Tag Archives: music video

Music Video of the Day: Monster by Big Data, feat. Jamie Liddell (2018, dir by Ghost+Cow)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to October!

Since this is the first post of the first day of Horrorthon, it just seemed appropriate to select the video of Big Data’s Monster as music video of the day.  This wonderfully paranoid video will inspire you to put Alexa back in the box.  Or, at the very least, to consider doing it.  I mean, could you really live without her?  Anyway, this video has a nice sort of Wes Craven/John Carpenter feel to it.  Those glowing red eyes are haunting.

It’s a well acted video too and Big Data was kind enough to list the full cast and crew on YouTube.  (More artists should do this.)  Here they are:

Directed by GHOST + COW

Written by BIG DATA and GHOST + COW

Story and Executive Produced by BIG DATA

Produced by Steve Cozzarelli

Players:

Claire Burns as Mary

David Levin as Gerry

Juliet Brett as Alison

Alexander Jameson as Brandon

Sondra James Weil – Neighbor

Lizy Ryan as L1ZY

Director of Photography – Luke McCoubrey

Edited by Geordie Anderson

Score and original music by BIG DATA

Sound design and mix by Brian Goodheart

Sonic Union Producer – Halle Petro

Colored by Ashley Ayarza

Nice Shoes Producer – Elizabeth Mitchell

VFX artist – Tim Mearini

Production designer – Jana Bergstedt

Makeup / SFX artist – Emma Berley

Art PA / Driver – Scott Raven

Wardrobe Stylist – Kayci Rothweiler

1st AD – Ruby Walters

Assistant camera – Julian Tran

Sound mixer – Edward Morris

Camera PA – Beth Fletcher

Key Grip – Jesse Moritz

Grips – Landon Yost, Mitch Perrin

Gaffer – Jesse Sanchez-Strauss Swing – Rylie Patterson

Production assistants – Smij McBee, Angie Blas

Special thanks to alldayeveryday productions, De Boer Media

EXTRA SPECIAL THANKS to the Gudis Family for their incredible generosity.

As for the rest of October, I can’t guarantee that every music video that we’re going to share this month is going to have a horror theme.  To be honest, there aren’t that many good horror-themed music videos out there and we already featured the majority of them over the past two Octobers.  I mean, there’s only so many times that we can analyze Number of the Beast.  Still, we’ll be keeping our eyes open for any good videos we may have missed and, as we do every October, we’ll do our best to keep things properly spooky here at the TSL Bunker!

Enjoy October and get ready for the greatest Horrorthon ever!

 

Music Video Of The Day: High and Dry by Radiohead (1996, dir by Paul Cunningham)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Saturday was my sister Melissa’s birthday!  This is her favorite Radiohead song and I have to admit that I like it a lot as well.  I’m also a huge fan of this video.

But you know who reportedly does not care much for this song or this video?  Thom Yorke.  The leader singer of Radiohead has called the song “very bad” and apparently, it was only released because the band was being pressured by their label to release something with “commercial appeal.”  And I can understand why Yorke would by annoyed by that.  Certainly, the song is not as complex or enigmatic as other Radiohead songs.  It’s pretty simple by their standards.

But, I still like it.  If it’s a guilty pleasure, so be it.  It’s a song that you can sing along with and it just puts you into a certain mood and …. okay, I’m kind of starting to understand why Thom doesn’t care for the song.  It’s a good song but, outside of the melancholy tone, it doesn’t seem like a song that only could have come from Radiohead.  It’s a little bit generic when compared to some of the band’s other songs but it’s still definitely effective.  So if I ever meet Thom Yorke, I’ll probably keep my feelings about this song to myself.

(Either that or I’ll blurt out, “My sister loves High and Dry!  If I call her, will you sing it to her?!”  And then I’ll probably be escorted outside by security.)

I read that he also didn’t care much for this video.  Again, I have to disagree.  I like all the drama in the diner and I also like the fact that no one seems to notice either the car blowing up or the businessman getting murdered.  Instead, of everyone’s too busy in their own little world.

Happy birthday, Melissa Anne!

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: Good Intentions by Magdalena Bay (2019, dir by ????)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s been said that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions and perhaps that’s true.  Actually, I’m totally sure that’s true.  That’s one reason why I don’t ever assign any sort of moral judgment to my intentions.  I just intend and hopefully, things work out.

Anyway, that doesn’t have much to do with this video, which is actually kinda trippy and hypnotic.  What would you do if a brain ever floated near you.  I’d probably freak out a little.  Brains are very strange looking and it kind of disturbs me that apparently, everything about us is collected in something that looks like an alien.  For that reason, I’m definitely happy that people have both heads and skulls because really, you don’t want to see anyone’s brain.  That would just be disturbing.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Now You’re Gone by Whitesnake (1990, directed by Wayne Isham)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

“I remember shooting the video with Wayne Isham in front of a sold out crowd at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, unfortunately it received minimal airplay as MTV was changing its format… still, I think it’s one of the best videos we’ve done…”

–– David Coverdale on Now You’re Gone

Whitesnake was one of the top bands of the 80s but, by the time they released this video, their popularity was in decline as both rap and grunge eclipsed hair metal.  Now You’re Gone is one of Whitesnake’s best songs but, when it was first released, it barely charted in the United States.  Shortly after this video, Whitesnake broke up.  After a 1994 reunion, the band officially reformed in 2002.  Here I Go Again is now used in motorcycle insurance commercials, proving the circle of life.

