The 5 Best Videos Of The Week
Did nobody want to release a big, important video the same week that the Coachella lineup came out? Because there were no big, important videos this week. But there were some fun smaller ones, and we’ve got five of those below.
5. Foals – “My Number” (Dir. Dave Ma)
A concise, convincing argument that female dance crews are way, way more fun to watch than male rock bands. Maybe that’s the future? Female dance crews? Maybe I should go work for a blog that only chronicles the female-dance-crew world.
4. Helado Negro – “Dance Ghost” (Dir. David W. Merten)
I’ve seen something like eight million music videos that take place in the city of Miami. This one might be the least glamorous, but it’s also the first one since Trick Daddy’s heyday to convince me that Miami might be a fun place to visit.
3. The Cribs – “Leather Jacket Love Song” (Dir. Andy Knowles)
Most of this one is made up of footage of the adolescent Cribs in 1997, getting ready to play their first show, with the current-day Cribs Forrest Gumped into the picture sometimes. Confusing! But oh man, those haircuts alone. Those haircuts are like shaggy, terrible time machines, and they give me an overwhelming urge to buy a Tastykake eclair and haul ass home from school so I can get there in time for Gargoyles. (I was not the coolest teeanger.)
2. Widowspeak – “Locusts” (Dir. The Craig Brothers)
When music videos are limited to bands playing in a single location, things usually get very boring. But when the location is a 1966-looking film set, shot in lush black-and-white, with the band members artfully arranged into iconic poses and sharing space with go-go dancers, things suddenly get a whole lot more interesting. Also, not to be that guy, but Widowspeak singer Molly Hamilton is very, very good at being on camera.
1. Dizzee Rascal – “Bassline Junkie” (Dir. Megaforce)
This one is actually from the very beginning of the year, but I missed it because I stopped checking for Dizzee Rascal when he became a cheesed-out British dance-pop star. Mistake! Because somewhere along the line, he apparently developed an admirably cartoony sense of humor. Here, he’s a bass-music evangelist, and his toady’s facial expressions are basically my favorite thing ever.