Comments on: What do you see there Johnny?

What do you see there Johnny?

panoptican — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 22:33:22 -0800

Fifty music videos that are neat. Also, some guy thinks they were the best of 2005. [via the oh so quiet show]

By: hughbot

hughbot — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 22:50:19 -0800

That Decemberists video is (as 'the Kids' sometimes say) off the Suge Knight. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

By: bbuda

bbuda — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 23:08:06 -0800

The Röyksopp video was solid, but not quite as good as his previous work (aka the Greatest Music Video of All Time).

By: SAC

SAC — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 23:17:16 -0800

Anyone know what the hell's going on with that Bright Eyes video? The link says it's for Gold Mine Gutted, but the song that plays for the first half is Easy Lucky Free. The second half is the right song, but the video never stops or indicates in any way that one song ends and another begins. Either way, how the hell did that video make anyone's "best of" list?

By: deafmute

deafmute — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 23:17:36 -0800

wow, music videos. who know they still made these?

By: deafmute

deafmute — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 23:17:42 -0800

wow, music videos. who knew they still made these?

By: deafmute

deafmute — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 23:34:10 -0800

The animal collective video is extraordinary. I can't believe I missed all these.

By: wsg

wsg — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 00:32:59 -0800

I found the animal collective song to be at different moments very pleasing to the ear and at others absolutely annoying and insipid. The video was cool, but "extraordinary?"

By: ClanvidHorse

ClanvidHorse — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 02:45:28 -0800

Some great videos there. Well worth a peruse on the holiday days between Christmas and New Year.

By: Mikey-San

Mikey-San — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 03:15:37 -0800

Is anyone else long, long over the Gorillaz and their animation gimmick? Snore.

By: Acey

Acey — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 03:17:25 -0800

The Aphex Twin one is pretty cool if not just weird. Thanks for these.

By: Mikey-San

Mikey-San — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 03:23:28 -0800

To balance my snark with something else: Jose Gonzalez is amazing. Loved that video. Anyone who has not listened to this guy is seriously missing out.

By: rxrfrx

rxrfrx — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 04:39:31 -0800

WhitesFilter

By: i_cola

i_cola — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 05:58:25 -0800

Isn't it spelled panopticon?

By: cillit bang

cillit bang — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 06:01:55 -0800

These are all crappy indie bands, so are by definition rubbish. I sadly haven't watched music television enough to offer alternatives, although the video for the "Biology" cut off Girls Aloud's last LP "Chemistry" is rather stunning visually.

By: fungible

fungible — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 06:17:08 -0800

Oh you bastard. I had shit to do today, but this is amazing. And for everyone snarking on here, what the fuck have you ever done? I thought so.

By: furtive

furtive — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 06:28:00 -0800

I quite enjoyed the Stephen Malkmus video. Aphex Twin should not be allowed to show me their videos ever again. Spooky shit indeed! The Hell Yes robots taught me that robots now have more rythm than I do. I agree with wsg on the Animal Collective video. Still a refreshing change from pop music.

By: moonbird

moonbird — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 07:06:14 -0800

Oh lord the Sigur Ros is just amazing. Saved.

By: Leam Srehtorb

Leam Srehtorb — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 07:12:57 -0800

What ... no Madonna !!!

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 07:27:43 -0800

I'd say the top 5 of the 50 (of the ones I could get to work) are: Aphex Twin - Rubber Johnny The Planets- Moving Along Jason Forrest - War Photographer Jose Gonzalez- Stay In The Shade Stephen Malkmus - Baby C'mon Its been a fairly dry year for me in the media department, so I'm sorry to say I have no original recommendations.

By: tomplus2

tomplus2 — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 07:32:12 -0800

What's up with Decemberists? Too much like Rushmore.

By: AspectRatio

AspectRatio — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 07:56:37 -0800

CocoRosie... I'm in love. Thanks for the post... and snarkers, go away.

By: SisterHavana

SisterHavana — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 08:10:16 -0800

Am I the only person who hasn't heard any of these songs?

By: sophist

sophist — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 08:20:16 -0800

Decemberists is my favorite video so far, and I have watched about 2/3 of 'em.

By: skallas

skallas — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 08:29:17 -0800

Rubber Johnny is not a Aphex Twin video, its a short film with Aphex music and RDJ.

By: photoslob

photoslob — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 08:44:20 -0800

Why do the Decemberists hate America?

By: Busithoth

Busithoth — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 08:55:40 -0800

this is an excellent waste of my time. much better than hunting for the cable channel that actually plays videos, or says it does. thank you.

