MIXING 8MM WITH 8 TRACKS.
Welcome to another round-up of new music videos with their hearts in genre films and exploitation that serve as great short films that accentuate the music they’re made to promote while still having an original vision. This time, we’ve got animated wildness, sexy neon nuns and… Bret Easton Ellis?
Huntress
Zenith
Dir. Phil Mucci
Phil Mucci is quickly becoming a powerhouse in the world of music videos, and his clip for Huntress’s “Zenith” is no exception. The metal sounds of Huntress make for a perfect inspiration for Mucci’s wild, neon-lit style, creating an apocalyptic world of busty giantesses and writhing nuns.
Editors
Formaldehyde
Dir. Ben Wheatley
EDITORS – FORMALDEHYDE (OFFICIAL VIDEO) from PIASGermany on Vimeo.
Wheatley (of KILL LIST and SIGHTSEERS) turns to spaghetti westerns for influence in this track, winking at DJANGO with his tale of a gunslinger who comes to town with a coffin in tow.
The Flight
Hangman
Dir. Jeremy Stewart
MUSIC VIDEO from studio@stillandmoving.tv on Vimeo.
Beautiful, original animation makes for a great way to tell the story of The Flight’s moody track.
Five Knives
Vive Le Roi
Dir. Ace Norton
FIVE KNIVES “VIVE LE ROI” from ace norton on Vimeo.
A dinner party that seems to be taking place in a mausoleum goes bad when one of the younger guests decides she’s had enough small talk.
Major Lazer
Scare Me
Dir. Brandon Dermer
Keith Urban plays Major Lazer in this epic that serves as a mini-ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, with appearances by Nick Kroll and Blake Anderson.
Fol Chen
The False Alarms
Dir. Keith Musil
A game of “Light as a Father, Stiff as a Board” goes awry, and I won’t say much more than that, other than Musil takes an interesting idea and explores it well.
Placebo
Too Many Friends
Dir. Saman Kesh
Bret Easton Ellis narrates this “interactive” video that gives a lot of potential clues as to what, exactly, is going on. The answer is “D) Simpsons did it.”
M83
Claudia Lewis
Dir. Bryce Dallas Howard
M83 continues their streak of videos that match their melodies perfectly in this track, from the daughter of the director of NIGHT SHIFT.
Ivy Levan
I Don’t Wanna Wake Up
Dir. Daniel Carberry
Ivy Levan is another artist I’ve mentioned before, but when Carberry continues serving up a great forum for her upbeat film noir style, I can’t resist pointing her out. In this clip, Levan takes revenge on another of the pig-masked men that seem to populate her world, but manages to save the pets in the process.
Youth Lagoon
Raspberry Cane
Dir. Stephen McNally
Further evidence that some of the best animation today is being done in the music video field, Youth Lagoon’s gentle track is given gorgeous form in McNally’s very uniquely stylized world.
Flume
Insane
Dir. Angus Lee Forbes
Forbes’s tale of a biker in an unspecified world gives off a very nice vibe that’s a bit THE CROW, and a bit DRIVE.
Baauer x Just Blaze x Jay-Z
Higher
Dir. NABIL
JUST BLAZE X BAAUER x JAYZ. [HIGHER] from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.
Nabil directs a stunningly great short film about kids whose fascination with violence leads to an inevitable, yet captivating, conclusion.
Chvrches
The Mother We Share
Dir. Sing J. Lee
Chvrches has played with science fiction imagery before, and while “The Mother We Share” doesn’t start out as such, the whole city becomes entranced when our lead opens up.
Stanton Warriors
Cut Me Up
Dir. Edward Drake
What starts out as a skateboarding video soon becomes a girl gang video, and these ladies are not polite.
Sharon Needles
Call Me On the Ouija Board
Oh, Sharon Needles. You’re an amazing talent and have one the best drag queen names ever, so why is your music so bland? The music video has a good concept, placing Needles in the guise of a number of horror movie icons, but it feels cheap and poorly thought-out. Learn from Manila Luzon, girl!
Elefreak
FE
Dir. Vadim Lasca
More ladies get their revenge in this well-lensed NSFW video, as a threesome gets a little stabby. And not in a good way.
Avril Lavigne
Rock N Roll
Dir. Chris Marrs Piliero
There’s a lot of half-formed ideas backing a half-formed pop song, mostly from comic books, TANK GIRL and other post-apocalypse films.
Bermuda
Process of Drowning
Dir. Alan Collins
It’s a brutal track, so it makes sense that Bermuda’s song would be complimented by a similarly brutal video about a woman going through the title process.
Pink Floyd
Dark Side of the Moon
Dir. Aardman Animation
It’s not technically a music video, but Aardman Animation’s great promotional piece for the upcoming radio show based on Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” written by Tom Stoppard(!) is a work of art in itself. A feature-length version of this would play midnight showings for decades.
Suburban Lawns
Gidget Goes to Hell
Dir. Jonathan Demme
Aired as part of a “Saturday Night Live” episode, our vintage video this time finds the beach party punk track given video form through the eyes of future Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme.
Be back when the jukebox has been restocked. Click here for an archive of all of our Grindhouse Grooves column.
@Paul Freitag-Fey
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