The Arcade Fire: "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)"

This is a truly gorgeous video. With two major "sets", the video drifts between the dream world of animation and the real world (which is quite dreamy). The Josh Deu-directed clip features Monty Python-esque animation that follows each band members on their own little journey. One of the things I really like about the video is that while the video takes you between live-action and animation, neither one really defines itself as "seperate" - the animated world features a lot of live-action stills, and the real world is so dream-like that sometimes you forget where one starts and one begins. The song itself is so superb that when a clip comes along like this to accompany it, it's one of those cases where the song itself is improved by such a tremendous video.

Video: "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" - The Arcade Fire [iPod Compatible]
{Director: Josh Deu}

Madonna vs. Death Cab For Cutie: "Hung Up on Soul" (Party Ben Mash-Up)

So a while back (in February), Party Ben (the mash-up genius) mashed-up Madonna's "Hung Up" with Death Cab For Cutie's "Soul Meets Body", creating the dancetastic "Hung Up on Soul". Me, being a film geek and someone who really dug both of those songs decided that making a music video for the mash-up was a good idea. I'm the same guy who also made videos for DJ Mei-Lwun's "You Humped Me All Night Long" and Soundhog's "Are You Gonna Be My Dirrty Girl?" - I'm a bit of a Top 40 junkie, as you can see. Anyhow, when I finished it, I sent it off to Party Ben himself, hoping for approval. Here's what he wrote about it.

"My dance-a-riffic mix of Death Cab for Cutie's "Soul Meets Body" with (mostly the beats from) Madonna's "Hung Up" has expanded into a truly multimedia experience. First of all, a talented producer guy from Boston named Ben Cohen has created a deceptively simple video mashup for "Hung Up On Soul," combining both the original videos in a way that somehow really enhances my admittedly rather lackluster production."

Yee-hah!

Here it is for your consumption, in iPod form.

Video: "Hung Up On Soul" - Madonna vs. Death Cab For Cutie (Party Ben Mash-Up) [iPod Compatible]
{Video Mash By: Ben Cohen}

Angels & Airwaves: "The Adventure"

Here's the thing: I'm a huge Blink-182 fan. I'm not going to lie about that. I really do love their music - I'm a fan of a lot of the pop punk that's come about in the last ten years, whether it's Blink-182, New Found Glory, Fall Out Boy, Midtown, Brand New, or whatever. I just dig it. Why? Well, part of it is that for the most part, pop punk bands make good videos. They're usually guys who grew up watching MTV and therefore grew up watching Michael Jackson, Peter Gabriel, and Mark Romanek make some of the best videos ever. And here's the kicker - as much as I hated to see Blink-182 break up, it was exciting to hear that Tom and Mark and Travis were going to all do different things. Tom's new project is this - Angels & Airwaves. This first track, "The Adventure" was posted in his Purevolume.com section months ago. It's not new at this point.

But it's fucking phenomenal. It's like listening to Who-18U2 (did that make sense?) - it's epic sounding. What I love about it is that while Mark and Travis are working on an album, Tom's working on a project. It's a movie, it's an album, it's supposed to be incredible. I'm really excited. So when I saw that there was a video for this project of his, I was excited. While the video itself isn't going to blow your mind, it's really the perfect video for this song and a perfect introduction to the world of Angels & Airwaves (which, supposedly, is going to be a World War II epic with a twist, at least as far as I know). We're talking about the first mainstream full-length movie/music video project in quite some time. I'm excited (and hoping this isn't the equivalent to Head by the Monkees). You should be, too.

(And I know that in the last 25 seconds something weird happens and you lose audio for about 5 seconds. I apologize. I don't know why that happens, but it does.)

