Björk
Björk is very cool and very strange and I love pretty much any of her songs that I've heard (someday I've really gotta get around to getting some of her CDs). Her videos are all pretty good, too. I Miss You is great because... well, the cartoon is just weird. It was made by Spumco, the production company that made "Ren & Stimpy" and "The Ripping Friends," both of which are shows I never liked. So it's weird that I like the video, but I suppose it's just because they didn't write any dialog, it's just the setting of Björk's song, which I think is one of her best. Anyway, all her videos, as I say, are good. But my favorite, and probably most people's favorite, is It's Oh So Quiet, which is also one of her best songs, I think. It's just this big incredible production number, more like a musical than a pop song. I also love the frequent changes in tempo, which go along with the mood of the lyrics. And yes, the video is kinda weird, but in this funny, silly, playful way, full of dancing and surprises and whatnot. It. Is. Great.
Blues Traveler - Run-Around
This absolutely has to be one of my favorite videos ever. Well, I just love the song, and the concept of the video is cool. A sort of Wizard of Oz story in which Dorothy (played by Diana Marquis) and her friends try repeatedly to get into a club, but can't because she's underage. Of course, she was pretty darn hot, which actually didn't hurt my appreciation of the video at all. They ultimately get into the club and discover the band on stage is only lip-synching to the real band, playing behind a curtain. Um, and I can't think of anything else to say, but I just think it's pretty cool. Okay?
Blur - Coffee & TV
This milk carton with a picture on the side of this missing guy goes on a bit of an adventure to find the guy. The carton's journey is rather eventful and amusing. Ultimately it reaches the guy, who's playing in the band, drinks the milk, then goes home to his worried folks. And the milk carton (along with another milk carton which died earlier in the video) fly up into the sky as angels. What else can I say? It's just a really weird and amusing video.
Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues
I have seen so many music videos where people hold up cards with lyrics or whatever, and throw the cards away as the singer sings... There have been variations on the theme, sometimes more modern, such as a guy holding a sort of videoscreen with words instead of cards. I've even seen a French video called "Le Magicien" that's almost exactly like the video for Subterranean Homesick Blues. As far as I know, Bob Dylan's video is the one that started the entire trend. I could be wrong, but until I'm informed otherwise, its entry on this list stands.
Daft Punk
There's a great set of sort of anime videos for the first four tracks on the album "Discovery," and they all go together in sequence as a sort of continuing story, though the most commonly known of the set is the first one, One More Time. It really is some cool music and a cool set of videos. Dunno what else to say about that. Aside from them, I've seen a couple other videos featuring a sort of dog-guy named Charles, though the only one I really remember clearly is for "Da Funk," but it isn't really a favorite or anything. There's one other video I know by Daft Punk, Around the World, which is kind of weird and hard to explain. Or easy, I dunno. It's just this sort of multi-tiered stage or something, and these various groups of like four people each, in different costumes, who are dancing kind of oddly as they make their way in constant circles around the stage. Some groups kind of look like astronauts, some like mummies, some like skeletons, some are girls in one-piece bathing suits, and um, well there are others, I dunno... But the video kind of vaguely inspired a Star Trek fanfic I may want to write someday featuring my character Jax DeSabel, but I'm sure the story wouldn't remind anyone but me of this video....
Davoli - Space Twist
A croatian band, I saw this on WorldLink TV. I like the song, which is kinda weird, and the video is even weirder. It's like these sort of monk or Druid guys walking around and have some sort of confrontation with kids who are dressed up like some kind of spacemen or something. Also there seems to be some sort of 1950s dance going on, I guess. And, uh, I dunno what else to say, I just like it.
Dixie Chicks - Goodbye Earl
I expect this is my favorite Dixie Chicks song, though I'm not sure, I've seriously liked a few since this one. But this is the first that really made me notice the band, and it's definitely my favorite of their videos. It has Dennis Franz of "NYPD Blue" playing Earl, who abuses his wife, Wanda, who is played by Jane Krakowski of "Ally McBeal." Lauren Holly plays an old friend who helps Wanda kill Earl. For the subject matter, the song is surprisingly upbeat and amusing, and the video even more so. Except for the part where Wanda's in the hospital with all these incredibly painful-looking bruises and such. Seriously, it hurt me just looking at them. Which makes the whole murdering Earl thing seem more acceptable, I guess. But one of the things I liked most about this video was how at the end Earl is back as like some kind of zombie or something, I guess, clunkily dancing around with everyone else in the video. It's kinda funny, but I also see it as a good way of reminding people this is just a video, and he's an actor... cause seriously, some people are way to apt to dislike actors based on roles they've played, and Earl was definitely someone you could hate. Anyway, as to whether the video actually advocates abused spouses taking the law into their own hands, I dunno. It's something, if this really happened like it did in the video, I wouldn't exactly condone or condemn. But in any event, it was just a really fun video.
Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice
Christopher Walken dancing and flying to techno music. What else need be said?
Fluke - Atom Bomb
Besides being a totally kick-ass song, the video rocks3. Part live-action, part sort of anime, part video-game. And Arial Tetsuo is simply to die for, whether live or animated. The whole damn thing is just unspeakably cool, in my book.
Foo Fighters - Big Me
They're a pretty cool band, good music even acoustic. But Big Me is just really funny cuz it's like this mock Mentos commercial style o' fing. Evrybuddy loves this video, okay? I dunno what else to say.
