La Blogoteque's Take Away Shows remains the definitive web music series thanks to a groundbreaking style that placed off-the-cuff performances, sometimes with improvised instruments, but always in non-traditional venues for an effect that captures the elements of spontaneity and discovery that are usually lacking in most filmed music performances.
Phoenix return to the series — a fitting match, with both entities hailing from France, and tying in nicely with the band's previously released Homemade version. This time they're actually at Versailles. And drones are involved.
The camera continually tracks to the right as Mumford And Sons repeat themselves on-screen, not ceasing their intense performance until things have come to the end. As with most great performance videos, this one works thanks to the little details — Macus Mumford's broken string, for example. — and a consistent visual style that frames it all.
Imagine a funhouse designed by an acid-eater fan of Rube Goldberg, Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali. Then imagine precisely plotting out a one-take video filled with delightful nonsense. Then, halfway through, you say fuck it, and the dancers come out for a huge routine that would make Stanley Donen proud (or envious).
But, wait. Throw all that away. What's really going on here is a controlled experiment in chaos. Two cameras taking turns shooting a continous 16 beats for a one take "relay race" of a one-take video.
It's a forever escalating/exhausting war of trying to cool and get attention, with every victory more shortlived than the last. And that is a very beautiful, or scary thing.
If director Patrick Daughters' K-pow extravaganza for "Entertainment" was too over-the-top, you might prefer this lo-fi homemade clip that Phoenix made of themselves casually performing in front of Versailles. Well, more precisely, it's just a greenscreened depiction of Versailles. (And I mean the one in France, not the unbuilt abominination in Florida)
Mumford And Sons make their way through Camden, NJ in this video which uses a quadruple split-screen, like the 2000 Mike Figgis flick Time Code, and confirms that banjo player Winston Marshall is indeed a chacter.
It has been a while away for both Phoenix and director Patrick Daughters, and what better way to come back than with a larger than life ode to Korean cinema. The look mixes genres and eras —employing vernacular images of opening ceremony style choreography, Hong Kong gangster action and a superstar DJ to tell the tale of tragic love(s).
Music is a playground for Robert Delong, using everything from a joysticks to drum kits to synths and even a Wii Remote to create a sound bed that indeed makes people fucking dance.
OK, it's not as awesome as if Stringer Bell had starred in and co-directed a Mumford & Sons video, but it's certainly surprising to see actor Idris Elba take on both roles in this narrative clip for "Lover of The Light." And its effective, with Elba and co-director Dan Cadan unspooling a story that becomes more visible (so to speak) and resonant as it proceeds. --> watch "Lover Of The Light"
For anyone not moved by that Karate Kid remake with one of the many Will Smith side projects (aka 'offspring'), The Temper Trap offer up a version that's focused on the old-school 80s vibe of the original. Director Dugan O'Neal starts with the familiar story of waxing off and on, but then takes it to a whole new place. Q: What if Daniel-san were not the hero of the story and the Cobra Kai guy never swept the leg? A: They'd obviously team up and become Double Dragon. --> watch "Need Your Love"
Who needs Kleig Lights when you're illuminated by flashlights held aloft by friends and fans at a trippy raver of a down-home party. --> watch "Meantime"
GIVERS "Meantime" (Glassnote)Benjamin Kutsko, director/editor/DP | Jack Richardson, producer | Doomsday Ent, production co
It's an impressive blast of synchronized hullaballoo in this retro and charming (and apparently seamless) video for Two Door Cinema Club. --> watch "What You Know"