Video: "The Adventure" - Angels & Airwaves [iPod Compatible]
{Director: The Malloys}

Arctic Monkeys: "The View From The Afternoon"

So there's this band, "Arctic Monkeys". Not sure if you've heard of them, but I guess they're kind of big in some circles. Their debut album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" was a decent hit in the UK and I guess they're a bit of a buzz band. Anyhow, they've had a few videos come out, but this is their most recent one - "The View From The Afternoon". I can't honestly remember another video that so prominently featured the drummer over all other band members, not that it's a bad thing. It's a really cool video that definetly plays into the kind of videos they've done before ("Scummy / When The Sun Goes Down") - the working class type of schtick they've pulled off.

Video:
.MOV: "The View From The Afternoon" - Arctic Monkeys
.WMV: "The View From The Afternoon" - Arctic Monkeys
.RM: "The View From The Afternoon" - Arctic Monkeys
.MP4: "The View From The Afternoon" - Arctic Monkeys [iPod Compatible]
{Director: W.I.Z.}

The Superimposers: "Heavy Sigh"

Simple in both design and song, "Heavy Sigh" is a very pleasant song - as I've written about on my MP3 blog, their sound is very 1960s-tinged lo-fi sound. It's beautiful music and the video itself is quite simple. It's animated and even seems to be in a bit of a loop, but that's okay - the animation is similar to the style that was used in "Float On" by Modest Mouse in that it's not your typical animation - computers were used, and it's very realistic looking. Anyhow, it's worth watching and, while I'm not out-and-out condoning it, watching it while you're a bit high.

Video:
YouTube Link: "Heavy Sigh" - The Superimposers
.MP4: "Heavy Sigh" - The Superimposers [iPod-Compatible]
{Director: ???}

Gnarls Barkley: "Crazy"

All things considered, "Crazy" is one of the most soulful tracks I've heard in years. It's funny because the recent Cee-Lo album itself was very good and was getting play on my iPod for a long time - but Danger Mouse's production really takes control of the quality of Cee-Lo's work. I have a bit of a confession to make - I thought DM was a flash-in-the-pan. Honestly. I still don't think much of "The Grey Album", mostly because I've heard many more mash-ups that were better, and I thought he was getting undeserved attention for something pretty mediocre. Heck, I still basically think that. However, between the Gorillaz, Danger Doom, and Gnarls Barkley, he's proven me wrong - which I am very happy to admit.

As for the video for "Crazy" - it's gorgeous. The ink-blot animation is just unbelievable. The style is just beautiful. There's really no way to describe it otherwise - this video recalls the "Seven Nation Army" video in how it keeps rolling forward. There isn't much else to say about it.

Video: [highly recommended]
.MP4: "Crazy" - Gnarls Barkley [iPod Compatible]
{Directed By: Robert Hales}

Update: Alright, we were able to clear up the mystery behind who directed this clip when Robert Hales himself contacted us yesterday. This is the second video for "Crazy" - the first being a less impressive animated video. The second video, as suggested by a comment, was created by Blind, an animation studio that also worked on the Jet videos for "Look What You've Done" and "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?", also both directed by Robert Hales.

The first video was directed by Mina Song, however.

Kanye West: "Jesus Walks" Videography

I know it seems odd that I would post a videography of one video, but bear with me. Kanye's whole thing with "Jesus Walks" was that he basically shot three videos for it - two by professionals, and the third was shot by Kanye himself, which is easily the least controversial of the three. To this day, "Jesus Walks" is still one of the most powerful, thought-provoking songs I've ever heard. It's Kanye at his very best, which is pretty impressive considering how incredibly talented the man is.

"Jesus Walks" (Version 1) - Kanye West

The first, and most expensive, of the three videos shot was directed by Michael Haussman, who also shot the "La Tortura" video for Shakira. A definite narative, especially compared to the other two videos, we follow three people suffering from various problems (alcoholism, prostitution, and gangbanging) as they make their way to church (where Kanye is preaching) and fall to their knees over their sins. Despite this being the video that got the most airplay, Kanye was not happy with this version, and decided to cut a 2nd video, hiring Chris Milk (who later directed the "Touch the Sky" video for Kanye) as his man.