The video for Now You’re Gone was filmed in Philadelphia, before and during an afternoon show.  It’s one of Whitesnake’s best videos, though the presence of Tawny Kitaen is missed.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Tragic Comic by Extreme (1993, directed by Paris Barclay)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Tragic Comic was a third third and final single to be released off of Extreme’s third album, III Sides to Every Story.  This was Extreme’s last single to crack the UK Top 40, reaching #15.

The video for Tragic Comic features Extreme’s lead singer, Gary Cherone, trying to have the perfect date with his neighbor and failing in almost every way.  Even when things look like they’re finally going right, she ends up falling down an elevator shaft.  Unfortunately, I have not been able to find the name of the actress who played Cherone’s neighbor in this video.

As for Gary Cherone, he is probably best known for being Van Halen’s third lead singer.  Cherone joined the band in 1996, replacing Sammy Hagar.  He stuck with Van Halen for three years, recording one album with the band.  Though Van Halen III was a success by most standards, it still didn’t sell as much as previous Van Halen albums and Cherone and the band amicably parted ways in 1999.  If nothing else, Cherone is probably the only person to ever leave Van Halen on relatively good terms.

This video was directed by Paris Barclay.  Today, Barclay is best-known as an Emmy-winning television director.  Among the shows that he’s worked on:  NYPD Blue, ER, The West Wing, CSI, Lost, The Shield, House, Law & Order, Monk, Numb3rs, City of Angels, Cold Case, Sons of Anarchy, The Bastard Executioner, The Mentalist, Weeds, NCIS: Los Angeles, In Treatment, Glee, Smash and The Good Wife, Extant, and Manhattan, Empire, and Scandal.  Barclay also served two terms as the president of the DGA.

Enjoy!

 

Music Video Of The Day: Feeling That Way by Journey (1978, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Like many Journey songs, Feeling That Way went through several different versions before it became the song that was eventually released.

It started out as an instrumental called Velvet Curtain that stayed on the shelf because the band wasn’t satisfied with the results.  Eventually, while the band was recording their third album, keyboardist Greg Rolie pulled it off of the shelf, wrote some lyrics, and renamed the song Please Let Me Stay.  In that form, the song nearly appeared on the Next album but, because the band was again not fully satisfied with the end result, it eventually went back on the shelf.  It would remain there until Steve Perry joined the band.  Perry rewrote the lyrics, added a new chorus, and the song — now called Feeling That Way — finally appeared on Journey’s fourth album, Infinity.

Like most early music videos, the video for Feeling That Way is a performance clip, featuring the band doing what they did best.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Wheel In The Sky by Journey (1978, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Wheel in the Sky started out as a poem, written by Diane Valory, the wife of Journey bassist Ross Valory.  The poem was re-written by the band’s second lead singer, Robert Fleischman, and guitarist Neal Schon worked out the melody while the band was driving from show to show.

Though Fleischman may have written the lyrics, he had left the band by the time the song was recorded for the Infinity album.  Fleischman’s replacement was Steve Perry, who would go on to become Journey’s best-known (though not final) lead singer.  Wheel in the Sky would be the first Journey single to be released after Perry joined the band and it was also the first first single to chart, reaching #57 in the United States.  It remains one of their most popular songs and it’s also one of the few songs to have been performed by every iteration of Journey.

As was Journey’s style, the video for Wheel In The Sky is a performance clip.  As Steve Perry put it when discussing their later video for Separate Ways, the members of Journey were proud to be musicians and not actors.

Enjoy!

 

Music Video of the Day: Lights by Journey (1978, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Though this classic Journey song eventually became a tribute to the band’s hometown of San Francisco, it didn’t start out that way.

As Steve Perry explained in an interview, “I had the song written in Los Angeles almost completely except for the bridge and it was written about Los Angeles. It was ‘when the lights go down in the city and the sun shines on LA.’ I didn’t like the way it sounded at the time. And so I just had it sitting back in the corner. Then life changed my plans once again, and I was now facing joining Journey. I love San Francisco, the bay and the whole thing. ‘The bay’ fit so nice, ‘When the lights go down in the city and the sun shines on the bay.’ It was one of those early morning going across the bridge things when the sun was coming up and the lights were going down. It was perfect.”

Lights was the third single released off of their Infinity album, which was the first album to feature Steve Perry as lead singer.  Though Lights would only reach #68 on the charts, it’s popularity increased over time, to the point that it became one of Journey’s signature songs.

Like almost every Journey video, the video for Lights is a simple performance clip, though some very 70s special effects are included as almost an afterthought.  This would be Journey’s style until they tried something different with the infamous video for Separate Ways.

Enjoy!