Tag Archives: SIlverchair

Music Video of the Day: Freak by Silverchair (1997, directed by Gerald Casale)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In this video for Freak, Silverchair performs in an oven so that their sweat can be used as some sort of youth tonic.  Don’t worry, the band was not actually in an oven.  Instead, they were just surrounded by orange lights and they were regularly doused with water to create the impression that they were sweating while performing.

The video was directed by Gerald Casale, a former member of Devo, a far more interesting band than Silverchair.  The video won the International Viewer’s Choice Award at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Anthem For The Year 2000 (1999, directed by Gavin Bowden)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Does anyone remember Silverchair?

They were the band from Australia who got a lot of attention because they were all teenagers who weren’t even old enough to drink when they were big in America.  From the minute that Silverchair showed up on MTV in the 90s, it has been fashionable to dismiss them as being overly derivative of the other bands that were popular at the time.  That’s a valid complaint and the lead singer always tried too hard to be angsty but Silverchair did get better towards the end of their run and, if they were derivative, they were never as cynically blatant about it as band like Bush was.

Anthem For The Year 2000 is one of their better songs.  To understand both the song and the video, you have to think back to what the world was like in 1999, when everyone was worried that Y2K would lead to computer systems shutting down across the world.  It was also a time when people were very worried about “the new world order,” as seen by the video’s robot politician.  Actually, I guess 1999 isn’t that different from 2022.

Enjoy!

 

Music Video of the Day: Abuse Me By Silverchair (1997, directed by Nick Egan)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

I don’t know if there’s any abuse that can really compare to being forced to listen to Silverchair but some may disagree, The group’s lead singer, Daniel Johns, for instance, said that this song was an answer to all of their critics. Go ahead and abuse me, the song says, I’m still going to play my music. Johns also once said, in answer to the band’s many critics, that, “every song I’ve heard sounds like another song I’ve heard.” That’s certainly true if you’re listening to Silverchair.

This song was the band’s second biggest hit in the U.S. Much of that popularity may have had something to do with this video, which is a pretty good video regardless of what you think about the band’s sound. It was directed by Nick Egan, who also did videos for Duran Duran, Oasis, Alanis Morissette, and many others.

Enjoy!