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 09:06:30 -0800

I'm with tomplus in saying that the Decemberist video was far too transparently derivative of Wes Anderson to deserve a lot of special acclaim. On the other hand at least it breaks with the typical conceptual format of most videos (that makes it such a great medium for animation and developing visual vocabularies [e.g. David Fincher]), and it's a well done little allegory, so I'm probably short-changing it. Narrative is probably underused in videos, since I can't think of many short story formats off the top of my head. Radiohead's 'The Bends' comes to mind.

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 09:09:15 -0800

November Rain? Ok, now I just feel dirty.

By: clevershark

clevershark — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 09:12:10 -0800

These are all crappy indie bands, so are by definition rubbish. Sorry, no one could find a 2005 Creed video...

By: Leam Srehtorb

Leam Srehtorb — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 10:30:44 -0800

Which of these videos are available on DVD?

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 10:36:22 -0800

I love that Roisin Murphy video and song. The whole album is damn good too. Sucks that it never got a US release.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 10:43:33 -0800

Radiohead's 'The Bends' comes to mind. You probably mean 'Just'. Apologies for being pedantic.

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 12:20:51 -0800

No, you're right. Sorry about that. Also I changed my mind about not having any recommendations; this is my favorite music video of 2005.

By: Acey

Acey — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 12:51:21 -0800

dgaincun... that was actually not a bad song...

By: cillit bang

cillit bang — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 12:51:26 -0800

Actually this (NB quite violent and gorey) is the best video I've seen all year, not least for featuring Lena Katina dressed as a pimp.

By: soiled cowboy

soiled cowboy — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 13:04:24 -0800

Am I the only person who hasn't heard any of these songs? You're not the only one, Sister Havana. Most of these artists are unfamiliar to me. And after downloading some of these videos, I don't think I'm missing anything.

By: funambulist

funambulist — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 13:06:39 -0800

Another neat video not in the list: The Thrills - The Irish Keep Gatecrashing. Stop-motion overload! Also second the recommendation for Four Tet's Smile Around The Face in one of the comments. (I kept wondering, where have I seen that face before? but wikipedia killed all mystery.)

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 13:08:33 -0800

I must be a bad person, because I laughed pretty hard at the end of cillit bang's video. Out of pure shock mostly. It's like the must fucked up Spice Girls video ever.

By: soiled cowboy

soiled cowboy — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 13:08:49 -0800

Is the Decemberist video supposed to be some kind of comment on or response to Rushmore? Seriously, doesn't anybody know what the story is with that video?

By: dhartung

dhartung — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 15:48:10 -0800

The Rushmore comparison was quickly made on the Decemberists message board. Keep in mind the video was as much an indie production as the music -- as the director noted: the video was made in a spirit of absolutely insane cooperation between friends, family, and strangers who worked for little more than some snacks and the chance to throw wads of paper at Colin and on his own site: Points of reference You never really want to say where you stole from, but because so many people have this wrong I think it's fair to at least direct them towards true, original sources. I studied filmmaking in the UK. There's a wonderful director from there named Lindsay Anderson. In particular, he made films such as This Sporting Life (which nearly a year and a half ago I assumed upon first listen at Great American Music Hall to be an influence on Colin's song) If.. and O Lucky Man. I wish more people could see these films but they are very difficult to find in the US for the most part. They are more earnestly political and critical than my nose thumbing video could ever be. I must graciously tip my hat towards Rushmore for the idea of compact, filmic storytelling with captions. But what you primarily see is the result of a short schedule, a need for one location, a knowledge of what theatrics the band is capable of and a low budget combined with half dreamed remembrances of days spent in the cold NFT on South Bank in London. I do believe that Rushmore became a sort of touchstone for the crew, the common grammar in their heads as we all visualized this to completion. But it was not intended as such, and if it does appear to be that way it is, I accept, a failing on my part. Also there's like one person who noticed the Brazil homage. They were right.

By: AMWKE

AMWKE — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 19:51:49 -0800

I frequent fly past MTV Espanol, and they play a wonderfully hillarious video by Molotov...it features a napoleon dynamite-esque character training to win the world hot dog eating crown. Pure hillarity

By: fudj

fudj — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 19:58:49 -0800

The Sigur Ros video is beautifully shot and amazing to watch

By: tcobretti

tcobretti — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 22:42:46 -0800

Easily my favorite video in recent memory.

By: fungible

fungible — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 23:00:16 -0800

Now that I've watched most of the videos: Thank you thank you thank you for this post. MTV sucks balls for never playing this stuff. cillit bang: they're not even real lesbians, you know. I saw the ending coming miles away.

By: soiled cowboy

soiled cowboy — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 11:23:42 -0800

thanks for that, dhartung.