"Jesus Walks" (Version 2) - Kanye West

By far, the most controversial of the three, Chris Milk's clip features drug dealers, a chain gang, a KKK member burning a cross and then getting lit on fire by it, and other pretty 'difficult' subjects. It's a truly visually stunning video, both for it's content and how it interacts with the song.

"Jesus Walks" (Version 3) - Kanye West

While it's a good video, it's really nothing special. I think the best part of it is that the Jesus in the video looks just like the King from the Burger King ads - it's downright scary how much they look alike. It was shot on one day in Chicago and follows Kanye from his home, through the 'hood, to the church. It really is just something to see - you'll dig it, probably, because there are some genuinely funny moments in it. Still, it's nothing compared to the first two videos in terms of power and impact.

Video: [iPod Compatible]
"Jesus Walks" (Version 1) - Kanye West
{Director: Michael Haussman}

Video: [iPod Compatible]
"Jesus Walks" (Version 2) - Kanye West
{Director: Chris Milk}

Video: [iPod Compatible]
"Jesus Walks" (Version 3) - Kanye West
{Director: Kanye West with Coodie & Chike}

"Download This Song": MC Lars feat. Jared Reddick

MC Lars, hailing from Berkeley, California, is somewhat of an oddity - he's a rapper who thrives on using references to 18th-century Literature, Crunk Rap, Internet Relationships, and the term "iGeneration". He's not exactly Jay-Z in terms of flow, but he's doing things that no one else does as the father of the "Post-Punk Laptop Rap", creating entire albums (mostly his early work) using just his home computer. Early work of his sampled Brand New's "Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Doesn't" and Piebald's "American Hearts". As you'll see in this video, he samples Iggy Pop's "The Passenger" (he also samples Supergrass on his new album). The song is a battle cry of sorts regarding the state of the music industry, and how music is distributed - and how his method is part of the future. It also has Bowling for Soup's Jared Reddick on the hook, a nice bonus.

The "Download this Song" video, directed by Frank Borin, is simple enough - we follow a bunch of people around as they listen to MC Lars rap his song to the Iggy beat. In fact, all the people watching the video are doing so on non-television devices - a video iPod, a cellphone, a PSP, a computer, and so on - part of the movement in how the ways that music is promoted, distributed, and listened to is changing. One of the more clever moments in the video is the use of making fun of the iPod commercials, as you can see from the screencap.

All that aside - the video is clever and well done. MC Lars has worked with Borin before, on the video for "Signing Emo", and their obvious artistic connection has shown itself again in this video.

I actually had done an interview with MC Lars for this video, but in the last few days my computer has had a major meltdown (on the main hard drive - I still have my music), and I lost the interview, which really stinks. I had recorded the entire interview plus written it down, but the crash forced a lot of files to be corrupted.

Video (via Rapidshare): [iPod Compatible]

"Download This Song" - MC Lars feat. Jared Reddick
{Director: Frank Borin}

DJ Format: "3 Feet Deep"

In easily one of the most original and entertaining videos in a long time, DJ Format and Keith Schofield (along with MC Abdominal and MC Decisive) present us with what can only be described as a goof on the Dance Dance Revolution craze that's taken the arcade by storm in the last ten years. Schofield put together a truly original video by having the two MCs take part in something called "DJ Format's 3 Feet Deep", where they have to rap along with what the screen says, and accomplish various tasks like "Fill In The Blanks" and "Word Bank!" to gain points. However, the great kick to the video is at the very end, which I won't ruin for everyone. I'm well aware this video is about a year old now, but it doesn't change the fact that it's as good as it is.

It's the little things that make this video so good - the switch of spots by the two MCs, the various prizes (my favorite is the hamster). Enjoy!

Video: [iPod Compatible]
"3 Feet Deep" - DJ Format
{Director: Keith Schofield}