NEVER MESS WITH SUNDAY

I listen to music. I watch music videos. I share my favorites here.

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Big ups to my friend Kristof Brandl for shooting this video. It’s absolutely beautiful.  The story/narrative is also amazing, and if you like it you should check out Karim Huu Do’s other work - it’s equally/more insane.

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Updates, Screenings

V sorry for not posting for the past month - I’ve been working on a ton of projects lately including (3) music videos of my own, which will most likely be released in december/the new year. To make up for this absence / to fulfill a dream I had when starting this blog, a special offer to all my Montreal friends: In collaboration with Legato Productions and Nomad Industries, I will be curating a night of music videos on the big screen. This is super exciting because, as you know, music videos rarely get the silver screen treatment. Being able to watch these videos on Nomad’s 30-foot screen is seriously something you will not want to miss. “So Luke, what videos are you gonna play?” - I considered doing a general music video 101 thing, but that’s boring. I was also really interested in focusing on singular music video directors as well, but then that leaves out a lot of potential content. So I sat down, thought about it real hard, and came up with: A NIGHT OF NARRATIVE MUSIC VIDEOS

So yeah basically any vid that has a story to it. This is totally subject to change, but for now, get stoked about it.

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In this clip from director David Bertram (celebrated French portrait photographer) we take a glimpse into the dark fantasies of a small town. Relying heavily on dream logic, this video is one that requires your attention, but it’s definitely rewarding to stick around until the end. 

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An oldie but a goodie, this video has it’s own solid style. I’ll admit that while watching it, there are times where I’m bored with the visuals, but in a way it’s really cool because that’s when main girl gets bored too. And it’s rewarding to stick around because when she gets excited about change, you do too. The story this video tells could probably work with any song, if edited appropriately. It’s an emotionally curious character study that showcases love, heartbreak, elation, boredom, loneliness, longing, hope, and fear. It just so happens to be with an amazing song, which makes it even more enjoyable.  This is music about teen angst matched with images of teen angst which work together to capture the feelings of teen angst. 

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Christian Haberkern has one-man-banded a really cool production here. In what apparently is based on his short film "The Rising," this video features a beautifully gritty post-apocalyptic aesthetic in a narrative that seems to be about two people who are fighting over a fallen object from the sky. 

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Thomas Rhazi (DIVISION) has crafted one helluva scenario for Alt-J's "Pusher". Following what appears to be some kind of french cultic/religious/political gathering headed by a creepily eccentric dude on a soapbox, the video gets progressively more intimate as the camera slowly gets closer and closer to the man while he becomes more and more extreme in his actions. The fact that the cam also circles the scene in a one-shot (that isn't really a one-shot, but rather a few shots comped together) really adds a nice element of immersion. Very cool vid.

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gulp. Well shit, folks. This right here is one of my new favorite music videos. Absolutely brilliant. Technically, it's not even a music video: it's a short film (containing not one, but TWO songs!), and yet it manages to pack the emotional punch of some of the better feature-length shorts out there today. 

Major props to Aoife McArdle for crafting a beautiful story that, while totally working well on its own, goes perfectly with the emotionality of the two songs. 

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Sorry, what? A 42 minute epic collab between 36 of some of the best rappers out there?  This came out of nowhere for me, and even though I was just getting around to listening to the Merge Records Fall Sampler when I saw this, I knew I had to drop everything and give it a listen. Trust me, you should do the same.  Everybody kills it in this and I'm sure all fans of rap will find something they like here, but my personal fave was Kilo Kish's contribution. She's just TOO dope. 

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Wow, talk about mastery of editing! This is some dope stuff right here! Helmi, who is newly repped by DIVISION PARIS, directed this amazing series of vignettes for Tiga's "Bugatti". The 80s colorful, sexy, and weird aesthetic fits so perfectly that I have a hard time believing that the song wasn't made with the video in mind. *props*

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CANADA REPRESENT Y'ALLLLLL Jason Eisner absolutely KILLS IT in this awesome narrative that merges the Warriors and the X-files. Beautiful aesthetics and a killer story make you feel like a kid again when you watch this video. That was the case for me, at least. So sit back, relax, and open your mind, because this vid will make you want to be a believer. 

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I'm usually not into the typical rap videos that spend 100% of their time discussing the singular topic of having sex with attractive girls, but this isn't the typical rap video that spends 100% of its time discussing the singular topic of having sex with an attractive girl. 

But seriously - this song isn't meant to be taken seriously (well, kinda). I mean, the rap itself constantly sways back and forth from organized lyricism to straight-up-conversation which suggests that the video has some weird kind of self-awareness. Like, the song was clearly made with the video in mind, and it shows. Lil Dicky doesn't waste any time trying to come across as a hotshot rapper, and instead uses the video to make fun of tropes that pop up in most rap videos. At the very least, it's refreshing. 

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Here we have director Keith Musil doing what most film school students always try and fail so hard at - overt homages to David Lynch films. Except there's one difference: Keith does it right.  Okay, so I don't want take all the credit away from Keith. Yes, he does take major plot points and subtle stylistic elements from Lynch, but the world he creates here is all his own and is totally weird and wonderful. It's uncomfortable, dark, and mysterious, all while being welcoming, cute, and clear all at the same time. 

