Fistful of Fives: Videos

OK, so the Fab Five Friday for today involves music videos. Always hard to narrow it down to just five great ones, but I've tried to avoid the most obvious and oft-mentioned and celebrated and notoriously batshit insane candidates in order to bring to light some that you may not have seen before. Keep an eye on Half Deserted Streets and Your Beard is Good for more on this topic. 

Roots Manuva - Witness (1 Hope)

Like Roots, I wasn't too good at sports as a youngster. Unlike Roots, I have never - yet - showed up to my old school in an expensive car and won all the events at sports day. Great video, really funny, low budget, and the song is STILL unimpeachable.



Royksopp - Remind Me

OK, some people might think that this is just a glorified Microsoft Access demo, but it's more fun than that. A series of presentation graphics undercut by the old Geico commercials music. Haven't given the new Royksopp the attention it deserves. Soon!



Bjork - Bachelorette

I figured, I could get away with one Michel Godrey video in here. There's a trillion to choose from. (Close runners up: Come into my World and Star Guitar. Obviously the well-choreographed, meticulously arranged ones do it for me). Bachelorette is just so ingenious that Stephen Hawking watched it and got jealous. (This may not have happened). One day, Bjork found a book in the woods, and then shit got real.




Pulp - This is Hardcore

Some days, you wake up and think, "I've gotta shoot a seven minute film noir with fantasy dance sequences, lots of shadows, screaming, plaintive glances towards something off-camera, and at least one murder routine, all to accompany a song about men that are addicted to pornography." This was one of those days.



P.J. Harvey - Good Fortune

Maybe this video isn't too remarkable to anyone else, but I really love it. Something about Polly walking around east London singing directly to camera and being really carefree.. It's sexy as hell. And the song, from her career-best 'Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea' album, isn't bad either. Even though it's about New York, and not London. Pfft.

If your boyfriend's got beef

Over the last few weeks, I've been rather obsessed with Blizzard Man. Couldn't tell you why - it's just the right balance between dumb and goofy to still be hilarious to me. Laughing at Andy Samberg looking like the dude from Color Me Badd while singing "I wear very nice duds" was a great antidote to the joyless pressure cooker that law school becomes at the end of each term. 

Adding to my non-scholastic distractions over the last fortnight was this music video, by a band I'd never previously heard of. My roommate's boyfriend Travis mentioned them, and our collective curiosity made us watch the video. Behold. 

Now, I'm as judgmental as the next person on the internet, but I can't quite bring myself to hate it. I know I should, and here's a bunch of reasons why. 

• The band name is formatted "Number/Word/Exclamation Point/Number"
• They're named after their telephone area code. There is no way that is ever cool.
• The video tries to set itself up as having a plot. Sort of Cloverfield meets 28 Days Later/Blade Runner?
• Mitigation (or possibly aggravation): The set up has nothing to do with what actually happens in the video, which doesn't really make a lick of sense.
• Abundant male semi-nudity.
• The long haired guy's job description: "Repeat certain words, make actions"
• At one stage, the line is something "Back east", and that guy points to the left, with nary a glance at a compass. Or the sun's trajectory. Geographically misleading!
• Something about two white guys singing "Don't trust a ho" is just weird to me.
• In the future, models will be called to wrestle each other, incorporating some sort of modified Boston Crab.
• ...something about tribes?
• Simulated sex with a giant ram
• "Do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips" is tasteless enough, but add the actions/dance routine, and it's golden.
• Everything is smashed up at the end for what should be obvious reasons. 
• Like the year's best TV advertisement, it ends with a giant explosion. 
• The band also has a song called Holler Till You Pass Out. 
• "Crunk hop" has been used to describe the sound.
• Two songs were played on 'The Hills'.

Yet, like I said, I can't hate the song. What's wrong with me/right with them? Just harmless hi-energy fun, right? Right? Either that, or these guys are evil geniuses who are corrupting our youth and must be stopped at once.