Former Gossip Girl actress Taylor Momsen makes sure you get the point that she's a rocker now: Smoking? Check. Porn star in the video? Check. All sorts of insinuations of inebriations and sexual indiscretions? You bet. Safe for work? Probably not. Time for the rock 'n' roll doubters to start taking Ms. Momsen and The Pretty Reckless seriously? I hope so, since there's not much further she can push the envelope without becoming Wendy O. Williams. --> watch "My Medicine"
There's something spooky going on with Evanescence singer Amy Lee in this comeback video, even if it never gets revealed. An NYC underground performance is contrasted with an aboveground storyline where surveillance footage follows Lee leaping off the Brooklyn Bridge and then strolling into the Atlantic Ocean. --> watch "What You Want"
Social Distortion frontman Mike Ness doesn't have to stretch his usual look and attitude to transform himself into a Depression-era gangster for this short film of a music video. --> watch "Machine Gun Blues"
While you might associate the typical American Idol single as something on the level of a treacly greeting card, this debut track from 2010 runner-up Crystal Bowersox is unlikely to get much play on Mother's Day since it's essentially an autobiographical and angry kiss-off to an unfit mother from a newly liberated daughter.
Before you get snarky about former Gossip Girl starlet Taylor Momsen's segue into the world of rock n' roll, it's worth remembering that lots of same barbs were hurled at Jared Leto, another actor turned rocker, whose band 30 Seconds To Mars is now firmly entrenched as a core commercial alternative hitmaker. What that says about the nature of the music star here in the 21st century — Is it just another stage/screen role best left to professional actors? — is beyond my paygrade.
Fairy tales without happy endings aren't worth remembering. So, Paramore singer Haley Williams prepares to lay her childhood demons to rest in this fantastical video for "Brick By Boring Brick." Director Meiert Avis keeps the clip memorable with an elaborate retelling of the lyrics tale, referencing Alice In Wonderland and other fairy tales, but with a look that's most reminiscent of the burnt-orange narco-dreamworld of the Nirvana "Heart Shaped Box" video. --> watch "Brick By Boring Brick"
Rise Against does a better job describing this powerful, fearless and unflinching video about the Iraq War and its collateral damage than I probably could.
