Hey look is that Friday the 13th? And no less in the first month of 2012 as well! How spooky and ominous. I guess the world does have a good shot at ending. Or you know, starting a new calendar when the old one expires. Anyways, moving on to some more rational things, lets irrationally look at some random music videos. Hurray!
The Ramones – I wanna be Sedated
Just a bit on the weird side of things with this one. I mean there you have the Ramones just chilling and all this insanity is happening around them. Well actually they’re moving slow and everything else is going normal speed and they pressed fast forward for the final cut. But it’s a simple video, as the 80s were simple times for everyone.
The Pillows – Another Morning
Don’t ask me aboot the lyrics / meaning / anything because all I really know about the pillows is that they basically did the entire soundtrack for the FLCL anime movie. And it was done damn well. If it’s weird, well remember they’re a mid 90s punk rock band out of Japan. What’s cool is the shout out to Peanuts being incorporated into the music.
Wamdue Project – King of my Castle
Speaking of which, here’s what’s basically an MTV throwback to 1998/99 which is like an official mainstream Anime Music Video that made it on to TV and the history books. The footage is taken from the world-famous anime movie Ghost in the Shell (which recently got a makeover), but which was still having it’s cool buzz due to the increasing rise of anime in north America over all. Plus I mean it’s got guns and shooting, and stuff. This video rocks!
This week in Part 2 of a Series of Series, it’s time to take a good gander at Daft Punk. It’s been well documented on this blog I have some admiration for Daft Punk and criticism of their more recent works. I’ve mentioned a number of times about Interstella 5555, which combined the best of Daft Punk and the classic anime stylings of Leiji Mastumoto (of Space Battleship Yamato fame).
So here we start off on this magical planet of music where everyone is grovin’ and having a fantastic time. This band is just the shit and everyone knows it. Hell it’s so awesome everyone has basically dropped what they were doing to watch the concert, even planetary security because what could possibly happen? Oh right, invasion.
Daft Punk – Aerodynamic
And these dudes mean business. They’re just waltzing in and acting like a boss, turning things off, causing a panic in the people. They don’t want that music playing so they just turn it off. Hell, they don’t like the band so much so they’re going to cart their asses off. Now all that planet has to look forward to is being the back drop for an Eiffel 65 video…
Daft Punk – Digital Love
No wait, they’re going to call in the SPACE JANITOR! Or his cousin’s brother since this guy is totally into guitars and even so much to have a Space Guitar for a ship. Actually, maybe he’s Boston’s cousin. None the less, only his love of the band’s chick is compelling enough for him to give chase after these dudes who totally rolled an entire planet and ganked their best band ever. This guy has some stones for sure.
Daft Punk – Harder Better Faster Stronger
Okay aside from being like one of the most popular songs ever done by Daft Punk to even being stolen by Kanye West, made into a hand puppet show, and talked about a lot, this video doesn’t make much sense. I mean someone went to the trouble to design and build a machine that could:
Undress aliens with lasers
Do a body scan
Move them to another section to scan and alter memories
Move them to yet another section and paint them
Shower them and then scan them for clothing
Then dress them
Followed by moving to a different section to give them glasses
Which then takes the revamped band to scan again to alter their last video as humans not aliens
And then finally go through a complex slide system to a space car to meet their new manager
That’s basically a massive complex to do something so minor. I mean how much did this cost and what was the time invested? The logic behind all this baffles me.
Anyways, there are basically another 10 parts to make for 14 music videos or you can get the full movie which is basically a 68 minute continuous music video of which has not been seen again to my knowledge. I highly recommend you check it out, it’s a fine story to watch.
Nothing too special this week, just found some old videos I love and discovered some new ones that should have been great but just fall flat.
Ken Ishii – Extra
WARNING SORT OF NSFW. QUITE GRAPHIC. As I had made mention in my article about Sputnik 7 this is one of the videos that caught my attention to both Ken Ishii and the site Sputnik 7. It was super cool at the time because that was probably in the midst the golden era of my Anime days and this is as pure Japaninamation as you get. Japanese Techno DJ, high-profile animation director, absolutely crazy imagined world? Gold for a kid of like 14 and the crazy graphic nature just made it all better. It’s still a quirky video, but the imagination put into it is great.
Beastie Boys – Make Some Noise
Now as much as I do like the Beastie Boys and their past music videos (see Sabotage, Body Moving, Intergalactic), I just don’t see how this is a justifiably good music video. Like the concept is solid and there, however it’s got this poor execution of seeming to put as many A-list actors and 80s references as possible into this music video. It would have better nostalgia value if it was actually filmed in the old ways with film and didn’t have this obvious crisp and clean edge to it. As much as this seems to go back to their old video roots, it has actually managed to do the complete opposite and leaves me with a bad taste. I have yet to see the 45 minute mini-movie, and perhaps it will put it into perspective, but as a stand alone, this doesn’t even come close to what they did with Aphex Twin’s Window Licker.
