Back towards the beginning of the year, this site ran a slightly overdue feature on Ben Seretan’s exquisite self-titled record. With Ben Seretan‘s breathtaking scope and sprawling ambition, it wouldn’t have been much of a surprise if the songwriter had taken a hiatus. Instead, Seretan’s subverted expectations and teamed up with Seattle musician Jesse Hughey for an official collaborative release. The two had previously met at a show in Alaska where they performed their songs on a flooded golf course while those in attendance danced on overlaying sheets of plastic. Afterwards, they kept in touch and began forming what would become “Ice Melting in the Back of a Pickup Truck” by passing demos to each other via email.
To add a sense of place to the proceedings, Seretan began editing both his footage and Nico Hadley’s footage together from a 2014-15 tour. The final result feels less like a music video and more like a short film, especially when taking the 19 minute run-time into account. Every frame comes across as considered, intending to evoke a sense of wonderment at the melancholic landscape that likely served as a strong inspirational factor for this collaboration. There’s no real narrative through line to speak of other than an tantalizing, subdued sense of exploration yet the imagery still manages to feel deeply intuitive. Even when the focus shifts from bleary landscapes to more vibrant scenery, it never loses its meditative pacing. Paired with the track itself, a smoldering ambient piece that continuously unfurls into appropriately cinematic places. It’s a hypnotic, expressive, and strangely moving piece of filmmaking that may make you wind up pining for a very certain kind of day.
Watch Ice Melting in the Back of a Pickup Truck below.
After two consecutive clips dealing with extremely heavy subject matter, switching focus to much lighter fare almost seems necessary. Before getting into the carefree fun-fest that is Fraser A. Gorman’s latest clip for “Shiny Gun”, there will be one last video round-up to get the coverage of the format caught back up to the present release cycle. Heartless Bastards unveiled their confrontational “Gates of Dawn“, Angelic Milk went the irreverent effects route for “IDK How“, Fred Thomas indulged in some light masochism for “Cops Don’t Care, Pt. II“, Leon Bridges furthered his throwback aesthetic with “Better Man“, Elisa Ambrogio tapped into a deeply moving wistfulness through “Arkansas“, Vince Staples flexed some serious artistic muscle with the arresting “Señorita“, and Glockabelle’s immensely lovable 8-bit lunacy intensified with “Wolf BBQ“. All seven clips deserve a few run-throughs and quite a bit of attention. Of course, so does Fraser A. Gorman’s “Shiny Gun”, which is why it wound up as this post’s headline selection.
After some humorous text-only exposition- over some tongue-in-cheek broadcast music- about news anchors getting fired for unprofessional behavior (and then starting a band), “Shiny Gun” takes us back to that final, fateful day in the studio. What follows is an absurd collection of non-responses after a bevvy of failed studio re-direct attempts, with a cast of misfit anchors (including site favorite Courtney Barnett) doing an abysmal job at their actual job, completely ignoring everything and looking miserable in the process. That sense of downtrodden misery carries throughout the black-and-white broadcast, that is, until someone shows up with some guitars. After the first hand-off results in a twangy solo (cue Gorman’s enthused “Deep!”), the whole thing switches back over to technicolor as the studio side anchors get to shed their shackles cut loose as Gorman’s “Shiny Gun” (which is the closest thing I’ve heard to someone accurately emulating The Band in ages) takes them home. It’s one of the more joyous, deadpan clips to emerge from this year and it certainly bodes well for Gorman’s upcoming Slow Gum (which is being released on Courtney Barnett’s own Milk! Records label), which is sounding more promising by the minute. If you were looking for something enjoyably simplistic and carefree to unwind with tonight, you’ve just struck gold.
Watch “Shiny Gun” below and pre-order SlowGum, which will be available via Milk! in Australia, House Anxiety/Marathon Artists in the UK, here.
