I’ll go ahead and assume this is a Nike commercial, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable.

Capitol Records has just released a DVD of all of R.E.M.’s IRS-era videos, which is pretty awesome, and they’ve added some great archival bonus video to make it well worth the purchase. Here’s a video-by-video breakdown of the DVD, in order:
“Wolves, Lower” (Youtube) This video had to either be a favor from a guy with [...]

There’s no better way to start off a week, my mother used to say, than with some lifelike dismembered limbs contrasted starkly against crude computer animation. That, and a hearty stack of pancakes. Mmmm…pancakes. The video is for Xiu Xiu’s “Muppetface” (mov), and it’s easily one of the most memorable I’ve seen this year. It’s [...]

Bill Callahan, like his contemporary Will Oldham, has resurrected, or perhaps even created, a style of intensely personal, starkly delivered music in the vein of Townes Van Zandt that never manages to give way to the bleakness that underscores its creation (which would make them Jandek). Callahan in particular places his quirky baritone at the [...]

Devendra Banhart’s new record Cripple Crow is fantastic–unfortunately, the same cannot be said for his new video for the great song “Heard Somebody Say” (.mov). It’s not bad–far from it–but I suppose I expected much more bizarre rural chicanery, and got bizarre urban chicanery instead. It’s polished, but amateurish at the same time. And I’m [...]

I’m not a huge fan of the Eels–I’ve always found Mark Everett to be the premiere sufferer of that young, male disorder that disallows non-clunky expressions of angst, despair, and relationship problems (see Bright Eyes, Death Cab for Cutie). However, the band’s videos have always pleased me, from the floating in the air clip for [...]

Today’s first three videos are culled from the archives of the Colonel Blimp collective, named after a brilliant Michael Powell film and currently producing some of the most interesting videos around.
Jamie Lidell’s Multiply is, as has been written several places several times, the most left-field album you’ll hear all year. Warp Records isn’t exactly [...]

The first video today is from Spoon, who, while releasing some of the most challenging and entertaining music of the past few years, have suffered the same video fate as their early influences The Pixies and Pavement–they make bad videos. You get the feeling that Spoon just don’t care, though, similar to the sentiment offered [...]

First up is the new one from Sleater-Kinney, for “Jumpers,” (.mov) one of the best tracks from The Woods. The theme of avian escape from corporate ennui is very cute, but of course the best part about any S/K video is seeing the band members themselves, all of whom are hot. This one features not [...]

I refuse to budge from my stance that the New Pornographers’ Twin Cinema is the album of the year, and it’s great to see a video for one of the album’s best tracks, “Use It.” It’s a gimmicky piece directed by keyboardist Blaine Thurier (the guy in the shower toward the end of the clip) [...]