The 5 Best Videos Of The Week
Tom is in Sweden, so I’m here to deliver you the best videos of the week. If I had the gall to actually take over this column and implement the non-music video content he’s been threatening to list here time and time again, perhaps we’d be looking at the 5 Best Riff Raff Vines Of The Week. But, as per usual, there were some pretty good proper videos this week! Check out the list below.
5. The So So Glos – “Dizzy” (Dir. All the awesome kids in this video)
In Park Slope in Brooklyn, there’s something called the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. and it is, in fact, just that — but it’s also a front for New York’s chapter of the 826National nonprofit that helps young people with writing. A few years ago, I helped run a summer workshop to teach kids how to make how-to guides, which is really just an opportunity to make learning how to take and give instructions fun and, was, ultimately an awesome way to be around kids using their imaginations. That’s why this video from the So So Glos and L.A.-based nonprofit OMG! Everywhere is so great — because the thrill and satisfaction of making a physical thing that is fun is totally palpable from the kids and the band. It’s not aww-bait, it’s super genuine.
4. World’s Fair – “’96 Knicks” (Dir. Shomi Patwary)
Having directed clips for A-Trak’s massive “Piss Test” remix, Prodigy’s “Give ‘Em Hell” (which features Das Racist affiliate Lakutis as P’s nemesis), and A$AP Mob and Flatbush Zombies’ menacing clip for “Bath Salt,” Shomi Patwary is to New York underground rap in the Teenies what Hype Williams was to big budget rap clips in the ’90s This is one of his goofiest, though, featuring the freshly minted Fool’s Gold-signees World’s Fair primarily at a press conference with a newsticker making fun of each member during his verse. No narrative, not just a slew of rappers and hangers-on in the club, just a deft display of the group’s personality while maintaining the theme of the song.
3. Schoolboy Q – “Collard Greens” (Feat. Kendrick Lamar) (Dir. ?)
There are so many odd-but-awesome elements to this party clip: The disembodied head of Schoolboy Q floating in the tie-dyed ether, the silly-string-armed partier, the arcade games. I don’t even care that Macklemore, not even remotely wearing my granddad’s clothes, is mugging in the corner through almost half of the video. It just looks like a lot of fun.
2. Basement Jaxx – “What A Difference Your Love Makes” (Dir. Damian Weilers)
Let’s be real: Footwork isolations are always impressive, whether it’s in dance or in sports, primarily soccer. This video not only has both of them, it has them at the same time.
1. Mumford & Sons – “Hopeless Wanderer” (Dir. Sam Jones)
Unlike Tom, I am not a fan of Mumford & Sons. I don’t care to poo-poo their music because I really just don’t care at all. But man, can they cast a music video. And as much as I love Idris Elba, “Lover Of The Light” is a little too maudlin for him to save. But the seriousness of this, on the other hand, is side-splitting. It doesn’t make the song any more thrilling, but it makes the band much more likable. Plus, who wouldn’t watch Will Forte do just about anything and not it transcendent?