Can Wilco mainman Jeff Tweedy and son Spencer Tweedy — aka the aptly-named rock band Tweey — save the music business and the fate of their record through some door-to-door salesmanship? Not only that, they're also able to save lives through this kinda bananas little video directed by Parks & Recreation star Nick Offerman starring John Hodgman, actor Michael Shannon and cameos by Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche, Conan O'Brien, Andy Richter, Chance The Rapper, Mavis Staples, General Zod and other possibly familiar faces.

Or, how I learned to stop worrying about whether this video was actually about popcorn and learned to enjoy if as deliciously random eye candy.

Bryan Warnecke has Cystic Fibrosis and a life expectancy of 36 years. He's not wasting a single day. "I Lived" introduces us to this Colorado teen, who hasn't let his daily treatment or anything else prevent him leading an active life — he's ridden his bike over 1,200 miles, raising over $300,000 for his research — and a dream of one day playing goalie for the US Mens Olympic hockey team.

And in the end, all that you coveted will be rendered meaningless... Director Jam Sutton presents high-art depictions of power, gluttony, greed and especially death.

Hillary Duff has a  mystery crush — but she also an Amazon Fire phone and a plan to find him via an album he left behind at a restaurant.

My question is: If you hate the usual "let's randomly shove it in" product placement technique, then how do you feel about a video like this where it's actually thoroughly integrated into the storyline and structure of the video? 

Welcome back Cibo Matto, who use some Kinect RGB+D trickery to move between fantasy and reality.

The last installment of our syndication of The 405's music video series Loud Visionaries, focusing on the new wave of music video directors and creatives.

LOUD VISIONARIES: John Merizalde

There's a lot to love about John Merizalde's quick rise to prominence in the world of engaging, thought provoking music videos. His asking everyone to lift their game, is keen to put it all on the line, and is passionately pushing through the industry at a ferocious pace.

405: You've got a great origin story, can you break it down for us and what your influences were growing up?

John Merizalde: I grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. I watched an unhealthy amount of movies as a child, and I had an equally unhealthy obsession with Kurosawa, Kubrick, and PT Anderson. Growing up I spent most of my free time making mindless short films on mini dv.

I tried the college thing but that didn't work out too well. I dropped out after two years and spent some time bumming it out, living in a glorified crackhouse for a while. I got bored of that eventually and started making videos again.

I had always wanted to direct features, and it wasn't until fairly recently that I started to see the potential in the short form. Seeing challenging music videos from the likes of directors like Daniel Wolfe and Romain Gavras inspired me to go towards that medium.

405: Formal education vs. School of Hard Knocks?

Merizalde: School works for some people, but it's just not my thing. Everyone has the internet. You have all the resources you need to learn and grow right in front of you. Film school used to be a major socio-economic barrier to success, but it's a level playing field now.

The best education is to just watch and make films. It's evident when you look around that most successful young filmmakers are self-motivated and self-taught.

405: How did you engineer your first big break?

Merizalde: Dumb luck. My first music video opened a lot of doors. At the time I was making short films for a church. As you can imagine, not the most creatively fulfilling gig. I scoured through Facebook looking for musicians to collaborate with and stumbled across a small local artist: Snowden. Luckily they needed a music video, so I directed an ultra-low budget piece for them. To everyone's surprise, the video blew up on VEVO and ended up getting a lot of attention. About a year later I made the move to LA and here I am.

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