WATCH IT: The Drums "Down By The Water" (Surround, dir.)

This video is kind of like "Single Ladies" on Quaaludes. Or, imagine if Kraftwerk appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Clearly referencing old time TV pop/rock performances — think Ronettes "Be My Baby" — the Surround production team lets the moddish boys of The Drums perform a very slowly slow mimed performance (with time code, so you know exactly how slow it all is).  --> watch "Down By The Water"

The Drums "Down By The Water" (Downtown)
Brian & Brad Palmer / SURROUND/ The Drums, directors | Brian Palmer & Tatiana Rudzinski, producers |  SURROUND, production co | Aaron Phillips, DP | Tubbs, art director

WATCH IT: Cee-Lo Green "F**k You" (Matthew Stawski, dir.)

Cee-Lo Green manages to score the pop hit of the year, except for the fact that it's called "Fuck You" and is essentially a Motown-worthy middle finger to a woman who has done him wrong. Director Matthew Stawski focuses on the sweet hooks, setting the action at a retro soda shop where we learn that Cee-Lo's anger stems from never having much luck with the ladies. --> watch "Fuck You"

Cee-Lo Green "Fuck You" (Elektra/Warner UK)
Matthew Stawski, director | Paul Bock, producer | Refused TV, production co | Damian Acevedo, DP | Serge Gay Jr, artist | Scrambled Visual, vfx | Dustin Blackburn, casting director (To roughly quote producer Paul Bock, it's pretty hard to find parents willing to let their kid lip-sync "fuck you" in a video)

WATCH IT: Arcade Fire - The Wilderness Downtown (Chris Milk, dir.)

The internet has allowed music videos to be on-demand. You can watch what you want, when you want. That's revolutionary, for sure, but music videos themselves have largely remained the same as when they were only available on linear TV. Credit director Chris Milk with realizing that music videos shouldn't be encumbered by the old rules. Music videos don't have to be linear, they don't have to be static, they don't have to even appear in only one window. This video project for the Arcade Fire song "We Used To Wait"  accomplishes all of those goals and is the next step in the actual transformation of music videos from the old way into something very new. And the fact that the song grapples nostalgia and a quest for finding something organic in the digital age makes it all the better.

Created in conjunction with Google as a showcase for HTML 5 and the Google Chrome Browser, this multi-media experiment is all but guaranteed to be different for ever single viewer. It starts by asking for your childhood address, which is then plotted via Google Maps + Street View and displayed in various windows timed to the music. Other windows display a person running through a street, while another offers a flock of birds you can manipulate. A blank page opens and offers you the chance to draw or type a virtual postcard. Unlike watching a traditional video online, this one forces you to cease all your other web activity as windows sprout on your desktop revealing new growth and other elements that grab your attention. It's the kind of video that wouldn't have the same impact on TV, or even embedded on a page like this. It's an immersive experience that's personalized to each viewer. And it's pretty damn cool.

--> watch THE WILDERNESS DOWNTOWN and read more about the technology underpinning it

Arcade Fire "The Wilderness Downtown" ["We Used To Wait"]
Chris Milk, director | Nicole Muniz, film producer | Radical Media, production co | Shawn Kim, DP | Livio Sanchez, editor | Dave Hussey @ Company 3, colorist/telecine [NOTE: Credits refer to the film portions of the projct. Visit thewildernessdowntown.com/credits.html for full credits]

WATCH IT: MGMT "Congratulations" (Tom Kuntz, dir.)

Is it a metaphor for persistence, or did MGMT just want to wander the desert with a bizarre creature that keeps breaking apart? Either way: It's beautiful, sad and strangely perfect for the tune. --> watch "Congratulations"

MGMT "Congratulations" (Columbia)
Tom Kuntz, director | MJZ, production co | Labuda Management, rep | Wyatt Troll, DP | Bryan Younce, commissioner

WATCH IT: Wavves "Post Acid" (Patrick O'Dell, dir.)

An alien gets a warm welcome to the psychedelic Silverlake lifesytle in this fittingly trippy clip for Wavves "Post Acid," courtesy of Mountain Dew's Green Label Sound series. The ET enjoys some skateboarding and a debaucherous rock show, showing that the slacker lifestyle resonates across the universe. Not sure if the weirdest thing about this is the John Norris intro, or that the folks at Mountain Dew greenlit something this off the wall .--> watch "Post Acid"

Patrick O'Dell, director: "The video is loosely based on the plot of Enico Man but with an alien instead of a cave man. That was [Wavves frontman] Nathan’s idea. I love it when a band comes up with something totally bizarre and ambitious rather than shrugging and saying, ‘I don’t know, what do you wanna do?’ while they mope around looking cool. By extension I feel like we’ve almost made one of those fan videos where an anonymous person out there cuts up a movie they like and fits it together with a song they like and uploads it to YouTube. This is one of the those videos but the band happens to star in the movie."

