MetaChat - I never see music videos anymore.

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22 July 2008

I never see music videos anymore. Seriously, I've been trying to think of new videos I've seen since the mid-90s and I could think of.... four. So, show me the super-cool ones that I've missed out on!→[More:]These are the music videos I can recall (and I like them, and yes, I know that they are many years old...):
Radiohead - Just
Modest Mouse - Ocean Breathes Salty
Steriogram - Walkie Talkie Man
New Pornographers - Sing me Spanish Techno

post by: gaspode at: 16:18 | 40 comments

Feist: My Moon My Man, Mushaboom

posted by mudpuppie 22 July | 16:38

My personal fave: The Decemberists - Sixteen Military Wives

posted by danf 22 July | 16:44

I'm not sure how anyone in the mass-market world could have missed this one... hell I don't even watch television or go to movies and I've seen it:

OK Go - Here It Goes Again

argh, work requires me to be productive today. back with more in a bit...

posted by lonefrontranger 22 July | 16:45

wait, then there's this MetaFilter classic...

shit i really need to start bringing an ipod to work O WAIT THATS RIGHT I DESTROYED MINE, grrr.

posted by lonefrontranger 22 July | 16:48

oh, snap, and one of my faves, tho I'm not certain whether it's the "official" video or just a youtube fanfic version:

Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Follow You Into The Dark spoiler/warning: MetaChat-germane tragedy ensues

posted by lonefrontranger 22 July | 16:55

Avalanches: Frontier Psychiatrist.

posted by TheophileEscargot 22 July | 16:56

oh wait, one more -- here's Simian Mobile Disco doing a very retro-80's style big sprawling cliche epic "location" shot video, complete with quaint rural decay, hauntingly lovely model extra, running children, wide open skies and scads of 200+ fps dramatic slo-mo.

posted by lonefrontranger 22 July | 17:13

ooh and how can anyone not love this?! I actually bought the album based just on this video, and was totally blown away, good stuff:

The Doves - Sky Starts Falling

(which I believe I stumbled onto via AskMeFi...)

video ain't dead luv, it's just gone all Youtube.

posted by lonefrontranger 22 July | 17:20

OKGO did something with treadmills once. And Weezer ripped off the entire internet in a recent video. Have you seen this video for Still Alive?

posted by Eideteker 22 July | 17:29

Eide is Pork And Beans the Weezer video you're referring to? Because if it is, thanks dude, that's awesome.

what's scary is I actually got almost all the references. sweet caramel coated jesus I spend a lotta time on the internet

posted by lonefrontranger 22 July | 17:39

Be on the cutting edge and watch the new Devendra Banhart video (featuring gf Natalie Portman) in the video that my college classmate just directed.
I don't think it's really started airing yet.

posted by rmless2 22 July | 17:40

speaking of music video cliches, here's a big, messy, sprawling power-pop epic from Angels and Airwaves that manages to hit almost every single one.

there's not much innovation or quality going on in there but I bet if I was thirteen it would kick some serious ass.

posted by lonefrontranger 22 July | 17:49

Oooooh, I would watch videos all day long if I could! Here're some of my faves not exactly new, but fun to share.

Regina Spektor - On The Radio

Modest Mouse - Dashboard

New Beirut - Postcards from Italy

Emily Haines - Our Hell

Underworld - Jumbo

Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy

Faithless - Bombs

One that I posted ages ago, but still love so much: Liars - The Other Side of Mt Heart Attack

Big dumb fun - no way new: OK Go - Don't Ask Me...with girls!

And in the spirit of jmc, a surprise.

Now, back to work before they ask me not to come back from vacation....

posted by Frisbee Girl 22 July | 17:58

These are some that I like, but motsly these are ones that have been discussed a bit.

Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice, dir. Spike Jonze, with Christopher Walken. Won awards, recognized all-time classic by this point.
(Also, Praise You has been imitated as well as hated.)

Nine Inch Nails - Only (only one shot is not CGI, see if you can find it).

