Best Of The Decade: Music Videos

If there’s one art form I love more than music, it’s music videos. Ok, I don’t love them more than music, but they’re probably #2. Maybe tied with books. But they’re amazing. Visual and aural stimuli simultaneously?! That’s like getting a BJ while you eat a hamburger. But I digress. That last list was a doozie. So this time ’round, I’m just gonna do a bunch of great videos that have come out in the past decade. This list won’t be quite as definitive, but definiteness is so 2009.

Here’s the first batch. Keep checking back for more.

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more about "Yuksek ft. Amanda Blank – Extraball", posted with vodpod

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more about "Tommy Sparks “She’s Got Me Dancing”", posted with vodpod

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more about "Klaxons – Golden Skans", posted with vodpod

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more about "Yeasayer “Ambling Alp”", posted with vodpod

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more about "TV on the Radio “Me-I”", posted with vodpod

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more about "Happy Up Here", posted with vodpod

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more about "Yeasayer “Wait for the Summer”", posted with vodpod

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more about "Eleven and the Falcons – Eyes Of Grape", posted with vodpod

Beck: Bit Variations in B Flat

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more about "Beck “Bit Variations in B Flat” on Vimeo", posted with vodpod

The song: the 8-bit remix of Beck’s “Girl” from the album Guero.
The video: an animated psychedelic romp through space created by Wyld File.

Click here to see the collective’s description of the video. It’s very in-depth. And if you like the style, check out their other videos including two more for Beck which create a trilogy of videos/songs built around similar themes.

Cinematic Music Videos

Ali and I watched a lot of music videos this holiday, and I noticed a trend among many of them. Let’s hope it continues.

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more about "Yeasayer “Ambling Alp” on Vimeo", posted with vodpod

Yeasayer: Ambling Alp – It has to start here. I can’t get this fucking song out of my head. And the video is even better. I’m amazed by the budget and quality of this video from an indie band, but I’m grateful for it. I see this as heralding a new wave in independent music videos. And I wouldn’t be surprised if this song broke Yeasayer to a somewhat more mainstream audience. Ali made an interested observation about the song when she told me she thinks the band members must be heavy metal fans. I think you can hear a lot of those undertones in the drums and vocals of this song (I thought it had a slightly Muse-esque quality to it as well) and I think it makes even more sense when you see the video. This song/video also made me think of Klaxons (where’s that sophomore album?!) but with a bigger budget.

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Charlotte Gainsbourg + Beck: Heaven Can Wait – Here’s another video that a million other blogs have posted about in the past few days. But now I’m doing it so you can finally watch it. This video looks like it was directed by Wes Anderson, or is using clips from some unreleased film of his. Every shot is an entirely different scene and my mind boggles with the time it must have taken to set up each shot. This video is better than most movies I’ve seen this year.

Robot Koch: Hard To Find – The cinematic quality of this video is a little more literal and obvious. And amazing. If you haven’t already taken your vegetables, now would be the time.