There are times when all it takes for a talented, relatively under-recognized band to break out is a perfect music video. “All In” is one of those videos and should ensure that The Fjords name is firmly on the map. It wasn’t the only music video to impress over the past week or so, though, so, before heaping the necessary praise on that particular clip that it deserves, it’s time to give some others their due. Mark Ronson’s collaboration with Mystikal, “Feel Right“, was given an additional burst of unexpected energy through an unbelievably fierce performance from an unlikely star, White Poppy catered to their haziest impulses with “Confusion“, Buildings embraced lo-fi in “Watershed“, Short Skirts went the visual collage route with “Far Side of Mexico“, Jose Gonzalez continued one of 2015’s most unconventional visual narratives in “Open Book“, and Birdskulls found the perfect visual aesthetic for their 90’s-grunge worship with “Good Enough“. All of those are worth multiple watches, which also holds true for the title in this post’s headline.
As far as thesis shots go, opening on a machine designed to blur the gap between technology and reality tends to yield strong results. “All In” is no exception and winds up taking a startling route to a fiery, hyper-violent finish. After establishing the protagonist of “All In” has all the trappings of an outcast (a video game addiction, model trains, an artistic mind), the plot eventually reveals itself while steadily accumulating compelling subtext. In some extremely strong visual work, we see the protagonist (a young, unnamed boy) construct a backpack for his vintage video game system and fashion a belt for some of his more violently-minded game cartridges before walking over to confront a large gang of older oppressors loitering outside of a hot dog stand. He collects himself, calmly confronts their leader- one who laughs when he’s suddenly face to face with a plastic gun controller- and, after a brief moment of eerie silence, pulls the trigger.
What follows is an extraordinarily violent bloodbath that could be seen as a cautionary tale for technological advancements (in a manner that’s not entirely dissimilar from Alex Garland’s excellent Ex Machina) or a concerned treatsie on evolution. It’s jarring imagery with a heavy concept, to be sure, but it’s pulled off in a manner that feels more grounded than bombastic, lending it an overlying sense of genuine horror. A child is forced into gradually losing the remainder of his innocence, one murder victim at a time, without ever being portrayed as anything other than coldly detached in the process. “All In”, an extremely strong piece of heavily atmospheric electro-pop, provides the perfect soundtrack for the incredibly disconcerting sequence. As people are gunned down in what feels less like a revenge fantasy and more like a pointed statement, The Fjords found a perfect vehicle to act as an introduction-at-large for their shadowy, foreboding soundscapes. The song and the clip complement each other to a startling perfection, right down to the closing shot that preserves a sliver of the protagonist’s humanity. Brilliantly edited, superbly directed, and gorgeously lensed, it’s another clip for the ages- and it’s the new standard-holder for how to make an entrance.
Forward thinking in visual narratives often yields exhilarating results and Hammock’s recent dual clip project for “My Mind Was A Fog…My Heart Became A Bomb” and “In the Middle of Nowhere” definitely falls into this category. Taking the concept of forward thinking and maximizing its potential, Hammock create a challenging vision of the future and wind up with a meditation on familial bonds, loneliness, and technological advances. As the first piece of the project, “My Mind Was A Fog…My Heart Became A Bomb” establishes a sense of place through a subtle, effective VHS haze, while also introducing a deeply conflicted protagonist in a more crisply-shot present time. Over time, and over Hammock’s gentle ambient symphonies, implicit suggestions are gradually revealed; the world as our protagonist once knew it was lost, likely to a virus, and the people closest to him didn’t manage to escape.
That profoundly sad emotional set up, one that recalls Interstellar and Moon as much as Sigur Ros’ devastatingly exquisite clip for “Vaka“, sets the tone for the harrowing finale presented via “In the Middle of Nowhere”. With visuals that suggest a touch of (rightful) Emmanuel Lubezki worship enhancing the project’s sophistication and sadness, “In the Middle of Nowhere” pulls the focus closer to present tense, driven by the astoundingly graceful nature of Hammock’s compositions all the while. Haunted by the memories of things loved and lost, the clip’s protagonist (played with unbelievable gravitas and conviction) slowly succumbs to a level of unprecedented despairing hopelessness, culminating in a brutally crippling moment where all hope for a reunion- even an artificially designed one- is lost. When the entire affair draws to a hushed whisper, what’s left in its wake is one of the most deeply moving videos not just of the year- but of the decade. On a technical level, it’s a masterpiece- but on a human level, it’s unforgettable.
