elsagold: the WUMBLOG

Ratatat - Drugs

Hello, don’t you worry, it’s still creepy music Sunday (if you watch The Suzan video in the right state of mind, it’s theme-consistent).

This is a video for Ratatat, even though most of the visuals Ratatat actually uses for their shows are kaleidoscope projections similar for the video by The Suzan, below. At least, they were the one time I saw Ratatat live. It was a real pain in the behind because I saw them when they came to Yardfest (worst name ever blargh?) at good ‘ol Harv, and I went after I had graduated with my sister who has never gone to Harv, and we was generally jumping up and down and enjoying ourselves, and these girls in pearls and cardis and with hair in rollers gave us the stank eye and loudly talked shit about us and so we started yelling “we don’t go to this school! go back to pretentiousland!” to which they yelled, “why are you here then? go back to the ditch where you belong!” and tried to spill their $10,000 cognac down our bras and finally we all stopped being obnoxious and all enjoyed the music (I think, I can speak for my sister and my other friend and I at least).

Note: both this video and today’s other selection for creepy video Sunday (“Hypnotize U,” 2 posts below) feature people looking into the camera for uncomfortably long lengths of time. If you can do that to a song without being majority ironic, I think the song probably qualifies as creepy. And that’s the conclusion of creepy music Sunday.

Home - The Suzan

Only an all-Japanese girl pop group could be responsible for this kind of confection. “Effervescent” is the best word to describe.

Produced by Bjorn Yttling of Peter, Bjorn and John.

N.E.R.D. - Hypnotize U

Hello, it’s creepy music Sunday. 

There are 2 important things about Pharrell and/or men that you can extract from this video. There is 1 important thing about this song that you have to refer to external sources for.

First, Pharrell is not really very attractive or sexy. But he’s trying really goddamn hard to be, and he’s using a falsetto like Prince did in “Kiss,” and so that gives him 2 points. I’m not telling you in what direction.

Second, according to this video, category: women view category: men in the singular (Pharrell, only) and category: men view category: women in the plural - and they’re all wearing tank tops and have the longest legs ever. And no pants (I wonder if Pharrell hypnotizes himself so that mental projection works on all women, even the stumpiest ones. Heaven is an illusion that you create in your mind.).

The last and most important fact is that Daft Punk produced this track. That, and not Pharrell, is probably actually 98% of why this is sexiest song I’ve ever heard (at least since Sisqo’s eternally beguiling classic, “The Thong Song” of 1999).  

My favorite line?

“She put a bag on my head-“

“Still counts!”

kambr:

thedailywhat:

The Lonely Island Music Video of the Day: “I Just Had Sex” (feat. Akon)

First single off the upcoming Incredibad follow-up? Grab it here.

Guest starring: Blake Lively, Jessica Alba, and John McEnroe.

[tli.]

I just want to be clear, since it appears that the Lonely Island is reading my blog or something: I will not let you wear your chain and your turtleneck sweater.

Not even for thirty seconds.

(Source: thedailywhat)

Ke$ha - Your Love is My Drug

Believe me, I don’t like Ke$ha. But I discovered this song a week or two ago, at the precise moment when it perfectly captured my inner-state (judge me as you will), and I’ve been listening it to it nonstop ever since. Unfortunately, the video is pretty terrible until 2:15, when she becomes a neon-body-painted-kaleidoscope. I imagined it would feature Ke$ha as a deranged spider, crawling through vents to erupt out in the presence of her love-object, where she would promptly freak him out with her insanity. Instead, she’s a hallucinating pirate/animal in the middle of the desert. Let me tell you what’s wrong with that. First of all, that’s too many cliches at once. Second of all, since when is a tiger a desert animal? Never. Third of all, that pirate guy is like uggo Jesus. Fourth of all, this video is not nearly as creepy as it should be. Ke$ha is creepy, she needs to embrace it. Fifth of all, she bothers me. Sixth of all, the reason why she bothers me is because she pretends to be all dangerous and crazy, but she’s actually really normal looking. She’s like Taylor Swift, but instead of pretending to be a nerd, she pretends to be a crazy party girl.