Wavves "Post Acid" (Green Label Sound)
Patrick O'Dell, director | Ted Newsome, DP | Abby Portner, art director | Description: xxx

WATCH IT: Yeasayer "Madder Red" (Andreas Nilsson, dir.)

The bald hairy rotund slimeball dating the hot young starlet is classic Hollywood. Director Andreas Nilsson's tale for this Yeasayer video is similar to that, but blown out to full wackiness with an actual hairy testicular-shaped creature capturing the heart of actual starlet Kristen Bell.

Andreas Nilsson, director: "I had a friend who worked as a shepherd. One day after work at the pub he told me a story. He had delivered a sheep. But the sheep was highly deformed. It looked like a huge hairy testicle with just a small mouth, one eye and a leg. The little guy wasn’t a stillborn; he was waving nervously with his little arm, like he was saluting the world, celebrating his arrival. ‘Hello world, I’m here.’ A colleague of his kicked the sheep, smashing into a wall, sadly his life took a quick turn.

It was a heartbreaking story, a story about not fitting in, and cruelty of life. I’ve wanted to do something based on this character for a while. Yeasayer was the right moment". [source]

--> watch "Madder Red"

Yeasayer "Madder Red" (Secretly Canadia/Mute UK)
Andreas Nilsson, director | Justin Diener, producer | Streetgang Films/Furlined, production co | Stöps Langensteiner, DP | Aaron Morris @ Rock Paper Scissors, editor |  Don Lanning / Ryan Thompson @ Giant Steps, fx | Marshall Plante @ Ntropic, telecine | John Moule, commissioner

WATCH IT: Ted Leo "Bottled In Cork" (Tom Scharpling, dir.)

Now that Punk Gone Broadway is a reality — thank you, Green Day — why shouldn't Teo Leo set aside his nearly two decades of principled punk for a shot at musical immortality (and a living wage) via musical theater? Enter Reginald VanVoorst, a theater impresario who works with the band to bring this gem from The Brutalist Bricks to The Great White Way. If that sounds absurd, well, it is. WFMU Best Show host Tom Scharpling directed this satire, enlisting comedian Paul F. Tompkins to star as VanVoorst, plus cameos by John Hodgman and Julie Klausner to ensure the proper gravitas. --> watch "Bottled In Cork"

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists "Bottled In Cork" (Matador)
Tom Scharpling, director | Robert Hatch-Miller + Puloma Basu, producers | xxx, production co | Paul Yee, DP | Joaquin Perez, editor 

WATCH IT: Mohini Geisweiller "Milk Teeth" (Danakil, dir.)

You would be nervous too if you saw a ginormous, pulsating white larvae on your floor. And you too might be just as ready to jump in the lake as Mohini Geisweiller is if you realized that the white pupa thing was actually your soul. --> watch "Milk Teeth"

Mohini Geisweiller "Milk Teeth" (Sony)
Danakil, director | Grégory Escure, producer | Basic Films, production co | Nicolas Loir, DP | Mark Maborough @ NMC & Stance, editor

WATCH IT: Menomena "Dirty Cartoons" (homeless dude version)

Not a proper music video, but I think we can all agree that propriety doesn't have a huge place in the music video world. This snippet/miniclip/viral for Menomena "Dirty Cartoons" stars a (faux) homeless guy who seems to share an equal love for indie rock and mime. This air-drum bonanza was orchestrated by Trevor McMahan, who previously oversaw a food fight for the band's "Rotten Hell". --> watch "Dirty Cartoon"

Menomena "Dirty Cartoon" (Barsuk)
Trevor McMahan, director | Rabbit, production co | Kelly Brickner, editor

WATCH IT: Sugarland "Stuck Like Glue" (Declan Whitebloom, dir.)

Sugarland singer Jennifer Nettles manages to make stalking look downright adorable in this unexpected clip directed by Declan Whitebloom. What starts as a seemingly normal crush gets more and more creepy as Nettles and her partner-in-crime Kristian Bush enact a slapstick plan to make sure he knows just how much she loves him. --> watch "Stuck Like Glue"

Sugarland "Stuck Like Glue" (Mercury)
Declan Whitebloom, director | Tony McGarry, producer | Black Dog, production co | Giles Dunning, DP | Clark Eddy, editor | Regan Jackson, production designer