Watch “My Mind Was A Fog…My Heart Became A Bomb” and “In the Middle of Nowhere” below. Order Oblivion Hymns, the record that produced both songs, from Hammock directly here.
Well, here we are, 500 posts down the line from the Audacity music video feature post that kicked everything off. A lot of things have happened in the course of this site’s existence and its changed my life for the better, introducing me to wonderful people behind bands I genuinely love. Watch This has ran for more than 70 installments, thousands of records and songs have been mentioned (and thousands of photos have been taken), and the site even hosted a showcase in the middle of nowhere. Writers, musicians, directors, artists, publicists, and label executives who help make or promote incredible art all came together and contributed an incredible collection of pieces at the end of last year to celebrate some important things that happened in their life. Somehow, over the course of the preceding 499 posts, people began expressing care for what essentially remains a place for me to share the art I love and give it a sharper focus. Included in that spectrum are the following 25 music videos. None of them have appeared on the site before and all of them have only recently surfaced (please skip over the Inheaven clip if you’re seizure-prone, which is a type of video I do my best to avoid posting here but was so fascinated by that one I thought it warranted a rare exception). From bleary-eyed foxes to murderous teens to gorgeous animation to slasher film homages to stunning cinematography (that Bandit clip is particularly breathtaking), there’s a lot of ground to cover in this list- and, as always, an abundance of art to appreciate.
In keeping with tradition, this being a post that falls on an increment of 100, underneath the tracklist below the embed, there will be hyperlinks to the preceding 100 posts for anyone who’d like to revisit past articles (and as a helpful archival tool). Click play on the embed, peruse articles past, and, most importantly, enjoy. Thanks to everyone who’s helped keep this site alive; your encouragement’s more appreciated than you know.
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1. Courtney Barnett – Dead Fox 2. Mikal Cronin – Turn Around 3. Bully – I Remember 4. Downtown Boys – Wave of History 5. Chastity Belt – Joke 6. PINS – Young Girls 7. Surfer Blood – I Can’t Explain 8. Inheaven – Regeneration (Alternate Version) 9. Nic Hessler – I Feel Again 10. Hop Along – Powerful Man 11. Hurry – Oozing Positivity 12. Kopecky – Quarterback 13. Michael Rault – Too Bad So Sad 14. Landshapes – Ader 15. Arborist – Twisted Arrow 16. Soley – Halloween 17. Brian Lopez – Modern Man 18. Tiny Fingers – The Fall 19. Empty Heads – Deceiver 20. Speedy Ortiz – Raising the Skate 21. Los Angeles Police Department – Insecurity 22. Giant Sand – Transponder 23. The Underground Railroad to Candyland – Yer Not The Only One 24. Winter – Crazy 25. Bandit – The Drive Home
A small handful of great clips have managed to appear over the past few days. Those videos include Inheaven’s deeply unsettling “Slow“, Alabama Shakes’ gorgeous, 2001-indebted “Sound & Color“, TULA’s uncompromisingly stunning “River“, Toro Y Moi’s grocery store adventure “Lilly“, Lonnie in the Gardens’ stark, contrasting “Natasha“, Derider’s foreboding, effects-laden “Rusty Nail“, and The Teen Age’s grotesquely clever narrative experiment “Low Cunning“. All seven of those entries are fine examples of the format but today’s focus falls to an even more niche field: the lyric video. It’s difficult to make one that’s compelling enough to act as a standalone (the only two that immediately come to mind from last year are Lady Lamb’s “Billions of Eyes” and HDTV’s gloriously insane “Wrong Hole“) but Titus Andronicus prove to be more than up to the challenge with their clip for the characteristically frantic (and typically brilliant) “Dimed Out”.
