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She and Him "I Could've Been Your Girl" (Zooey Deschanel, dir.)

She & Him- I Could've Been Your Girl

I bet you thought Zooey Deschanel would be like Samson, deprived of her cuteness once her bangs were gone. Consider yourself wrong. The She & Him singer, TV star and Internet mogul comes across with cuteness intact while adding "video director" to her resume.

WATCH IT: She & Him "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (Elliot Dear, dir.)

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"

WATCH IT: M. Ward "Me & My Shadow" (Scott Jacobson, dir.)

The loneliness of the teen pop sensation with M. Ward providing the soundtrack, Bobs Burgers writer Scott Jacobson directing, Conan O'Brien in a cameo as a disiniterested talk show host and Amy Sedaris as a maniacal momager. --> watch "Me And My Shadow"

M. Ward "Me And My Shadow" (Merge)Scott Jacobson, director | Charles Son, Joe Foley, DP | Joe Foley, editor 

WATCH IT: Arcade Fire "Sprawl II" (Vincent Morisset, dir.)

Two options:

  1. Watch the embed below like the computer-savvy couch potato you've surely become, although don't feel too bad: The video works well as Arcade Fire's Régine Chassagne brings some joy to the suburbs.
  2. Go to sprawl2.com and try the interactive version, which requires you to have a webcam and the lack of inhibition to get up and propel the video forward though your movements. It's not Dance Dance Revolution, thankfully, but the faster you move, the more the video moves with you. Don't have a webcam or the ability to move? There's a clickable version as well.

--> watch "Sprawl 2"

QUICK CLIP: Wild Flag "Romance" (Tom Scharpling, dir.)

The Wild Flag ladies can do anything: Play hoops, befriend dogs, win a couple rounds of dice, do good deeds for the elderly, serve as their own street team and, of course, rock out. And, they can do it all on a lunch break. In masks. --> watch "Romance"

Wild Flag "Romance" (Merge)Tom Scharpling, director | Robert Hatch-Miller, Puloma Basu, producer  | Paul Yee, DP | Jeff Hammond, production designer | Benjamin Murray, colorist 

WATCH IT: Destroyer "Kaputt" (Dawn Carol Garcia, dir.)

Dreams are a beautiful thing.

First we have the nerd who has clearly watched "Addicted To Love" too many times, fantasizing about being a debonair video stud surrounded by sexy ladies. Then we have the desert wanderer, dreaming of water to be delivered by (yes) sexy burka ladies. These two protaganists then get overshadowed by a majestic floating whale (please be a sperm whale, please?) which leads them into the great ocean. To quote this Destroyer song: It all sounds like a dream to me. --> watch "Kaputt"

WATCH IT: Arcade Fire "The Suburbs" (Spike Jonze, dir.)

Suburban teenage life during wartime can be just as dull or eventful as it would be in any other Suburbs.

A group of teens go about about ordinary lives in this ambiguous Arcade Fire video directed by Spike Jonze, but the presence of martial law quickly gets more prominent and intrusive. Tensions build and the clip ends with one of the boys turning on another in a flurry of violence. The climactic beatdown must be the result of a betrayal, but it's unclear whether it was related to the armed authorities, or if it's all just about a girl. Or nothing at all. --> watch "The Suburbs"

WATCH IT: Spoon "Written In Reverse"

Celebrated rock photographer/director Danny Clinch captures a loose, in-studio performance by Spoon in this simple, yet beautifully shot b&w video. The only bits of trickery involve mirrors, a motif that obviously relates to the song title for "Written In Reverse," but also results in some disorienting shots of the band and their reflected doubles. --> watch "Written In Reverse" (via PitchforkTV)

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WATCH IT: Lil Wayne "A Milli"

Lil Wayne is a modern music rarity — unifying the championship belts of Street and Sales into one dominant package. Weezy F is so unstoppable that he walks for this entire clip, leading us through the backstage area of a video shoot. The journey is complicated and authentic — he even stops off at the honeywagon — but it never slows his flow. The documentary feel lends a seat-of-the-pants feeling that totally fits the rushed circumstances in quickly getting a video done to support a song that was blowing up at radio. [review by Doug Stern]