Tag Archives: music video

Music Video of the Day: Boneless by Steve Aoki, Chris Lake & Tujamo (2013, dir by Peter Falloon)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Watch this video and learn from it!

When these two fashionably-clad gangs had a disagreement in the 1980s, they didn’t settle things with violence.  Well, okay — they probably did sometimes.  In fact, things get a little bit heated in this video and I’m sure some people would argue that the only reason things didn’t get bad (I mean like, West Side Story bad) is because everyone knew that they were being filmed for prosperity.

Anyway, instead of having a rumble (which may sound silly but is still a lot of fun to say), they had a skate-off!  And then they all jumped up into the air!  Yay!  Everyone’s a winner even though we know that can’t be true because, just by definition, no one can win unless someone else loses.  That’s just the way it goes.

Anyway, this is a fun little video and all the gang members look crazy hot with their skateboards and their headbands and their whole neon attitude.  This video was shot in Venice Beach and the director was Peter Falloon, who apparently directed a lot of skating videos back in the 80s.  My favorite thing about this video is that it really does look like something that was taken off of a crappy VHS tape.  You can even tell when the tape’s owner rewound certain scenes and then watched them over and over again.

Anyway, what more can I say about this one?  It’s fun and really, for me, that’ the most important thing about any music video.  Did I enjoy watching it?  Did I actually force myself to concentrate on only doing one thing for three minute so that I could enjoy the video?  In this case, the answer is yes.

So, yay!

Enjoy!

 

Music Video of the Day: Casino Queen by Jackie Lynn (2020, dir by Haley Fohr and Krzys Piotrowski)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

One minute, you’re running through the desert.

The next minute, you’re winning everyone’s money.

Such is life, when you’re a Casino Queen.

Actually, I don’t know if that interpretation is correct or not.  This seems to be a video that’s open to multiple interpretations.  I guess a lot of how you react to it will depend on how you feel about casinos in general.  I find casinos to be depressing places, where people inevitably gamble away their futures while the local Elvis impersonator begs someone to drop a quarter in his guitar case.  Other people tend to see casinos as being a place where anyone can strike it big, if they just have the right combination of luck and skill.  I’m not sure if this video depicts someone getting lucky or cheating.  Maybe it’s a little of both.

Myself, I’ve never been much of a gambler.  For instance, I would never be able to do well at poker because I would constantly be asking the person sitting next to me if I had a good hand or not.  Blackjack is a lot more easier to play since all you have to do is just try not to go over 21.  Actually, if I ever did go on a gambling spree, I’d probably just hit the slot machines.  Or maybe the roulette wheel.

To be honest, whenever I hear the word “casino,” I think about Robert De Niro critiquing the blueberry muffins in the Martin Scorsese film of the same name.  The Ace Rothstein Dancers were my favorite part of that movie and I think they would appreciate this song because you can dance to it.

This video has a 70s-version-of-the-future feel to it, which I like.  If Logan’s Run had taken place in a casino, it probably would have looked a lot like Casino Queen.

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: Negasonic Teenage Warhead by Monster Magnet (1995, directed by Gore Verbinski)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The year was 1995 and, in the opinion of many, American rock had gone from being about celebrating having a good time to whining about everything.  Among those who felt that way was David Wyndorf, the lead vocalist of Monster Magnet.  Negasonic Teenage Warhead was Wyndorf’s answer to Nirvana and all of the grunge bands that Wyndorf felt had made rock “whiny.”

The song’s lyrics not only attacked negative rock stars but it also satirized the purposefully obscure lyrics of many grunge groups.  The song even ends with a chorus of “yeahs,” which is about as obvious a dig at Nirvana as you could hope to find.  What’s interesting is that Wyndorf’s lyrics remind me of some of the songs that Bush would eventually release.  The only difference in David Wyndorf was being satirical whereas Bush actually expected you to take their act seriously.

