a video such as this one, for “Peace Is On The Rise”! What you can expect from this video is plenty of aliens, morphing and melting characters (primarily towards the amazing end), heavy linework, and ever-amassing subtleties. The video explores both the micro and the macro, with an overall result quite reminiscent of a ebbing and flowing cartoons like Superjail! or Fantastic Planet.

In this video created by and for Adult Swim, scary new Mister Rogers introduces Mastodon into a world of destructive puppets and toys which mangle, demolish, torture, and pummel with all of the ferocity of Dante’s Inferno. Suck it, nostalgia.

For singer-songwriter Jeremy Messersmith’s track, “Tatooine,” animator and director Eric Power recreates the original Stars Wars Trilogy with lots of earth-toned paper cutouts and only 2 minutes and 41 seconds to work with. Many of the film’s major moments are here, each condensed into mere seconds, with the cutest characters possible. Messersmith is presently on his Graveyard Tour in support of The Reluctant Graveyard, the last installment of his trilogy of albums. Animated and director by Eric Power.

I’ve seen a lot of tripped-out, spaced-out psychedelic videos set to electronic music in the recent past, and initially, this one certainly seems like standard fare. Bright colors and geometric shapes? Check! What I like best about this video, though, is that it takes only some of the obvious cues while exploring some other unpredictable directions. Like the song, the video for “The Palace Of Light (Revisited)” builds slowly upon itself, but it never takes the obvious route of reflected symmetry and brainless processing, sometimes even inputting some offhanded footage here and there which ultimately leaves you scratching your head. Directed by Yoshi Sodeoka. From E*Rock’s album, The Clock & The Mountain.

Shot by director Olaf Blomerus on a 7D with the Dynamic Perception MX2 DollyEngine, this video weaves a quilt from cityscape shots of Portugal. According to geek.com, the video is a collection of time-lapse photographs made to look as though each shot was simultaneously sped-up and slowly panning: “The use of the dolly can be seen throughout almost the entire video is what gives the series of still photos the perception of movement.” When Blomerus is not concentrating on the beauty of park benches or natural reflections in water, the presence of instruments as still life, with the occasional ghostly flicker of a band member, ties the video back to the fact that music is actually the centerpiece, not beautiful [...]

It is a toss-up between “Inaudible Song II,” and its predecessor, “Billy Bird,” when it comes time to recommend my favorite song from the optimistically-titled Only Good Thoughts Can Stay by Jared Mees And The Grown Children. On multiple random occasions, both songs have surfaced in my head while I have been out and about in the world, thus proving their true hook. Listen to “Hungry Like A Tiger” – DOWNLOAD MP3 However, these songs do not stand alone in greatness; rather, they paradoxically melt together into a unified album; still, each song is told from different storyteller’s perspective. This explains the wide range of topics on the album — from second marriages to slow declines to dead birds… and [...]

When you attend as many rock shows as I do, the criteria for an “excellent” show changes. A band playing their instruments well is no longer enough. For me, an excellent show is now defined as one that inspires writing and encourages new ways of thinking. This holding true, the Young Widows and My Disco show at Rotture this evening was one of the best shows I’ve attended in a long while. Rotture Portland, OR 2011 – 06/08 My Disco Though the crowd’s cheering hinted at appreciation, the evening’s crowd of largely male and clad in black showgoers felt unwavering and uninspired. Hence, I decided to retreat into myself to appreciate the intensity of My Disco. I had just come [...]

Is Tropical blends old school cartoon and video game with real life in this video where boys will be boys. The headshots are okay because it’s animated violence, kids, and fake chemistry sets with briefcases full of money and boxes labeled with “drogue” are just fine, too! All in all, an extremely playful video with fun effects, if you have no qualms with bombs made out of Play-Doh. And a bit of potentially politically-incorrect material. Directed by MEGAFORCE Animation by 7 at Machine Molle Produced by Jules Dieng at Elnino

Take an emaciated lady in the Kate Moss realm of beauty and make her lipsync to Tom Vek’s “A Chore,” and the casting and execution are so appealing that this entire video feels strangely and androgynously natural.