Bruno Mars – Grenade
Some nice lady showed me this sort of against my will and I strongly disapprove of both the video and Bruno Mars. Part of the problem I have with music videos done in the past two years for the most part is that they’ve become a little too clean in their formulas. This video has two very weak things happening: Bruno in a fancy dress lugging a Piano, and Bruno hipster in his room while it’s raining. Now he’s being harassed while dragging his Piano without any real good reason and I’m left wondering why he’s bitching while in his room as a different dude. Even worse the song is kinda sappy and doesn’t fit well with the weak story. As far as I can tell he was needlessly dragging that Piano while singing about some chick we don’t know about. I’m sure if I was in a more dumb mindset it would make sense and be beautiful, but really, nothing is strongly explained and Bruno is just some closet emo hipster.
Ludacrus – Rollout (My Business)
Ludacris is an awesome dude. This is a man who enjoys everything he does. Be it his rapping, doing a video, or acting; he pours himself into whatever he’s doing and has a ball with it (which is why the Team Teamwork Remix is a fun song). The director clearly understood this and made that obvious with the scenes where his head is comically enlarged and Luda is just rollin’ with it having his good times. As a youtube user put it:
I believe the message here is that the narrator is informing the audience of his riches and females that he has acquired whilst partaking in a ride that sits upon 20 inch aftermarket rims…As he enjoys the company of his fellowship who are all in possession of glocks of the .40 caliber.He then recites the inquirres from the disreputable community that have grown hatred towards his blessed fortune. He ends with a proclamation targeted at those with bias to withdrawal from his affairs.
And what more could you want?
Daft Punk – One More Time
Been awhile since I last saw this video and the others. It’s the first in the Interstella 5555 movie that was done for the entire Daft Punk Discovery album and the song is still played in clubs a decade later. Toei Animation, the studio that headed the movies, is quite famous for a lot of other works such as; Voltron, Dragon Ball /Z/GT, Galaxy Express and anything else Leiji Matsumoto has been able to conjure up in the last 73 years of his life. The full movie is something very much worth watching if you’re a fan of Daft Punk. This was the precursor to their work on Tron: Legacy and in my opinion they did a better job with Interstella 5555 than Tron.
I’ve been wanting to do this for a while but my rational factor usually kicked in and took over sort of preventing me from doing something so nerdy and radical as talking about anime. It may or may not come as a surprise that for many years I’ve taken a keen interest in Anime which is going back nearly two decades now. Anime is kind of unique in that they have opening credits that are approximately 80 to 100 seconds in length which is an eternity compared to the 30 seconds that regular cartoons/ regular shows get. So it’s a little important to keep your show’s opening both interesting and with a decent song (think Dawson’s Creek). Anime shows can help to push one’s musical career into stardom or make a show a classic. So for this week, lets take a peek into how the far east likes to open a show.
Boom Boom Satellites – Shut up and Explode
Anime show; Xam’d: Lost Memories. This is the song that got me more into the Boom Boom Satellites. They were popular before given they did a lot of the music for the movie Appleseed, but I don’t think doing the intro to Xam’d hurt them at all. This is probably the closest there’s going to be to a music video as well this is an extended version of the opening credits (a longer version is available to view here). A good studio will more or less animate the credits to the music as is the case with Xam’d and that extra effort does a lot to make it stick out and memorable. And Xam’d is fucking awesome to boot. Check it out if you get the chance, no disappointments to be found.
The Seatbelts – Tank!
Anime show; Cowboy Bebop. This is basically the coolest of the cool that you’ll find for anime openings. This show basically had an entire jazz band assembled under the guidance of composer Yoko Kanno. The result was multiple CDs and a world tour way back when. To date, I don’t think any other show has had so much done musically, but then again, no other show to date has demanded so much musically. Kanno and The Seatbelts were able to deliver and Tank! resulted as the kick in the face the opening needed to forever make Cowboy Bebop stand out from everyone else.
Nujabes – Battlecry
Anime show; Samurai Champloo. And what better way to follow up Cowboy Bebop than it’s younger more fresh brother Samurai Champloo. This show had the same director and again the show was very much focused around the music as a device that helped guide and co-exist with what was going on in the show. Instead of a jazz/ blues / bebop focus, Samurai Champloo took on a more R&B, hip-hop and a bit of rap. The soundtracks are worth taking a listen to if you have the time to search for them. Other artists involved in the Champloo project are Tsutchie, Fat John and Force of Nature.
Kiri – Monoral
Anime show; Ergo Proxy. Not entirely a bad opening and song choice. Looking back it could be a bit stronger, but it gets the point across nicely. Ergo Proxy is an odd cryptic anime series dealing a lot with psychology and mythology and almost anything to do with the mind and your self hence the ‘Ergo’ part of the title. And this wasn’t a bad song choice, it’s not super hardcore and in your face, but it’s also not soft enough to lose focus and drive in relation to the opening imagery. Interestingly enough the closing credits to Ergo Proxy uses Radiohead’s ‘Paranoid Android’, but as to the reason, you should watch the show to find out.
Yuki – Dramatic
Anime Show; Honey & Clover. One of the more unique intros to an anime show’s I’ve come across. This opening managed to combine decent pop music, the asian love of making food look pretty and playing with your food. The little surprise at the end wasn’t all that bad either. Realistically it may not have all that much in common with the events of the show (aside from the song called Dramatic and the show being a drama shit storm), but it’s light-hearted and enjoyable to watch and listen to. Hell, I think while watching Honey and Clover I rarely skipped watching this since it’s so damn entertaining.
Disgruntled Urban Artist Guy 