Yesterday, everyone’s favorite Icelandic lunatic posted a new video for her song ‘Moon,’ from her forthcoming ‘app album’ Biophilia, out October 11 in the US. In it, she has monstrous red brillo-pad hair, wears a harp as a belt and strums it sensuously, and plays with crystals, all while the moon waxes and wanes over her figure. It’s kind of great, actually, and the space exploration theme, though nothing new in music videos, does make a satisfactory nod to her new futuristic, multimedia album, partially recorded on iPad and, apparently, “encompassing music, apps, internet, installations, and live shows.” Click through to watch, and let us know whether you’re digging the lunar vibes or think Björk has really lost touch with her home planet.
“Arcade Fire presents” is not a credit we’re accustomed to seeing before a movie, but that’s how Scenes from the Suburbs comes billed; the 28-minute film, “based on the album The Suburbs by Arcade Fire,” was penned by band members Will and Win Butler with acclaimed filmmaker Spike Jonze, who directed. The short screened at the Berlin International Film Festival and SXSW; it is included on the bonus DVD of the new “deluxe edition” of The Suburbs, which hits stores in August, but MUBI is streaming it, for free, for the next two days only. We’ll take a look at the movie after the jump.
UPDATE: As noted in the comments below, after this post — and many others — went live, MUBI suddenly decided to pull the film for North American viewers. “Rest assured,” the new error message reads,”we are working hard to acquire the rights to show all our favorite films all around the world.” Uh huh. A commenter on the MUBI blog was more succinct: “Not available to watch in the USA?? Fuck you.” At any rate, our review remains after the jump, and we’ll keep an eye on the site in hopes of a re-post.
Good news, music buffs with camcorders and NYU students everywhere: veteran indie rockers They Might Be Giants are launching a contest for fans to create a music video for their recent single, “Can’t Keep Johnny Down.” Though anyone on the internet can vote, John Hodgman will be the sole judge (he says ‘You’re Welcome’). The winner will have their video promoted on YouTube and on the official TMBG podcast, making the filmmaker famous among college girls and their dads. So go forth!
From the announcement:
TMBG is inviting creative visual people to make a stylish, smart rock video for the song. It can be live action, motion graphics, animation, stop motion. It can be people jumping around in capes, but they should be very stylish people in very stylish capes or you will not win the contest.Videos are to be uploaded to YouTube and posted on the official TMBG Facebook page. All videos linked there will be voted on by the Facebook friends of TMBG, but the winner will be judged by Judge John Hodgman and by Judge John Hodgman alone. Submission deadline is July 15th. Winner will receive $1000 bucks and a pizza from the pizzeria of their choice. The video will be posted on tmbg’s you tube channel as well as posted on TMBG’s podcast — so lots of people will celebrate your efforts. Select runners up will also receive a pizza.
See the official video announcement featuring John Linnell as a cat spinning around in his room after the jump.
Designer and animator Travis Hopkins has created a “speculative music video” in which he represents the first verse of Buck 65′s “Superstars Don’t Love” in over 60 fictional movie cards, some of which are so compelling that we think he should go ahead and just make them into movies. It’s amazing how almost any phrase in this song (or perhaps… in any song?) can be presented believably as a film title with the right artwork and font — it makes us wonder how difficult coming up with movie titles can possibly be. Okay, okay, we know it’s difficult. But click through to watch the video, and we bet you’ll be coming up with some ideas of your own pretty quick.
Michel Gondry is one of our very favorite directors, and he has been slacking in the music video department. Well, apparently he has other things on his plate, but even still, we were super excited to see his name attached to the new music video for indie rock outfit Living Sisters’ “How Are You Doing.” And not to worry, the king of bizarre preciousness still reigns strong as ever over this pretty track. From the ballooning of the pregnant stomach in the first few seconds to the cartoonish Bright Eyes-esque airplane crash to the multiple interweaving panels, Gondry doesn’t disappoint. Do you agree? Watch the video after the jump and let us know in the comments!
More than any of their other albums to date (and they have a ton of them!), of Montreal’s False Priest — out September 14th — is a soundtrack to weird sex. But just because its music is devoted to getting freaky doesn’t mean their videos can’t be a serious freak show, of the non-romantic variety. The band has just released a clip for its coyly titled “Coquet Coquette,” and guess what? Not only is it miles from the fey Kevin Barnes costume dramas we’ve come to know and love, but it’s a vaguely macho (although not too butch for makeup…) struggle between a boat full of explorers and angry natives that quickly devolves into, well, cannibalism. And yet, we can also imagine that the sight of a shirtless Barnes sprayed with blood will still manage to get someone in the mood.
“Telephone,” the latest video drama from Lady Gaga featuring Beyonce — with the help of Gaga’s prized directorial auteur Jonas Akerlund — unfurls at an epic nine minutes, thirty-two seconds. If you don’t have the time, bandwidth, or firewall clearance to sit through 9:32 of NSFW ass-shaking, mass murder, conceptual hairdos and product placement, click on through to our screencapped guide. (Yeah, we know, it’s kind of our beat.) As always, if there’s anything we missed, school us in the comments.
Looks like Rihanna has scrapped the Illuminati for the Caribbean dancehall in her new video for “Rude Boy,” a playfully raunchy tune that promises “Tonight I’m gonna give it to you harder/ tonight I’m gonna turn your body out.” Yikes! We’ve screencapped Ri-Ri bopping to the single — admittedly not as catchy as, say, “Umbrella” but toe-tapping nonetheless — as she humps a lion, bangs on a drum kit, and rocks a seriously ’80s-themed pompadour.
When James Cameron and ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow were both nominated for best director Oscars, it was a great storyline: former lovers still socially entangled by separate devotions to their craft. Now, some genius has uncovered the video that should be required viewing for anyone remotely interested in this years Oscar race.
Noisevox focuses on high-quality artist chats, paired with live sets. The clips go beyond the sound-bite, allowing Japandroids to tell medical horror stories and the Thermals to explain songwriting metaphors. Noisevox also offers interesting live takes, such as Arctic Monkeys‘ snarling cover of Nick Cave’s “Red Right Hand.” Read More »