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First off - I just have to acknowledge the fact that I'm pretty sure I'm in love with every frame of this video. It's a visual masterpiece that garners a bunch of respect for cinematographer Alex Disenhof.

But this video has so much more going for it, notably, THE AWESOME USE OF LIP-SYNCING. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I saw this technique used (and even if I could, I probably wouldn't love it as much as this video).

Overall, this is a crazily beautiful, weird, and hypnotic video that showcases some nasty skills with visual storytelling. I highly doubt that you won't want to watch it twice.

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Damn.  In his latest collaboration with Childish Gambino, Director Hiro Murai has really pulled one of his best tricks out of the bag for "Telegraph Ave." You've really got to hand it to that guy, he knows how to establish an ambiguity of tone better than any other music video director out there today.  I don't want to give too much away, but I gotta say that this one got me, and it got me good. Really comes full circle with Bino's theme of juxtaposing touching love scenes with harsh and gritty darkness.  *claps hands (for the wrong reasons)* EDIT: For those of you who are more interested in the mythology that Murai and Gambino have been building, check out this Reddit thread. Very insightful and, unlike most Reddit theorization, debatably on-point.

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This video for Mndsgn's "TXT (MSGS)" does something that really ain't too easy: it makes footage of a dude simply sitting in a garage look interesting AS FUCK. Much credit should be given to the trippy geometrics that really give the vid it's weird-but-cool atmosphere.  Props to director Jose Wolff for creating eye-candy that'll leave you wanting more!

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I should be sleeping. I've been up for two days moving into a new apartment. On the other side of the continent. But just as I readied myself for a well-earned sleep, M83 had to go and turn my world upside down.  I'll be honest, I never thought I'd see "Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun" on my feed of new music videos. The song came out in 2005, for crying out loud. More importantly, it has become a staple of M83's music. It pretty much catapulted his career. This song has been interpreted and used in such a wide range of videos, from the always amazing intro to Lakai's "Fully Flared" to this crazy re-imagining of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Why create a video for something so old and iconic when so many great videos have already used the song in such inventive ways?  Because this was already made. Indeed, this is a 'lost' video that will act as the catalyst to the re-issuing of almost all of M83's early stuff. Score. 

But it's not the background info that makes this amazing. It's the fact that this video interprets the song better than anything already out there. It cuts to the core of this instrumental track and fully realizes the emotional range of M83's sound. These images beautifully capture the moment of death better than almost any other video I've ever seen. That's what this song's been about the whole time guys! The ecstasy of death! Who knew?  I mean, in a song without words, this video says so much. We feel the infinite moment that depicts this couple's last breath. We see how they become part of the stars. And when they become a dying sun, we fade to black.  Yes, the song comes full circle. We close our eyes to die with the sun. It's true poetry with images. It's a statement on our entire existence, really. And no, I'm not being pretentious, I truly believe that whomever imagined this video wanted it to be extensively existential. They wanted to tell us that we were once stars. And one day, we'll become stars again. To quote the brilliant Robert Buchanan: "L'envoi, I end as I began" Kudos, M83. You took a song that formed your style and brought it back to life by depicting death. You brilliant bastards, you made a masterpiece.

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When I was in high school, one of my awesome English teachers taught me that there are essentially two ways you can look at art. One of those methods looks purely at the work itself and ignores any biographical, historical, or personal background associated with it. The other does just the opposite: it looks at the artists background, what he/she/they put into the art, and what it means to them. This video can and should be looked at through each of these perspectives, because they reveal - in their own ways - different kinds of beauty.

Simply looking at this video as a work of art, it's fucking brilliant. It's not everyday you can take a 6 minute shoegaze song and pair it up with visuals that really make you feel what the music is trying to say. But, if anyone's gonna do it, it's Altobelli. This dude is a masterful storyteller, and no one's arguing about that, but some credit should also be given to genius DP Larkin Seiple. His oft-underexposed images mixed with some lightly trippy lighting tricks really make us feel like this girl is 'Sinking Inside [her]self'. So yeah, from that perspective, this shit is DOPE. But if we take a step back and look at this video from a broader perspective, it takes on another kind of beauty. 

A quick history lesson:  - One of David Altobelli's first major music videos (Breathturn) was with Hammock back in 2010  - That video was also DPd by Larkin Seiple and produced by Ross Girard - This video uses a decent amount of footage from a couple other Hammock videos Altobelli directed (namely Cold Front and Tape Recorder)

- This video was uploaded one year ago, but was just made public last week - Hammock said in an interview recently that Altobelli will no longer be making their videos

*end history lesson*

Okay, so what does all this background info tell us? Well, in my opinion, it could tell us a few things. I don't want to read into anything too much, but I also don't think it's too big of a stretch to assume that this video may essentially be a break up video for the Altobelli crew and Hammock. It's almost like he rounded up everyone who was there from the start and tried to create the most subtly meta video of the year. I mean, come on, it directly draws from two other Hammock videos and is a song about detaching yourself from the world around you. I don't know and will not speculate as to whether or not the band and/or Altobelli has sunk deep inside themselves with their art, or if their decision to no longer work with each other is 1) actually true; and 2) mutual. 

But that's not important. What's important is that this video has been long done, just waiting for the right time to be released. It's a little sad, and very self-reflexive for all those who collaborated to make it. Though it may not be the biggest deal, I think it makes the video a lot more meaningful and interesting.