Passion Pit’s new video for Little Secrets goes hyper-literal on the chorus (“higher and higher and higher…”), taking us on a blissed-out trip through outer space.
This is also a good reminder to re-watch the video’s obvious reference point – Keir Dullea in the classic Star Gate sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey, which special effects are created through an expensive and time-intensive process called slit-scan photography.
Here’s something to try – start the 2001 clip and leave the sound up as you watch the video for Little Secrets. The sound effects used in the film (no music, really, just…I guess, space-type sounds?) add a certain cold edge to the ordinarily bright-and-cheery track. And the colors…oh, god, the colors.
Does that sound like a new Pixar flick about a superhero family? The point is, let’s make today ‘unofficial music videos’ day. The first is a fan-made video created for Brooklyn-slash-Austin rising stars Neon Indian, whom Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear just included as a ‘recent favorite’ on the playlist he compiled for designer Jeremy Laing runway show. The video pulls together some decidedly lo-fi footage, a fitting accompaniment for Neon Indian’s decidedly lo-fi pop approach, to create the perfect audio/visual soundtrack to the end of summer.
Speaking of Grizzly Bear, here’s the other video, done with their single ‘Two Weeks,’ which is some truly inspired work from a guy named Gabe Askew. This is fully unofficial, but apparently endorsed by the band (Ed’s tweeted about it). Anyway, how could you NOT like this? And, as a postscript, it’s also tough not to love the following interview with the guys, excerpted below:
Chris B: I got a Nintendo DS a week ago.
Interviewer: How you likin’ that?
Chris B: I think it’s pretty fun. It’s very kid-y, but I like it.
Interviewer: well, that’s just like, Nintendo in general, right? I’m always like, well I gotta buy that, or the PSP and I’m nah, well I’m just not gonna get either.
Ed: I think none of us were feeling our video game spirits until we went on the road and we had a LOT of time to kill–and then suddenly, I made everyone pull over to Wal Mart and I was like, “I MUST buy Zelda and a Gameboy.” ‘Cause I was just like going crazy in the back of the car, just sitting there, for like, 10 hours across North Dakota–
Daniel: –well if you’d just talk to me…
All: [snickering]
Daniel: I’m HERE for you… I’ll have a conversation…
Chris T: Find out what’s inside of Dan!
Ed: There’s nothing to learn from you. [scoffs] Just kidding. You have a lot of inner beauty.
Daniel: …I CARE for you…
Interview: Portable gaming devices are taking away from the band as a family.
…and Exhibit B, in which Dinosaur Jr. is BACK, thank the God of the ’90s, and rocking and, for some reason, skating and biking in their new video (which is, I suppose, a sort of ’90s thing to do). Their stunt doubles do some cool tricks. The actual members take a few falls. The whole thing, song included, is just good for the soul.
It’s just a good time of year for these, I suppose. First off, this one from Cold War Kids for ‘I’ve Seen Enough.’ Let the video preload on the site and then let your mind be blown.
Billed as an ‘interactive video,’ you can mix and match the song as it plays — clicking on a nattily-dressed member of the Kids will stop his track and gray him out, making for a good effect when you’d like to hear how the track sounds with only, say, stand-up bass and the kit, or when you just want the beat to drop.
And that’s just scratching the surface. Incorporated into the video are actually four versions of the song, each featuring different instrumentation marked by color. You can play it straight by keeping all colors together or get a little creative, pairing blue with yellow with red with green to see how it all comes together. Look at the ‘thank you’ list in the credits. Of course, something this mad-cap and musically involved has Jon Brion attached.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjecYugTbIQ
Then, of course, there’s the ‘Two Weeks’ video I’ve been harping about. You should watch it. It’s peaceful. And weird. And Veckatimest is out now. And I guess that just about sums it all up.
We’ve had this new headphone collaboration between WeSC and Ed Banger Records in the shop for a little bit now, and it’s been garnering a lot of interest thanks in large part to Ed Banger art director So Me and his distinctive style.
Speaking of So Me, I’m taking a late pass on this one, but figure it’s a good time to wax a little nostalgic with a So Me video created for last year’s mixtape savior Kid Cudi, a young Cleveland cat who’s got lyrics and style for miles.
Check out So Me’s video treatment for ‘Day ‘N Nite,’ which sees the Kid wandering the streets in a haze, just trying to make a little sense of it all. Keep an ear out for what this Kid drops next — as of late, a couple bangers in the form of She Came Along, which works off of a Patsy Cline sample, and Sky Might Fall, one hell of a song produced by Kanye West for Cudi’s official solo debut which may or may not be featured on Transformers 2.
A look back at the recent past: Radiohead’s video for ‘House of Cards’ off of their latest record In Rainbows was created without the use of a single camera. Instead, director James Frost utilized Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR to capture, with the use of 64 rotating lasers, 3D images that sync up with the lazy, haunting track. Watch the video first, then discover the process here.
You can also browse the Youtube group set up by the band and check out user-submitted videos created with the data-manipulation program they released to the public. Maybe you’d like to create your own?
What with all the drooling over the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are, consider us to be in a full-on love affair with all things Spike Jonze. As such, let’s spare a moment for this video, a bit Jonze cobbled together from his own archives exclusively for the British group U.N.K.L.E., currently making the Internet rounds but brought to my attention by The Full Clip earlier this week.
The segment is a welcome re-visit of Jonze’s work on Fully Flared (which you can watch in its entirety here), one of only a few truly seminal skate videos from recent years. No CGI was used in any of these segments, just pyrotechnics timed to tight, nerve-rattling perfection. The footage may not be new, but the edit certainly is — a perfect marriage of sound and visual. Sit back, relax and enjoy. Available in HD quality at DailyMotion.
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