The more brutal the home video or surveillance cam footage, the more laughs to be had. Guy getting thrown out of the house by his girlfriend? Photocopying fiasco at the office? Dude having car problems? All fantastic, especially when synced to a popular song by some overeager fan with rudimentary production skills. Directing team Walter Robot — who are well established now as being far above the rudimentary level — pay homage to those sorts of YouTube hits in this viral video for Rob Thomas "Give Me The Meltdown." We get appropriately fuzzy and pretty standard recreations of the above-mentioned personal and professional meltdowns that leave you wondering what the twist will be. And a twist there is. In hopes you'll be as befuddled as Thomas in his cameo, I'll just say that some of it is of the superhuman and otherworldly variety. --> watch "Give Me The Meltdown"
Rob Thomas "Give Me The Meltdown" (Atlantic) Walter Robot, director | Merge @ Crossroads, production co
Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be Midnight Cowboys. Director Alma Har'el draws some very obvious parallels between a boy growing up near the Salton Sea and a young man on the streets of L.A. "Concubine" is basically an impressionistic tale of how a restless and innocent youth can easily become a listless and possibly sordid young adult. Beirut main man Zach Condon appears in the clip as the grown-up boy, now an L.A. version of Joe Buck — as in the Jon Voightmale "Concubine" character in Midnight Cowboy, not the sports announcer turned feeble talk show host — fitting right in with a Gene Simmons lookalike as he mills around with all the other futile dreamers drawn to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. --> watch "Concubine"
It's as if Bloc Party are trapped in a time warp, each member sequestered with somebody trying way too hard to impress them. I like to think the people we see are trying out to be in a Bloc Party and the fact that they're already in a Bloc Party video is the kind of pomo/meta twist that makes my brain hurt. --> watch "One More Chance"
Bloc Party "One More Chance" (Wichita) Wendy Morgan, director | Sarah McMurray, producer | Revolver Film Co, production co | LaBuda Management, rep | Jill Kaplan/Skyway, commissioner
Director Matthew Stawski uses animated titles in a sort of "pop-up video" style to point out the brutal truths at an All Time Low concerts. You see, the There might be a few too many degrading disses at the expense of groupies — methinks the boys are a bit torn between fascination and disdain — but for the most part it's all good-natured, with just as many of the barbs being directed at the band as at their fans. Bonus points for getting Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz on-board to slag ATL, who then in turn gets shot down by Mark Hoppus of Blink-182. Somewhere, Billie Joe Armstrong is laughing at them all. --> watch "Weightless"
All Time Low "Weightless" (Hopeless) Matthew Stawski, director | Paul Bock, producer | Refused TV, production co | Damien Acevedo, DP
NYC video artist Federico Kuhrmeier uses black and white imagery — both in terms of the video grade itself and the content — to deliver a moody and evocative visual accompaniment to the equally moody Kind Monitor song "Cairo." The indie act's blog pegs the video as Butoh-influenced, and a Google search reveals that as correct and way more spot-on than the feeble "Shock The Monkey-meets-Umbrella" reference I was gonna make. --> watch "Cairo"
Some rappers enjoy Rao's tomato sauce from the jar. Jay-Z dines at the ultra-exclusive Rao's restaurant and then joins Harvey Keitel for a card game in the backroom. Some rappers play NBA Live, imagining they're in the paint with Lebron James. Jay-Z plays actual one-on-one with LeBron at his local street court. Some rappers need glitz and auto-tune to look and sound good as they make their feeble bids to top the charts. Jay-Z doesn't need none of that. Director Anthony Mandler captures that swagger and that vibe as he delivers a video as gritty and cool and understated and confident as this no-nonsense song. --> watch "D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune)"
Jay-Z "D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune)" (Roc Nation) Anthony Mandler, director | Karen McCarthy, producer | Les Enfants Terribles, production co | John Perez, DP | Jeff Selis, editor
Can chicks with Double-D's play D? Can these Round Mounds Of Rebounds make coach proud with a 2-minute drill? Can I make another basketball/sex pun? [ed: No]. The much hyped hip-hop newbie and former Degrassi star Drake does it real big in this comedic T&A romp "Best I Ever Had," directed by his mentor, Kanye West. The clip's basic conceit is Drake as the pervy coach of a women's basketball team. While he may give them emotional support, he gives them very little in the way of bosom support and actual basketball knowledge. Let's just say it's safe to assume that the Degrassi basketball team was nothing like this one --> watch "Best I Ever Had"
Drake "Best I Ever Had" (Young Money/Universal Motown) Kanye West, director | Justin Benoliel, producer | Ghost Town Media, production co, | Derek Lee, editor
While it's not too unusual for a fan or spec clip to get props from the recording artist, that's usually all they get: A post on a blog, or a mere tweet. Director/Cinematographer Ross Ching wins the jackpot with this unsolicited clip for Death Cab For Cutie "Little Bribes" getting acquired by the band and its record label Atlantic as the "official" video for the song. That may sound like a meaningless distinction, but it's really not, since Ching's video will now get a shot at being seen on TV and will be included in the DCFC official videography (ie: archived on the band's site, potentially used in future DVDs, blah, blah, etc, etc). The clip itself is damn good even as it mines some familiar MV tropes: We've got the time-lapse Koyannasqatsi busy city vibe, a spell out the lyrics motif á la director Kris Moyes' video for the Softlightes "Heart Made Of Sound" video, and a bit of moving light animation. Nothing you haven't seen before, but impressive to see it all done so well in a DIY production. --> watch "Little Bribes" (hi res Quicktime download links, plus Making-Of notes via rossching.com)
Death Cab For Cutie "Little Bribes" (Atlantic) Ross Ching, director
If the Jonas Bros were an emo band, they'd probably be There For Tomorrow, a group of pretty boys from Orlando. This video from new production company Variable Films mixes performance with a rapidfire storyline in which singer Maika Maile romances a waitress who is far prettier than the usual help at classic NJ eatery, the Bendix Diner. --> watch "A Little Faster"
There For Tomorrow "A Little Faster" (Hopeless) Variable Films, director | Brad Burke, producer | Variable Films, production co | Jonathan Bregel + Khalid Mohtaseb, DPs | Marcus Small, editor
WATCH IT: Street Sweeper Social Club "100 Little Curses"
Guitar god Tom Morello continues raging against the machine with new band Street Sweeper Social Club, a militant little metal/rap/funk act with the outspoken Boots Riley of controversial rap group The Coup on vocals. Director Matthew Stawski provides lots of revolutionary symbols behind the band's performance, while also illustrating a tale of greed and capitalism gone wild with actor Breckin Meyer. --> watch "100 Little Curses" (directors cut, Quicktime)
Street Sweeper Social Club "100 Little Curses" (ILG) Matthew Stawski, director | Alfred Tomaszewski + Nina Tahash, producers | Refused TV, production co | Scrambled Visual, fx/editor