Any band that creates a record on the level of The Monitor(i.e., an unimpeachable masterpiece) is going to have to deal with a career of heightened expectations. More than a few songwriters have buckled under that weight- but the ones that haven’t all share a similar quality: unerring ambition. Patrick Stickles belongs to that select group of perennially unsatisfied minds. And, yes, Local Business may have seemed diminutive in comparison to its immediate predecessor but it still held up as a complete, compelling work. For Stickles & co.’s forthcoming record, the stakes have been raised yet again- this time in the form of a double-album rock opera staged in five acts, The Most Lamentable Tragedy, that seems to hinge on a through-line that heavily reflects on identity and manic depression. The band’s assembled a murderer’s row of guests for the record, ranging from The So So Glos to Owen Pallett to Lost Boy ?, and just unveiled the surprisingly gripping Stickles-directed lyric video for lead-off single “Dimed Out”. Lyric clips are very rarely executed as well as Stickles manages here (the instruction manual section is particularly golden) and the whole thing’s teeming with the band’s uncontainable energy providing it with an extra jolt of headlong exhilaration.
Watch “Dimed Out” below and pre-order The Most Lamentable Tragedy from Merge here.
After a ridiculously packed month of material and a few small campaigns, this site’s nearly caught up on songs and music videos. There are 18 songs to get to and ten videos that aren’t contained in this post’s headline. What is going to be the primary focus of this post is also one of the best clips of the year (and possibly the decade) but we’ll get to that in due time. Before then, we’ll start with the lion’s share of the pre-feature coverage: single streams. Since there are so many, I won’t go into too much detail in listing the attributes that make them great, just know that they are genuinely great. In no particular order those songs are: Young Jesus’ “Dirt“, Fort Lean’s “New Hobbies“, Sweet John Bloom’s “Tell Me“, Chelsea Wolfe’s “Iron Moon“, Battle Ave.’s “Solar Queen“, Diamond Youth’s “No Control“, Colornoise’s “Amalie“, Spraynard’s “Bench“, and The Trendees’ “Motorcycles (Make Loud Noises)“. Joining that already formidable pile were Crosss’ “Golden Hearth“, Jack + Eliza’s “Oh No“, Elliot Moss’ “VCR Machine“, Lull’s “Bubble Tea“, Porcelain Raft’s “All In My Head“, Stranger Wilds’ “Pronoia“, Ezra Furman’s “Lousy Connection“, Mike Viola’s “Stairway to Paradise“, and Inheaven’s “Slow“.
Much like the songs listed above, the music videos over the past week or so have covered a similarly expansive musical spread. Among these videos were Something Anorak’s absurdly lush “I Am A Doctor“, Heaters’ retro dancehall exhibition “Mean Green“, ANAMAI’s extremely unsettling “Half“, Iron & Wine’s surprisingly beautiful indie wrestling fever dream “Everyone’s Summer of ’95“, and Palma Violets’ gleefully raucous “English Tongue“. Also included in this run were Ceremony’s stark career highlight “Your Life In France“, Jamie xx’s slow-burning, jaw-dropping “Gosh“, Death From Above 1979’s wild-eyed Amish party clip “Virgins“, The Rentals’ eerie, foreboding “It’s Time To Come Home“, and “Keep Your Stupid Dreams Alive“- a comically psychedelic animated adventure from The Prefab Messiahs. And then there was Bent Denim’s devastating, unforgettable “Good Night’s Sleep“.
Abortion has always been- and likely always will be- a difficult subject to address. Treatment either empathetic or unerringly sympathetic has rendered some recent works (like last year’s outstanding Obvious Childor The Antlers’ wrenching “Bear“) into pieces of art equipped with a lasting resonance. It’s the same reason that Ben Folds Five’s “Brick” has retained its value as an emotionally difficult piece of pop culture and it’s why the deeply-felt clip for “Good Night’s Sleep” is nearly impossible to watch without feeling emptied. After one viewing, it’s difficult to return to the video’s thesis shot: a vacant child’s swing, rocking gently in silence. It’s an arresting image that sets the tone for the ensuing emotional onslaught. Intertwining two visions (a la Derek Cianfrance’s masterpiece, Blue Valentine)- one decidedly more hopeful than the other- Bent Denim present a vision that cuts in a manner that’s brutally immediate.
