The Best of 2010 (So far): Music Videos

Can you believe we're already into the sixth month of this year? That's almost half-way! New Year's feels like yesterday, the Fringe feels like last night and now you say it's June? Well then we'd better start taking stock of all the best bits of this year before things get out of control. First up: music videos.

Note, some of these videos might not work because some labels get all anal with their copyright and don't allow blog embeds. If they don't work, just click on them again to take you directly to Youtube.

Vampire Weekend – Giving Up The Gun (XL/Remote Control)

Nothing makes a music video like some cameo appearances from some Hollywood stars. Jake Gyllenhaal, Joe Jonas, Lil’ Jon and RZA all guest appear in the second music video from Vampire Weekend’s Contra album. And when you’ve got them all together playing some weirdo game of tennis, how can you go wrong?

MIA – Born Free (Neet)

So we can’t actually show you this one because ‘the man’ (Youtube) says we can’t. Just picture an army of rangas being herded up, chucked into a van, let loose and then shot at or blown up. Yep, apparently Mrs Maya Arulpragasam is trying to make some sort of point about genocide. All we know is Romain Gavras (the man also behind Justice’s Stress) makes one cracking video. You can view it here: http://www.miauk.com/

Lady Gaga – Telephone (Interscope)

Love her or hate her, Lady Gaga is making some waves when it comes to pushing the conventions of pop stardom. She might have some rather hefty stylist bills, but we’re sure she can cover them. The Telephone clip is like Thelma and Louise meets Kill Bill, only it ain’t Geena Davis and Susan Saradon behind the wheel of the Pussy Wagon, it’s Lady Gaga and her trusty side-kick Beyonce. Pretty awesome stuff.

Minus The Bear – My Time (Dangerbird/Warner)

Colour is such stimulating thing. Nothing grabs our attention more than five hairy dudes in constantly changing monochromatic outfits. Unless of course they’re accompanied by a troupe of contrasted, well-choreographed backing dancers. Seattle’s Minus The Bear have certain music types all sorts of excited with their new album Omni. And when you craft videos like this, how could you blame them?

LCD Soundsystem – Drunk Girls (DFA/EMI)

I bet James Murphy just wants to have some fun while he’s off doing all these farewell tours and such for his beloved LCD Soundsystem. Or at least that’s what this video suggests. Rounding up DFA cohorts Juan Maclean and Nancy Whang for this one, it features a team of seemingly high-paid, panda-clad scientific types dousing all three of them with as much random shit as possible and basically treating them like dirt. He really just finding ways to piss his mega bucks away, isn’t he?

OK Go – This Too Shall Pass (Capitol/EMI)

The band whose music videos are hundreds of times better than the music itself are back. And this time there’s not a treadmill in sight, but there is just about everything else on the planet, including, presumably, a kitchen sink. Yeah, the idea’s been done before to varying degrees of success, but OK Go make a mean Rube Goldberg machine. But if all they wanted to do was to shoot OK Go in the face with a paint cannon, I’d have been more than obliging.

Birds of Tokyo – The Saddest Thing I Know (Independent)

Birds of Tokyo just never seem to go away for long (not that that’s a bad thing). It feels like only yesterday they were flooding the radio with the sounds of second album Universes. Now they’re back with new single The Saddest Thing I Know. Its video features the Perth lads rocking out at some crazy neon burlesque show with monster balloons and a Buddha statue crack pipe. No, you didn’t read that wrong.

Gorillaz – Stylo (Parlophone/EMI)

Holloywood star video #2. As always, Jamie Hewlett’s cartoon creations have got themselves in a spot of bother. This time they’re being in engaged in a high speed pursuit on some desert highway in America. Just when they thought they’d gotten away from the fuzz, highway vigilante Bruce Willis is hot on their tracks with a high calibre-looking gun in his hand. Uh oh!

Darwin Deez – Radar Detector (Pod/Inertia)

Fun-loving, curly-haired, moustachioed indie prince Darwin Deez is just a little bit silly. He’s always got that shit-eating grin on his face and he’s more than happy to bust a groove on request. Here, we see that silliness in full swing. Vacuuming up his shadow, wearing a 360 degree camera hat and breathing through his tree-based oxygen mask, Darwin shows that at heart, he’s little more than a 10-year-old boy who’s been accidentally locked in at the toy store.

MGMT – Flash Delirium (Sony)

Weird for the sake of weird isn’t always a good thing in art, as MGMT’s latest musical offering will attest to (and don’t give me any of your ‘it’s postmodern, you understand’ bullshit). However, there’s some seriously weird shit going on in this video and for some reason you just can’t look away. Look out for the throat lips. Yes, throat lips.

Yeasayer – O.N.E. (Mute/Spunk)

Man driving car has amorphous, gooey face. Man stops, face becomes reanimated. Man gets out of car and stumbles on upon the warehouse part of the century. It could happen to anyone.  Yeasayer dished up a markedly less NSFW visdeo offering for this their second single from Odd Blood than they did for their first. Nope there’s not one mass desert orgy in sight on O.N.E.

Two Door Cinema Club – Undercover Martyn (Etc Etc/Kitsune)

I don’t know why, but this one really reminds me of both Mystery Jets’ Young Love video and Supergrass’ Pumping On your Stereo. It must be the backs on the floor feel coupled with the bright colour contrasts. Whatever it is, Two Door Cinema Club have pulled together a pretty fine video of their own, and somehow managed to convince a team of ninja folk to carry them around, do some mad spins and flip the word ‘BASEMENT’ on cue.

Any other clips you've been digging this year?

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