Madonna - Hung Up -- still got the moves (and the jazz hands)

More indie:
Peter, Bjorn & John - Young Folks
Royksopp - Remind Me
Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)
Grandaddy - Nature Anthem
OK Go - A Million Ways (the original no-budget, no label support youtube sensation)
Sigur Ros - Glósóli
Sigur Ros - Viorar Vel Til Loftarasa (reminds me a lot of La Jetée, the classic short that inspired Twelve Monkeys)
Carpark North - Human (I just love this one, it's so sympathetic to the kids' point of view; it was a favorite of Antville in 2006)

Gotta go, but I have a few more.

posted by stilicho 22 July | 17:59

These are awesome... keep 'em coming! Yeah, I had seen that OK Go one, but only because the director of the video is a friend-of-a-friend. I never peruse youtube... probably should.

posted by gaspode 22 July | 18:00

And, 'pode, that Sing Me Spanish Techno video *always* makes me a bit giddy inside.

posted by Frisbee Girl 22 July | 18:03

The Mighty Underdogs - Gunfight
Madlib - Slim's Return
MF DOOM - All Caps
RJD2 - 1976
Mr. Scruff - Sweet Smoke

posted by box 22 July | 18:17

heh I could do this all day...

Here's Of Montreal doing something fun and fluffy which simultaneously reminds me of 80's Peter Gabriel, 60's Beatles and early internet flash animation.

Frisbee Girl, that Dayvan Cowboy video is what reignited my interest in modern music after fifteen years of apathy.

posted by lonefrontranger 22 July | 18:38

oh and this one got an FPP on Metafilter if I recall correctly. Amazing live footage of how Immi does her own production and looping on-the-fly.

Imogen Heap - Just For Now (live)

posted by lonefrontranger 22 July | 18:41

I really like this one.

posted by jonmc 22 July | 18:42

She Wants Revenge - Tear You Apart

Covenant - Bullet

Amy Winehouse - You Know I'm No Good and Tears Dry on Their Own

posted by kellydamnit 22 July | 19:08

I could have written this question myself, thank you so much for the new videos.

posted by msali 22 July | 19:08

UNKLE - Rabbit in Your Headlights - genuinely disturbing

Coldplay - Scientist - one of the better mainstream concept videos overall (and the only song of the band's I can stand) [recently seen in same vein]

Blur - Coffe & TV (late 90s, natch)

White Stripes - Denial Twist

posted by stilicho 22 July | 19:19

I haven't seen a video in years and years. Here's one of my favorites, when I did watch videos.

posted by LoriFLA 22 July | 19:45

I saw these guys recently - at the launch of this clip - and realised that I knew the guy that made it (very very slightly, anyway) - but it's an awesome clip, and a great song.

posted by jonathanstrange 22 July | 22:10

Saul Williams - List of Demands
The Real Tuesday Weld - The Ugly and the Beautiful
Jarvis Cocker - Don't Let Him Waste Your Time
Massive Attack - Karmacoma
The Horrors - She Is The New Thing
Manu Chao - Rainin in Paradize
Dead Hollywood Stars - Last Train to Aldebaran

posted by Zack_Replica 22 July | 22:57

I am favoriteing this thread so hard.

Muse - Knights of the Cydonia
My Robot Friend - Robot High School
ShitDisco - OK
The Lovemakers - Shake That Ass
Benny Benassi and the Biz - Satisfaction
Anouk - Good God (but only because I want to be friends with her so bad)

posted by rhapsodie 22 July | 23:23

lfr nailed the first two I was going to mention in her first two posts. Damn her good taste!

I'm with you, gaspode, I never see videos anymore. I was a teenager when MTV debuted, and damn do I miss the old days of music video... we thought it was going to be the TV of the future! All our dreams undone by reality TV and beach parties. Crap.

None of this is all that recent, but these are a few cool videos I did see (and that haven't already been mentioned):

Fischerspooner- Emerge It's so 80s. And so, so cynically made. Also, singer Corey is from Georgia, so yay for art fags escaping to New York.

Spiritualized- Soul On Fire Not a fancy video, but I love the song. (And I'm going to see Spiritualized tomorrow night!) I like the way it connects the feeling of being sick with shivering out on a cold, frozen plain. Jason Pierce had serious health issues right before he recorded this, so I bet he had a few nights of lying in a hospital, feeling alone and fever-cold.

