a roundup of indie music videos with more zest than a bushel of lemons
I have had a blast launching I Enjoy Music Videos, the pure audiovisual sibling of the I Enjoy Music blog empire. Already I have been sent some premium new music videos and it pleases me greatly to have a place to put them. One of my goals of this blog has always been to Offer Recognition to people who work hard to put themselves out there—releasing music is so vulnerable, and making creative stuff to accompany that music adds yet another layer of labor-of-love—and I feel like this...
INDIE MUSIC VIDEO CHANNEL PLAYING COOL VIDEOS BY EXCELLENT ARTISTS, 24/7/365, ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB
...is serving that purpose well. I wanted to round up some of the videos I have recently added, including some behind-the-scenes intel about the videos, direct from the people who made 'em.
"Middlemen" - Bogart
A video for a tune from a defunct project from Ty Foster, this came thru in my Bluesky DMs with an intriguing backstory. "The director rotoscoped the mask guys into old noir/sci-fi footage, printed out hundreds of cells, HAND-PAINTED THEM, then we scanned them back in and he animated them," Ty wrote. "It was an insane labor of love, both the record and the vid, and no one has seen it or gives a shit lol." Hearing a story of total creative commitment and tepid audience response is catnip to moi, the raisin debt of the I Enjoy Music blogiverse, so I thought it deserved a highlight here. I love the vocal delivery on the song which sounds like it should be playing in an episode of Twin Peaks: The Return—moody music for dark times. And the video is so cool, very "EVERYONE GET MORE #artsy NOW!!!!!!!"
"n ew bu s ine ss" - Fierce Invalids
Soon as I saw the aspect ratio for the latest Fierce Invalids song I was like ah, cinema. Sludgy, spiky post-hardcore + industrial landscapes + glowing lit cig against blue dusk + interesting projections / broadcasting of the performance footage = good stuff. This video was directed by Jude Chacon, who listed Edward Hopper as one of his favorite artists on his website, which tracks with stills like this:
"Mama (妈妈)" - Chinese American Bear
Got this suggestion from I Enjoy Music Photo Club participant Alex and immediately fell in love. The simple, bold treatment of the silhouettes pairs wonderfully with the dreamy, funky song. Also a moment for the album art for Chinese American Bear's new release, Dim Sum & Then Some:
"WiiiZARD POOLS" - JoeJas
An exuberant dance rap track about maintaining some childlike wonder in a cold world...a vibrant video prominently featuring a pink balaclava...a character known as the Left Handed Bandit...I'm really enjoying everything JoeJas is getting into, he's even been putting forth some video lore for his various creative aliases. I asked him about where he got his knit face mask and he responded: "A guy i know has a brand called Van Moto and sends me all these cool hats and masks. i'd had that one for a while and then the idea of the character of the left handed bandit popped into my head whilst I was looking at it haha!"
"Hypocrite" - The Hausplants
Some proper rock melodrama and fake blood at the workplace. I asked The Hausplants, who are a trio from Vancouver, for some behind-the-scenes video dirt and what I got was very good. "All the code in the office scenes is 'hypocrite' translated into binary," Hausplants vocalist and co-director Anna Zeleny wrote. "The binary across Tanaz’s (the actor) face in the beginning is not, it was just my partner frantically typing." The video is a long time in the making: "If you watch the Spotify canvas this was the first concept of the music video with absolutely no budget. (Also I had probably 50 videos trying to light a match in my mouth and spitting it out, they were short matches and very hot)."
Bonus: here's their fake blood recipe: "1 tsp cocoa powder, 5 drops red food dye, 2 drops green, ½ cup clear corn syrup, water (optional, for added viscosity). Mix together and serve by smearing on palms and going to corporate job."
"Floor It" - Chalk Teeth
Chalk Teeth are a newer "Elegant Electronic Doom" group from L.A. and their video for "Floor It" was shot and edited by their guitarist Adam Wallace around East Hollywood. The band said they are all about DIY everything, "embracing human imperfection and direct, hands-on interpretation of artist intent in conscious opposition to AI." Streets are saying that being REAL is cool.
"Ghost Protocol" - Long Relief
A song that feels like Tom Petty and the Hold Steady hanging out at a bar and deciding to start a band called...uh...Tom Steady and the Holdbreakers? Sure. Anyway I like it. And the found-footage video has a neat backstory. Here's Long Relief singer/guitarist Paul Blest with the intel:
"One of my friends, Andrew Rivera, is a video editor at our job. I had no idea if he even did music videos when I sprung this idea on him. I just wanted to work with him on a video around our release and this song in particular holds a lot of meaning for me—without going too deep into it, it’s about how loss and time both warp the scenery of a place. Two days before the single was released he sent me the video and I was very moved."
Andrew shared how the video got made: “Paul had communicated to me that the song is about long drives with a friend who’s no longer around and I know it was a very personal story. Paul lost a friend and I wanted to kind of honor that ambient feeling. When you miss someone and they start to fade away, despite remembering them so passionately. So I went through hundreds of home movies that are hosted on the Prelinger Archive and found footage of families through the 50s, 60s and 70s and I edited together clips of them all looking at the camera where they’re mostly smiling. These are people that probably don’t exist anymore or, at least, don’t exist in the same way. And the viewer sees them for a moment of happiness before they fade away forever. The video is kind of a way to honor these people and though we don’t know who they are or where they’re from we know that for a brief moment we captured their existence and they were happy.”
Good stuff. Send me your music videos! ienjoymusicblog at gmail dot com
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