Monday Morning Music Videos

One of today’s videos you all have probably seen already, and the other may have completely missed the radar of those of you not inclined to seek it out. There are, however, some interesting similarities between the two, and while I plan comments in that direction, I’d like to know what you think of ‘em (Pete, I’m looking your way), so leave any word in the comments.

First, I’ll get the popular one out of the way. There was a delay, the cause of which I’m not aware, in the release of the Michel Gondry video for Kanye West’s “Heard ‘Em Say” (mov). I didn’t really need more reason to anticipate this collaboration, but the strange circumstances behind its push-back only added to my expectations. I must say that the first time I watched it, I was underwhelmed–only because I didn’t get that feeling of wonder Gondry often inspires. After a few viewings, though, I’ve grown to like the clip–not enough to place it with his other greats, but it’s charming nonetheless.

My appreciation is thematic rather than technical–a few distinctly Gondrian elements make themselves known rather blatantly. First, his dreamy surrealism is all but gone, but replaced by a traditional holiday sentiment. The “dream” is no longer the trippy, abstruse version–now it’s the realized hopes of the underprivileged. Second, he’s always shown an appreciation for childish whimsy–expressed best in the DVD menu for his Directors’ Series collection–and this forms the essential foundation for “Heard ‘em Say”. Another video director could have given in to the drippy Capra-isms just waiting to be unearthed through the story of a security guard giving holiday shelter to a homeless family, but Gondry, to his credit, dispenses with messaging and allows the family to play. The best sequence involves the kids turning a bed into a car and getting “pulled over” by Adam Levine (no doubt exhausted from several days of Hanaukkah celebration himself). Avid Gondry-ites will recognize this bit of visual play from the “extras” portion of the Directors’ Series DVD, which shows Jim Carrey, probably on a break from filming Eternal Sunshine, driving a bed into a real-life gas station while imitaing Elvis. Some of the stop-motion animation and reversed sequences feel a bit phoned-in when placed against Gondry’s standards, but they work well in service of the larger theme of the Christmas spirit.

New York’s Versus have released some of the most solid indie rock of the past decade, but have apparently been shelved the past few years in for side-turned-main project +/-. The Baluyut brothers are retained, but the music is pared down and flecked with electronics, highlighting the rhythmic components. The video for “Steal the Blueprints” (mov) from new (currently only available in Japan) record Let’s Build a Fire works perfectly with the music, by co-opting what Gondry co-opted from video artists like Bill Viola–organic time transformations. Gondry is an accomplished drummer in his own right, evidenced by his brilliant video for “The Hardest Button to Button”, which keeps perfect time with Meg White’s thumping beats, in the process perfectly translating the aural to the visual. Gondry accomplished the feat in a way that makes itself obvious after several viewings of the video–by shooting the same scenes over and over with different arrangements of Jack and Meg and their instrumental props, and editing in military lockstep with the beat. In this video, +/- take a similar approach, one also accomplished by Spike Jones in the video for Weezer’s “Sweater Song” by simply having Baluyut mouth along to an extremely slowed-down version of the song. When sped up, it then gives the impression of the band (and I love the drummer’s appearances) being temporally isolated from the rest of the world. This technique, because of its obvious stylistic predecessors, has to be implemented perfectly with the music, and I’d offer that “Blueprints” succeeds on all counts.

Filed under: +/-  Kanye West  music videos  Versus