Charlotte Church and Amy Winehouse cover "Beat It." So wrong it's right.

Also, here's an outtake from Mamma Mia!

posted by BoringPostcards 23 July | 00:36

Also, FWIW, I think "Weapon Of Choice" is possibly the best music video ever, and it cracks me up that it's for a song that nobody has ever heard outside of the video itself.

posted by BoringPostcards 23 July | 00:49

Lori, I love that video too! Tom Petty meets Eurythmics crossed with Buñuel and Carroll.

posted by BoringPostcards 23 July | 01:03

no, beeps, sorry but Madonna's "Vogue" is hands down the best music video ever. much as I love Fatboy Slim AND Christopher Walken AND I happen to also have FBS' albums (never heard the song outside the video? hrmpf. FBS, Crystal Method and Massive Attack are quite possibly the only post 1992 music I ever *did* bother to buy...)

I purposely did not link any of that stuff tho because I was attempting to stay within the past 5 years or so.

posted by lonefrontranger 23 July | 01:19

Aha! speaking of awesome trippy progressive house/techno videos, here's something a little more current: Trentemoeller - Moan

... aaand speaking of Trentemoeller, here's Bettie Page doing a routine to my very favourite track off that same album. VA VA VA VOOM!

posted by lonefrontranger 23 July | 01:32

You ALMOST make me change my mind, lfr... :)

BOTH of our favorites look better in actual video than they do in half-framerate YouTube clips. I've seen "Vogue," and YouTube does not do it justice. You're right, too, it's a gorgeous clip (by one of my favorite visual directors.)

posted by BoringPostcards 23 July | 01:37

I guess the reason "Weapon of Choice" tickles my fancy while "Vogue" does not is that "Vogue" is all "showbiz"... it looks like a production, while "Weapon Of Choice" looks like some weird dream a guy had while sleeping in a hotel lobby.

posted by BoringPostcards 23 July | 01:42

Yeah, Denial Twist is a good one, but the BEST White Stripes vid is "Fell in Love With a Girl." I'm actually not a huge Jack White fan, but they have great videos.

See also: Icky Thump, My Doorbell, Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground, and The Hardest Button to Button.

posted by kyleg 23 July | 01:52

The Arctic Monkeys... they're just a band. but you just can't go wrong with a little bit of the old ultraviolence starring CLOWNS and EXPLOSIONS and some righteous old dude going all aggro with a length of chain, now can you?

Arctic Monkeys - Fluorescent Adolescent

and while we're on va va va voom (and vogue!), it's a little dated (like maybe five or six years old now?) but here's Goldfrapp doing Ooh La La.

and this has nothing to do with anything but it just came up in iTunes and I just really dig the song. The Divine Comedy - Lady of a Certain Age. so yeah, the sound quality is a little raw but it kind of fits the whole mood of the track imo.

BP I won't argue with you a'tall about shitty halfrate youtube quality but at the very least it gives you the idea whether you want to bother downloading higher quality stuff from whatever source, neh?

posted by lonefrontranger 23 July | 01:56

Oh, I love The Divine Comedy! I was watching the Catherine Tate show - which I'd never seen before, and the divine comedy made a guest appearance, I was happy.

They also did the music for The IT Crowd. Bizarre.

posted by jonathanstrange 23 July | 01:58

It's not especially new, but I particularly enjoy the video for Where's Your Head At? by Basement Jaxx.

posted by misteraitch 23 July | 08:43

Oh, and, 'pups: if I end up detained in either SFO or JFK tomorrow for 'people mover antics', you'll know why.

posted by Frisbee Girl 23 July | 14:07

i never see videos either, unless i trip onto them inn a passive viewing mode, like the Bat For Lashes video multiposted here or a bunch of others. For a long time i tried not to see videos because they affected the song too much for me, but nowadays, with the fact i get most all new music online, the lack of little info personality packet when hunkered down with liner notes giving a disc an album/tape/disc a focused listen, it's delightful to see the who's making the music or what they want to make.

i just saw Sixteen Military Wives, and i love how the aggressive application of creative collaborative culture defeats US bullying.

Next empty moving walkway i encounter will move me to antics.

posted by ethylene 25 July | 22:12

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