Whether it’s a randy sock puppet, throwing food at your mates, or smoking through an aerobics class in the 90’s, you’ve gotta love a creative music video. These are some of the best music videos ever made. Totally underrated, and totally worth your time. Let’s check ’em out.
Walkie Talkie Man
STEREOGRAM
Stereogram combine yarn bombing and stop motion in this wool based film clip for 2004 hit Walkie Talkie Man. Bounding with energy to perfectly match the song. Ingenious animation by Michel Gondry (director of feature Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)
Friday I'm In Love
YO LA TENGO
Yo La Tengo‘s 2015 reinterpretation of The Cure’s Friday I’m In Love is as sweet as a daisy. But it’s the video clip that really nails it with singer Georgia Hubley walking around Hoboken, New Jersey singing away without a care. But the background juxtaposition of an alien invasion makes for a beautifully serene and devastating clip.
Cucaracha
THE GOOCH PALMS
Nothing better than a food fight and miming along to your own songs with a broom and an ironing board. Newcastle band The Gooch Palms offers this kickass song Cucaracha from 2011 with a masterclass in film clip simplicity.
One Foot On The Grave
GRAVEYARD TRAIN
One Foot on the Grave with it’s punchy vocals, driving bass and percussion, is perfectly represented by the intensity of a screaming sock puppet. It’s an awesome song from Melbourne band Graveyard Train‘s 2012 album Hollow.
Farewell Welfare
RORY MCCLEOD
A clip-on microphone for sound. Rory McCleod stomping and playing his way through the urban streets. Farewell Welfare is a brilliant song and a great show of musical skill – singing, playing and entertaining with such a loveable grin.
Taxi Man
SAKURAN ZENSEN
Taxi Man was released in 2020 by Sakuran Zensen – a rock band hailing from Tokyo, Japan. Consisting of five members all born in 1998. This is an insane film clip, mashing restraint with unbridled energy.
Ocean Man
WEEN
Ween. Well it’s Ween and I don’t really need to explain much about it except to swoon a little bit and tell you that the song Ocean Man is from their 1997 album Mollusk.
(Oh and did you know that this song was used in the end credits for the Sponge Bob Square Pants movie?)
Whatareya?
TISM
Aerobics tv shows always needed beer, cigarettes and out of shape musicians to make them better. So that’s exactly what TISM did with their 1998 Melbourne cult classic Whatareya? from the album www.tism.wanker.com
Dry Town
GILLIAN WELCH
A locomotive lament about an unsuccessful search for some liquid courage. Dry Town is a great little honky-tonk number from Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings. They gave it the stop-motion treatment in this animated video with little clay incarnations of the duo. I love the details, down to the cowboy hats, felt prairie dresses and pink pipe-cleaner arms. This song was recorded in 1994 but not released until 2016 on their Boots No.1: The Official Revival Bootleg.
Sophie
GOODSHIRT
Sophie is a single from 2004 from New Zealand group Goodshirt. It was their only number one hit, and it’s awesome .It shows a girl in her flat being robbed (by the band) and is filmed in a continuous take,
White Knuckles
OK GO
The dogs really steal the show for this one. It’s a continuous shot, directed by the lead singer’s sister – not a bad effort Watching it makes you wonder how many takes were needed. Also the song is called White Knuckles by the band Ok Go. They also used this song to ask that people support animal rescue at this at their link www.okgo.net/dogs. They seem like pretty cool dudes.
Jorge Regula
THE MOLDY PEACHES
The Moldy Peaches – better known for their song Anyone Else But You from the Juno soundtrack – have done some ripping songs. Jorge Regula is a favourite of mine, and is well backed up by an awesome fan video. The debut, self-titled album has the dubious distinction of being released in America on September 11, 2001. It also coincidentally contained the song “NYC’s Like a Graveyard”. Which was a little bit awkward.
One Last Video...
There you have it.
I hope you enjoyed this collection of music videos as much as I did. Feel free to share this list with your music loving friends.
And since you’ve been so good and stuck with me til the end, I’m going to reward you with the most ridiculous music video outtake from one of my own bands.
Enjoy.
P.S. Believe it or not, my beloved guitar survived the water torture!
If you enjoyed this list of the 10 best bands you’ve never seen, you’ll probably want to sneak back to blog to see what else I’m writing about.