Posts tagged 'Good Times'

Meow

It’s nice to see Anamanaguchi finally make a music video and they went all out for their maiden voyage, tapping long-time Tim & Eric collaborators Daniel Gray Longino and Eric Notarnicola to direct and a whole host of talented animators/artists to pitch-in on the visuals.

The ‘Guch aesthetic isn’t easily pidgeonholed and the surface comparisons that often get drawn between them and ‘video game music’ and/or 90s-kid culture are, from my point-of-view at least, missing the point of what they’re up to. A few months back Tycho wrote about why naked nostalgia grabs are typically unfulfilling and it definitely applies here:

“That’s the trick of nostalgia, and why yoking it is such a dangerous business.  It’s never ‘as good,’ because it can’t be. ‘As good’ wouldn’t satisfy you, now, because you aren’t the person who was satisfied by it anymore, partly because of the satisfaction you felt earlier, but also because of every other force and beam and ray which is always operating on your aggregated being.”

I don’t get the sense that anything Anamanaguchi does is calculated and, even though their style (both sonically and visually) might appear to be borrowed from another decade, it feels inexplicably modern and wholly their own. This is goddamn party music and that shit never goes out of style.

I absolutely love the arcade/clique theme that underscores the whole video and super-dig the pixel art animation sequence that kicks off after Ary is blasted to Furblivion by the L4Z3R R4V3RZ (especially the cameos-created illustrations that run from 2:30-2:33).

Full-screen HD is a must. ENJOY!

[ Anamanaguchi - 「MEOW」 (Official Music Video) ]

Up In The Sky

“Up in the sky, there is a village,
and the people there are blue –
I believe it’s true.”

Anraud Janvier, a recent graduate of Supinfocom, wrote in to let us know about a music video he recently co-directed with Antoine Robert at Cube Creative for 77 Bombay Street. The song describes a perfect little utopia that exists above the clouds and the bright, whimsical and weird visuals drip with a naive innocence the mirrors the optimistic vibe.

It’s feel-good sunshine from start to finish but, seeing as I’m partial to wormholes, my favorite sequence kicked off at 2:33 when the Mii-esque rendered cast plunged directly into a technicolor tunnel via a blossoming Lotus flower. That shit’s mah jam, bruh.

When you’re done here, be sure to check out Playing With Light, an excellent little short produced at Cube two summers ago. Enjoy!

[ [HD] 77 Bombay Street - Up In The Sky - Official Video (Animated) ]

Rush Hour Traffic

“Take a sweet, gut-it-stuff-it then we puff it…”

Joey Garfield, one of the many talented directors at Ghost Robot, tapped Elliot Lim, Jason Esser, Aaron Kemnitzer and Nate Costa to create these über-dope visuals for some super-chill tunes by The Cool Kids.

It’s good times all the way around so sit back, relax and enjoy the colors.

[ Cool Kids "Rush Hour Traffic" ]

Hurting

“Gotta let this go;
Gotta field tomorrow on my own,
Your touch keeps on hurtin’.”

Back in September we posted a video by David Lewandowski that perfectly encapsulates one of our favorite flavors of internet: the ever elusive LOLWAT, comprised equally of parts silly and strange. We love that shit, bro.

Anyone who’s seen Tron: Legacy knows that David has talents beyond creating the fleetingly bizarre – he crafted the exquisitely rendered opening title sequence – so we were thrilled to discover that he recently directed a music video for Friendly Fires who, besides having a fantastic band name, write some super-catchy ‘choons.

David’s grandiose, hyperbolic visuals mirror and amplify the torturous experience, as described in the song, when an object your affection doesn’t feel the same way about you as you do of them. Love is a strange/alluring/wonderful thing and we’re willing to endure a lot of pain and bullshit for a shot at it.

There’s loads of fantastic visual touches sprinkled throughout, so keep your eyes peeled the whole way through. Serving suggestion: Full-screen HD with the volume way up. Enjoy!

A big thanks to William Doran, who first brought this to our attention two months ago, and to Joe Findlay who wrote us a couple of weeks back to remind us we hadn’t posted it yet. Cheers, guys!

[ Friendly Fires - Hurting ]

Two Hearts In 3/4 Time

The band (Darren Seltmann, Robbie Chater, Tony Diblasi and Manabu Etoh) bought all their instruments at junk shops, where they also discovered piles of old records. When Etoh was deported and Alarm 115 ended, these records became the core of a new project. Chater was a film student at RMIT, and had access to a recording studio there, which he and Seltmann used to turn said vinyl into a 30-song demo tape labeled Pan Amateurs…more on wikipedia

Joe wrote in with a fantastic suggestion to check out a music video made for Frontier Psychiatrist, a tune by The Avalanches, an interesting electronic music project out of Melbourne Australia. I really enjoyed it and – while unsuccessfully trying to track down an HD version – came across this, the attached video, that I’d really like you to see. My Google-fu wasn’t able to find any creative credits so if someone out there knows made this don’t hesitate to drop us a line (see below). In the meantime enjoy the sunny-side, good times vibe of the three-quarter time waltz-hop as it contrasts with some strange, monochromatic and vaguely dark but-not-quite-so-even-though-yeah-it’s-still-weird visuals. Enjoy!

Thanks for introducing me to some new music, Joe! Cheers!

UPDATE: Turns out the visuals were lifted from Quimby The Mouse, an animation created by the über-talented Chris Ware for This American Life. A big thanks goes to Hang Goon for writing in to set the record straight!

[ The Avalanches - Two Hearts In 3/4 Time ]

Love Hits The Fan

I was checking out the tumblr of one of our regular readers/contributors, Britlee, a couple nights back when I came across this video that Rocco Pezzella, Andrea Staiano and Francesco Castellani directed and produced for the London based upbeat french-house-filter-disco-sample-mashing electro outfit, Phonat. Lots of nice abstract high definition visuals that twitch, flash and evolve in step with the uplifting party tunes. Good times all around folks; enjoy!

[ Phonat - "Love Hits The Fan" music video via INSTRUCT ME HOW TO DOUGLAS ]

Play

The unique visual style of Studio Shelter paired with the feel-good, uplifting, summer’s-here sound of Cassette Schwarzenegger is a winning combination. The whole video is great but I’m especially fond of the more abstract sequences (like the ones at 1:16 and 3:24). It’s good times all around folks – enjoy!

[ PLAY - Cassette Schwarzenegger ]

We Come Together

“I made a good versus evil story of smooth jazz cats versus electro fishes and, like a video game, there was a princess to rescue, sub-bosses and a final boss to defeat…more” –Mike Scott

Kiwi animator/director Mike Scott crafted a veritable pixely-video-game-pop-culture-references-packed orgy of a music video for the Goldfish tune, ‘We Come Together’. It’s good times all the way ‘round, folks.

Mike was also cool enough to post a fairly exhaustive process video that describes how he planned and executed the whole thing which you can watch here. Enjoy!

[ Goldfish - We Come Together (OFFICIAL) ]

Move Your Feet

Fine purveyors in the art of the music video, Shynola, created this for the now disbanded, Junior Senior, back in 2003. Great tune + fun and happy pixels = good times. Enjoy!

[ Junior Senior - Move Your Feet ]