Gorillaz
An animated band consisting of 2-D, Noodle, Russel, and Murdoc. First off, their music is off the hook, as the kids say. The animation is cool. Clint Eastwood with like the ghost coming out of Russel's cap, and the giant zombie Gorillas, and everything, it's just frickin' brilliant. On a lighter note, I also quite like 19-2000, in which the band is just driving around in a jeep until they come across like a giant cow blocking the road and fire missiles at it, though that plan ends up backfiring when the cow sneezes.... Ah, too fun.
Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity
The floor... is moving... couches and... and everything is just so... A plain white room, trippy as hell even without birds, bugs, blood, whatever....
Janet Jackson - Alright
Very cool video, set in like the swing/big band era or whatever, I dunno. But great wardrobe, great choreography, with guest appearances by Cab Calloway and Cyd Charisse, how cool is that? Anyway, quite a production.
Los Lobos - Kiko and the Lavender Moon
This video... is just one of the most beautiful pieces of art I've ever seen. I like the song and it seems to go well with the images (which later on, I saw Moby's video "Go" and it reminded me of this, but I still like this better). I dunno what to tell you. I don't know how to describe it. Um... yeah, I don't know much about art, but I know what I like.
Midge Ure - Breathe
I love the song, and the video is just beautiful. Incredible stone patterns lying about in the countryside, beautiful place, not sure where but it all looks awfully Celtic to me, anyway....
Pato Fu - Made in Japan
A Brazilian group, but if you didn't know that you'd probably think they were from Japan. It certainly sounds Japanese. Plus there's this battle between giant mechas, ya gotta love that. Plus the hook basically sounds just like the Muppet song "Mahna Mahna," which is pretty cool.
Puffy AmiYumi - Boogie Woogie no. 5
A J-pop duo, though it sounds more like swing. I dunno how much I need to have this video here... mostly it's cuz I just love the song so much. Ah well, I don't get a chance to hear nearly enough J-pop, I'm afraid. But the video itself is kinda cool. Pretty simple in a way, but sweet choreography. Ami and Yumi are wearing sort of Freddy Krueger-ish sweaters, but they're still damn cute.
Radiohead - Paranoid Android
Radiohead has always been a cool band not only because their music tends to be so sedately trippy (someday I've really gotta get around to getting some of their CDs), but also because they make some wonderfully strange videos. Probably my favorite is for Paranoid Android. First of all I like the title, since it's sort of a nickname of Marvin, the always depressed robot from The Hichhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, though I don't think the song has much of anything to do with that, not that I'm really clear on the lyrics. Anyway, the video is cool because it's a cartoon created by Swedish director Magnus Carlsson. The cartoon the video's based on is called Robin, the main characters being Robin and Benji. Though I've never seen them anywhere but in this video, as far as I can recall. In the U.S. it was censored because there were some topless mermaids, though I saw the unedited version on Much Music, I just never managed to tape it....
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Very cool band, great music, and their videos are generally pretty decent, though I can't really call any of them favorites, I guess. But still. "Aeroplane" is a really fun production, well choreographed and all, I guess. "Californication" is great cuz the whole thing is like this video game. "Otherside" is just kinda weird, and I like weird. "Scar Tissue" is fun cuz the video just seems kinda mellow, relaxed, just out drivin'. One of them looks like he's smoking a twig or something at some point, I've always wanted to know what the hell that thing is. I might wanna use it in a story someday. I dunno.
The Roots - What They Do
It's just really funny cuz it's got all these hip-hop video cliches in it, labeled as such.
Rufus Wainwright - Across the Universe
I like this video because Dakota Fanning is in it. Okay, she was in the movie "I Am Sam," which as of this writing I haven't seen, and this song is on the soundtrack, which I reckon would have something to do with her being in the video. Anyway, this is the first thing I ever saw her in, and I was just struck by her presence... She's an awfully cute little kid, and also a really great actress. She never even says anything in this video, of course, but just her facial expressions and all, well she did a really good job. So later when I started seeing her in ads for the Sci-Fi Channel mini-series "Taken," I was like, "Woah, is that the girl from that video? Cool." And I watched the mini-series and got to see her do some real acting then. Trust me, she's an even better actress when she's actually got dialog and something to do other than walk around holding a balloon.
The Smashing Pumpkins
A truly great band, and they made truly great videos. I love 1979, all the different scenes, at the party, and the convenience store, and everything... Dunno what to say, it's just cool, and the song is great, of course. Tonight, Tonight is one of the greatest videos ever, a tremendous work of art, with the homage to "First Men in the Moon," and the whole undersea thing, and all... It's just brilliant and great and uh, yeah, I dunno what else to say... Ava Adore is cool just because Billy Corgan looks like a friggin' Nosferatu.
Sublime - Santeria
Just this really cool song set to Lou Dog's dream of the Old West after falling asleep in front of the tube. Funny stuff. Gotta love it.
Supergrass - Pumping On Your Stereo
Some kind of whacked out Hensonish vision, I guess. Very weird and trippy, sort of Muppetish things... And I can't think of a thing else to say. But it's bloody great.
Weezer
Buddy Holly is an incredibly fun video. The band plays at Arnold's on "Happy Days," and they talk to Al, and um, it's just cool, okay? Keep Fishin' is similar in that the band plays on "The Muppet Show." And that's like one of the greatest shows ever, so of course it's cool to get to do that. What else can I possibly say?