Helen Power

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds "Higgs Boson Blues" (Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, dir.)

Some may view this performance clip as rambling ruminations of a grumpy man in his mid-50s, wondering what the heck is wrong with this world. I view it as a man in his current element, wondering what the heck is wrong with this world.

Important notes here:

1) "Higgs boson" is an elementary particle discovered last year that is heralded in the physics world as perhaps the biggest breakthrough in that field - the "missing piece" in the puzzle of possibly explaining the entire structure of the universe as we know it. This is giving physicists an existential crisis, leading them to ask themselves, "What's next to discover? Is there anything left?" So I guess Nick's "rambling" sorta makes sense. Metaphysical sense.

2) This video was shot approximately seven weeks before the twerk seen 'round the world took place, so those particular lyrics you'll be thinking about after hearing this... wonder what Nick thinks about it now.

Darwin Deez "You Can't Be My Girl" (Keith Schofield, Dir.)

Darwin Deez - You Can't Be My Girl

Just when you think this video can be easily summed up as "Darwin Deez photobombs a series of cheesy commercial shots," director Keith Schofield takes it to someplace much less simple. The basic structure doesn't change, but it turns out that lonely Darwin is alternately exploding in rage and mourning each phase of love that he'll miss out on as a single dude. Not to give away any spoilers in this fantastically lunatic clip, but he doesn't seem to get lucky in the end, although he does get his aggression out. And that manatee does look pretty cute.