Accentuating the video’s sense of pain and longing is the home video visual aesthetic, which suits the gentle tones of the song to a sublime perfection. All in all, “Good Night’s Sleep” is an intensely compassionate, moving portrait of both sides’ turmoil following what comes off as a difficult decision (one via audio and one through the clip, which features a gripping performance from its lead). In either case, the emotions are so palpable that the whole thing feels uncomfortably voyeuristic and intensely harrowing. It’s a situation that’s more familiar than most parties would let on but it’s rarely presented as delicately or as realistically as it is in “Good Night’s Sleep”. At the clip’s conclusion, to drive everything home in a way that’s definitively final, the viewer’s returned to the thesis image: a lone child’s swing, once projected to be full, once again swaying in silence.
Watch “Good Night’s Sleep” below and order Romances You from the band’s bandcamp.
After a small run of music video collections, this post will have the site caught up to the current week’s releases (which will be covered in the ensuing posts). A lot has happened over the course of April and there’s been a plethora of attention-ensuring music videos. Before diving too far into the clip that earned this headline, though, there are other selections that should be noted. The titles that belong to this category include: Built To Spill’s charmingly goofy “Never Be The Same“, Ava Luna’s sketch adventure “Steve Polyester“, Mac McCaughan’s hypnotically swirled “Wet Leaves“, Moaning’s playfully destructive “The Same“, Rozwell Kid’s gruesomely clever “Kangaroo Pocket“, Nots’ intensely damaged “White Noise“, Public Access T.V.’s meticulously crafted “Metropolis“, Elvis Depressedly’s searing, deeply felt”Thou Shall Not Murder“, Calexico’s surprisingly tender “Falling From The Sky“, The Lagoonas’ skate-heavy “Weird Friends“, and Ed Schrader’s Music Beat’s typically irreverent “Emperor’s New Chair“. A handful of those clips are relatively straight-laced and most could easily be categorized as off-kilter- but none of them (at least in that regard) manage to stack up to Speedy Ortiz‘s “The Graduates”.
Foil Deer continues Speedy Ortiz’s ascension by being a work that felt complete while offering up some of the band’s best standalone songs to date. One of the songs was the defiantly defeatist anthem “The Graduates”. Now, the band- which has always specialized in creating videos that double as absurdist trips– has unleashed the most wildly imaginative clip of their career. The Matthew Caron-helmed clip for “The Graduates” opens on singer/vocalist Sadie Dupuis carefully creating a drug in a laboratory setting before providing some exposition via the song’s first verse and sharing her craft with her bandmates, who take turns ingesting the googly-eye objects one by one. Before long, the band’s hallucinating a literal white rabbit and scheming an expansion to ensure everyone get to revel in the experience.
What follows is an almost uncomfortably disquieting scenario where the band quietly slips the (possibly metaphorical) drug to the patrons of a crowded restaurant (a scene that includes one-time contributors Christine Varriale and Nina Corcoran, who both frequently contribute to the great Allston Pudding). Things take a turn when the white rabbit reappears and is immediately engulfed in a sea of adoration, with the exception of one individual living out this quasi-nightmarish scenario who flees the diner and collapses into a towering snowbank. As a complete product, it’s endearingly bold and reinforces Speedy Ortiz’s strengthening visual aesthetic without underplaying any of their emotional resonance. It also looked like it was an absolute joy to make and the best possible way to kill a brutal snow day in Boston.
Watch “The Graduates” below and pick up a copy of Foil Deer from Carpark here.