Kylie Minogue_Get Outta My Way

   This video is absolutely stunning for the obvious reasons. A bodice made out of gold chain-mail. A screen-full of perfectly sculpted male torsos. Rays of florescence, epic posing and posturing, a flash of ass-cheek, the usual. But there was something that went beyond the ordinary video - even most of Lady Gaga’s - that makes this video captivating and fresh, and I needed to place my finger on it, to feel connected to it for a second. 
   Although I’ve never been in love with Kylie, one could argue that she makes this video. From the beginning, she is a professional performer - there is no misstep in her movements. All her looks and non-looks consist of the perfect amount of measured intensity tempered with empowered cool, like a blast of freon. As in the video for “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” Kylie is at her best. Understated movements stand out against the pounding insistence of the music - Kylie is powerful because she doesn’t freak out. Unlike the rest of us, she’s in perfect control of her body’s response to the music, and therefore she’s a queen. There is no irony in the way she treats the performance.
   Or it could be the expert play of light and shapes. In concept and in its elements, the video is simple, but the execution is immaculate and epic. Shards of light emanate from the body of Kylie and her halo of gorgeous men. A flick of the wrist is made impressive by repetition, 20 times identically by 20 men. Their bodies pounding the water evokes Taiko drummers; Kylie’s conquering pose recalls the Iwo Jima memorial; she and her dancers assume Bob Fosse-esque gliding and sudden angles.
   But while there’s a clever sensibility about the whole video, from the lighting tricks to the Fosse references, what stands out is the body’s precision. Kylie’s hands beam light, and she waves them over her body. Kylie lies on a plane, and light appears where she strokes her legs. The body is the highlight. Kylie knows, and her dancers show us: There is nothing more beautiful than a deliberate, controlled body. Sure, it’s nice that her curls are piled high on her head, and that some dancers are wearing one-legged spandex suits. But the point emphasized here is the complete artfulness of the intentional body. It’s something precious for one to recall when walking down a grocery aisle, or holding a coffee mug, or stepping up on a curb.

Now, ain’t this just the thing for a chilly Friday marnin’?

Fear of Tigers - I Can Make the Pain Disappear

Git ready for dancin’.

Gussied up in this jam at Neon Gold.

ADD. This vid got snatched up by The Daily What, which is not only my favorite tumblr, but my favorite blog. Check it out.

Hot Chip’s “Ready for the Floor”

Equal parts pop art, nerdy dancing, and visual trickery. A laser-tag dance party at the Hayward Gallery in London if it turned into a particle collider; that’s what it feels like.

Printed in The Harvard Crimson on October 23, 2008

Britney’s music videos are like an ever-rotating menu of fantasies, but after ten years of Britney (“…Baby One More Time” was released in October 1998) our star is running out of fetishes to cop. After seeing Brit as a schoolgirl, chair dancer, flight attendant, spy, and anime character, her new video for “Womanizer” features the only thing left: the Ugly One. Yes, Britney as “office girl” is actually so ugly in a black bob wig, librarian glasses, and bright red lips that you can almost hear her saying, “these shoes rule.” Dear Lord, she’s run through so many sexual types that she now must resort to making ugliness itself into a fetish. Oh, and to remind us that she’s actually the hottest minx to ever grace a TV screen, the shots of Ugly Britney cut vigorously back and forth from shots of Britney in a sauna, completely naked—and oh so shiny.

“Womanizer” is an interesting video, however, and not because it has a confusing plot that director Joseph Kahn admits to be a redo of the vid for “Toxic.” It’s interesting because it suggests that if you really want to hurt a guy’s feelings, all you have to do is dance at him, really hard.

So maybe dancing can be revenge. But revenge itself is a timeworn plot for a woman’s tale (e.g. “Kill Bill”). Similarly, Britney and her music videos are like a comfortable old sock. They feature familiar imagery: the car chase? Any Mitsubishi ad. A man’s chest glistening in a shower? Gillette. Hotel room? Ikea. But that’s why we keep on lovin’ Brit. We can buy or sell her sexuality as a memory that accompanies any shiny car or anime or spy unitard, and feel warm and fuzzy inside for doing it. From Brit, ‘fetishized,’ ‘sexy,’ and ‘sold’ are three words that mean the same thing. And that means we’re all allowed to sell ourselves as really freaking sexy too — even if we’re actually really freaking ugly.

(for some reason, the video link isn’t working. Click here or copy and paste this address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-23EToh43M).