Remember being in school, getting stoned with the hot teacher in her car and then taking her to cartoonish erotic heights? Yeah, me neither. But, it's a good fantasy. And a good video.
The Holiday season is already full of sweet emotions and warm fuzzies - so who is more perfect than animated versions of She & Him to give that spirit a cleverly ironic spin? Silverlake's favorite imagined couple does put a twist on the classic flirtation song with Zoey playing the aggressive role - even resorting to Kathy Bates-style tools and lawn implements to keep M. on the premises. It all ends up okay and no one has to ask Siri for a weather report. --> watch "Baby, It's Cold Outside"
George Michael has made breakthrough videos with supermodels before, but you'd be hard pressed to find something as cinematically gynormous as this video starring Kate Moss and directed by Ryan Hope. The big theme is death, which is inspired by the singer's nearly lethal bout with pnemonia, plus some other autobigraphical touches — hello, LAPD — that gives this very big video even more resonance for fans. --> watch "White Light"
Meet Frank Grimes (no relation), a commissioner on a quixotic quest for the perfect video. Danish musician Tomas Høffding aka Bon Homme sits patiently on the couch as Grimes rubberstamps every idea as not quite right for the song at hand. Too expensive. Too controversial. Too weird. Luckily, "Too meta" and "Too insider baseball" aren't on the no-no list, so this satire of the music video commissioning process serves as the actual video for the song.
For every Lady Gaga who successfully straddles (if not dry humps) that fine line between alternative sensibilities and pop stardom, there's countless others who fall well short of either mark.
The Radar Festival came to its thrilling conclusion last Friday, January 19 at the Apple Store in London. The video competition called for amateurs to create music videos — using Apple's iMovie or Final Cut Pro — for any one of the many tracks made available by record labels Domino, Warp and Tummy Touch.
It only goes to figure that tunesmith Badly Drawn Boy's car is controlled by a piano that stretches across the entire dashboard. Director Dougal Wilson thankfully takes this clever premise and then augments it with additional quirks, such as a fold-out map of the song and a literal tune-up. -- watch "Nothing's Gonna Change Your Mind"