Saw your face last night on the tube
Strong fine snake in a sucker’s vacuum
15 clicks and it’s time to say bye
15 trips and a love that won’t die

Me and myself killed a world today
Me and myself got a world to save
Broadcast dead revolution don’t pay
Strapped up freaks on the Lazarus plane

I can tell just by the climate, and I can tell just by the style
I was born and raised on Venus and I may be here a while
Cause every supersonic jerk off who plugs into the game
Is just like every subatomic genius who just invented pain

I will deny you
I will deny you baby
I will deny you
I will deny you baby
I will deny you
I will deny you baby
I will deny you
I will deny you baby
Yeah yeah, yeah, wow

Oh baby, I’m lazy
Oh baby, introduce me to God
Oh baby, I’m lady
Oh baby, set a place for the dog, for the dog

Yeah, Oh

Shut me off ’cause I go crazy with this planet in my hands
Shut me off ’cause I go crazy with this planet in my hands
Shut me off ’cause I go crazy with this planet in my hands
Shut me off ’cause I go crazy with this planet in my hands

I can tell just by the climate, and I can tell just by the style
I was born and raised on Venus and I may be here a while
Cause every supersonic jerk off who plugs into the game
Is just like every subatomic genius who just invented pain

I will deny you
I will deny you baby
I will deny you
I will deny you baby
I will deny you
I will deny you baby
I will deny you
I will deny you baby

Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, wow
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

The video was directed by a very familiar name.  Today, Gore Verbinski is probably best known for directing the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films, The Ring, and Rango.  Like many feature directors, he got his start doing music videos.  The music video for Negasonic Teenage Warhead finds each member of Monster Magnet on their very own asteroid.  Eventually, in a scene that reminds me of something from Heavy Metal, they all end up in a car, driving through space.

Among this song’s fans was Grant Morrison who has admitted that, when he needed a name for the newest member of the X-Men, he borrowed this song’s title.

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: The Lady Don’t Mind by Talking Heads (1986, directed by Jim Jarmusch)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Today is Jim Jarmusch’s birthday.  Jarmusch, who is one of the godfathers of American independent film, is 67 years old.

As a director, Jarmusch frequently casts musicians in his films.  From John Lurie, who appeared in Jarmuch’s first films (Permanent Vacation, Stranger Than Paradise) to the members of the Wu-Tang Clan and Tom Waits, Jarmusch has always shown an appreciation for musicians as actors.  It’s not surprising that, along with feature films, Jarmusch has also directed his share of music videos.  Jarmusch has done videos for everyone from Neil Young to Tom Waits but, according to his entry at the imdb, his first music video was for Talking Heads’s The Lady Don’t Mind.

The Lady Don’t Mind was the first single from Talking Heads’s sixth studio album, the best-selling Little Creatures.  This video came out two years after Jarmusch’s second film, Stranger Than Paradise.

Enjoy and happy birthday, Jim Jarmusch!

Music Video Of The Day: Psych Ward by Okay Kaya (2020, dir by Kaya Wilkins & Adinah Dancyger)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

When I first watched this video, it took me a while to figure what it was reminding me of.  I finally realized that the film was making me think of an 80s zombie film called The Dead Pit, in which an amnesia victim finds herself locked up in a mental hospital that is so overrun by zombies.

Visually, the video really does have a retro feel to it.  With the grainy cinematography and the relatively small group of patients, it’s easy to imagine that this video could be an old Italian or French horror film from the early 80s.  One could easily imagine bits and pieces of the video appearing in one of Lucio Fulci’s post-Zombi, pre-Manhattan Baby films or perhaps one of the films that Jean Rollin did around the time that he directed The Night of the Hunted.  For a while there, psych wards were a very popular film setting.  I imagine that had something to do with the success of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: Everything Has Changed by Best Coast (2020, dir by Ryan Baxley)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Really, everything?

Well, maybe not everything.  This video, for instance, suggests that some things have changed but that it might not have been as easy a change as the lyrics suggest.  The thing I like about this video is that, even though the subject matter is change, it still has this weird retro feel.  So, it’s like, “Everything’s changed …. back!”