Continuing on with April’s music video catch-up mode allows for the inclusion of a dozen more clips- with one gaining the primary focus. Before getting around to the title included in the headline, it’s time to turn the attention towards 11 other clips worth watching. Among those entries were The OBGM’s snarling “Torpedo“, Weird Wombs’ staged party in “Luxury Punks“, Desparecidos’ typically political “City on the Hill“, and Matthew E. White’s endearingly warm “Feeling Good Is Good Enough“. Expanding the number count for excellent clips were Owen Pallett’s skillfully crafted “The Sky Behind the Flag“, Talkies’ lightly altered “Never Fear“, American Wrestlers’ retro “Kelly“, and Broken Water’s uncomfortably dystopian “1984“. Bringing this contained collection to a close were Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s breathtaking “Gloria“, Sam Amidon’s coming-of-age narrative “Blue Mountains“, and All Boy/All Girl’s noir-infused “Lion“. Each of those videos are deserving of thoughtful contemplation but- for this post- the lion’s share of the attention is (once again) being directed toward site favorites Left & Right.
The last time a Left & Right video surfaced, it was met on this site with a ton of praise that held enough water to secure it a spot on our best videos of 2014 list. One of that video’s most distinctly unique elements was that it didn’t actually feature anyone in Left & Right. For the surging “5 Year Plan”, the band flips the script entirely and only allow themselves to be subjects for the lens. In under 100 seconds, the band unleashes a frantically paced performance clip that incorporates some exhilarating editing and genuinely committed performances from the band. Filmed in a manner that brings the feeling of taking in a live performance to the forefront, “5 Year Plan” is a lot more nuanced than it first appears. Sharply accentuating the song’s manic energy, the clip quickly reveals itself to be as intuitive as it is heartfelt, providing Left & Right their second consecutive outright triumph in the music video department.
Watch “5 Year Plan” below and pre-order the LP of Five Year Plan from Old Flame Records here.
Courtney Barnett’s Sometimes I Sit And Think And Sometimes I Just Sit has managed to standout from an already over-crowded 2015 since its release. It reaffirms Barnett’s clout as a songwriter by effectively expanding her range. “Kim’s Caravan”, a sprawling treatsie on Austarlia’s increasingly ravaged landscape, being the record’s most arresting example. Recently, it was given a Bec Kingma-directed clip that more than did the song’s serious subject matter justice. Before diving too far into that video’s innumerable strengths, it’s worth noting that the past few weeks have been full of great clips. To help get the site caught back up, the next few posts will be devoted to those clips- just like the handful preceding Watch This were connected to songs.
Each of these posts will come with a featured video and ten accompanying clips, all of which are worthy of heavy investment. Starting off this round of music videos are Eternal Summers’ stop-motion “Together Or Alone“, Mittenfields’ color-damaged clip for “Optimists“, Sheer Mag’s characteristically scrappy “Fan the Flames“, currents’ deranged revenge fantasy “Build Ups“, and The Wooden Sky’s low-key dancefloor romance “Saturday Night“. Whitewash’s hallucinatory “Tentacle”, Peach Kelli Pop’s blissed-out sugar rush “Princess Castle 1987“, Night School’s incredibly lo-fi singalong “Unkind“, Coeds’ stock visual-effects experiment “Sensitive Boys“, and Never Young’s intensely dark “Like A Version” round out this post’s offerings. While, as mentioned, they’re all worth repeat viewings, this post’s focus belongs to Barnett’s stark, mesmerizing clip for “Kim’s Caravan”.
While it may be too early to brandish a term like masterpiece, it’s certainly tempting. Kingma’s vision- especially when paired with Joshua Aylett’s photography direction- recalls fellow Australian filmmaker John Hillcoat (The Proposition may actually be the closest companion to “Kim’s Caravan”). An almost harsh sense of rural lyricism is on full display as the clip traces over desolate scenery, downtrodden inhabitants, and Barnett herself to create a bold artistic statement. Coming on the heels of the nonchalant “Pedestrian At Best“, “Kim’s Caravan” takes on the feeling of an epic. After establishing a palpable sense of loss, the clip arrives at an arresting climax that includes what will likely go down as one of 2015’s most unforgettable shots. Packaged all together it’s just about enough to knock the wind out of anyone lucky enough to lose themselves to the video’s spell.
Watch “Kim’s Caravan” below and order Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit here.
Heartbreaking Bravery 