I do have to say, though, things have certainly changed for me over the past few years.  I was just thinking about it earlier today.  Way back in 2010, when I first started writing for this site, I was a neurotic and self-destructive and maybe just a little bit insecure.  I was one of those people who would specifically start arguments and fights with people just so I could revel in the drama.  It was my way of acting out at the world, largely because I was just in a really angry place at the time.

But the years have passed and the times have changed and I’m in a much better place today.  A lot of it, I know, had to do with just growing up and discovering that being an immature brat wasn’t as fulfilling (or as cute) as I had been led to believe.  A lot of it had to do with writing for this site and discovering that I didn’t have to act out to get attention.  I could just state my opinions and make my arguments and people would actually respond.  That was a big lesson for me and it played a big role in me gaining the confidence necessary to become a …. well, I wouldn’t say a grown-up.  I still don’t consider myself to be a grown-up.  I’ve still got a lot of maturing to do.  But I’m definitely a much happier person today than I was in 2009.

So remember!  Be supportive of the writers and film reviewers in your life because, in a way, you’re helping them become better people.

Anyway, where was I?  Oh yeah!  Good video!

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On by Robert Palmer (1986, directed by Terence Donovan)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Today’s music video of the day is for Robert Palmer’s cover of I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On, a song that was originally recorded by Cherelle in 1984.  Palmer, whose songs epitomized the 80s, would have been 71 years old today.

If this video looks familiar, that may be because it shares the same concept behind Palmer’s videos for Addicted To Love and Simply Irresistible, both of which were also directed by photographer Terence Donavon.  Once again, Palmer, looking like he should be trading commodities on Wall Street, performed while a group of statuesque models “played” his band behind him.   The video, however, added another group of models, dressed in white, who danced to the music and who had better rhythm than the models who made up Palmer’s band.

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: Where The Streets Have No Name by U2 (1987, directed by Meiert Avis)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

“The object was to close down the streets. If there’s one thing people in LA hate, it’s streets closing down, and we’ve always felt bands should shake things up. We achieved it because the police stopped us filming. Were we worried about being arrested? Not at the time…”

— Adam Clayton on the video for Where The Streets Have No Name

How close did the members of U2 come to getting arrested for performing on the rooftop of a liquor store in the middle of downtown Los Angeles?  It depends on who you ask.

The video’s director, Meiert Avis, claimed that everything in the video is a hundred percent authentic and that the events show in the video happen in “almost real time.”  When the police showed up, U2 was in the process of giving a live concert in downtown Los Angeles.  Before being shut down by the police, the band performed an 8-song set.  (Of course, four of those songs were performances of Where The Streets Have No Name.)  The video’s producer, Michael Hamlyn, came close to being arrested while he was arguing with the police after they ordered the band to descend from the roof.

However, U2’s then-manager, Paul McGuinness, said in 2007 interview that the video deliberately exaggerated the extent of the band’s conflict with the police.  According to McGuinness, the band was actually hoping that the police would give them some free publicity by forcefully shutting down the performance.  Instead, the police apparently kept giving the band extensions so that they could finish up the video.  In this telling, Bono claiming that the police were shutting them down was less about what was actually happening and more just Bono being Bono.

Whatever the truth may be, enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Utopian Facade by John Carpenter (2016, dir by Gavin Hignight and Ben Verhulst)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Let us all come together now to wish a happy 72nd birthday to John Carpenter!

John Carpenter is not only one of the greatest horror and sci-fi directors of all time, he’s also an acclaimed composer.  We all know, of course, that he was responsible for the iconic theme song of Halloween.  However, he’s also released two albums of his own original, non-soundtrack music, Lost Themes and Lost Themes II.  Utopian Facade, today’s music video of the day, is the last track on Lost Themes II.

This video features a running android.  As you might be able to guess, utopia isn’t quite as utopian as it has perhaps been advertised to have been.  The android is played by Erika Angel while Stuart Morales is credited as playing “Avatar.”

It’s a very atmospheric piece of music and proof that John Carpenter is as brilliant a musician as he is a filmmaker.

Enjoy!