Comments on: Remixed Timber

By: bartkid

bartkid — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:59:59 +0000

>if it doesn’t have Chris Walken dancing it can’t be the Best Video Ever.
Meh.
Needs more cowbell.

By: Simple Mind

Simple Mind — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:08:21 +0000

I must have watched “Timber” dozens of times. You’re obsolete! Hah! Glad to find another fanatic.

By: salient

salient — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 06:17:16 +0000

That’s what I was trying for with Matmos

Indeed, great find – I thought their “Stars & Stripes Forever” was especially fun.

even XTC’s best effort—just doesn’t rate.

Yeah, but even Pop Song ‘89 had a better music video than Pumpkinhead. (Ironically, I can’t seem to find the censored version, that made the video so famous, online, though the uncensored version’s apparently mild enough to be hosted on YouTube – I imagine Stipe would be pleased.)

Anyway, today’s directors have affordable CGI and can realize visual transformations that wouldn’t have been possible in the 80s (or at least not affordable). That kind of technological change will inevitably correspond to a change in the dominant aesthetic, if not at the fringes. Etc. But if it reassures you any, the conventional wisdom is that one of the Top Ten Music Video Directors of Our Time is the guy that directed this mess. It has cute animals! It must be brilliant! Also, this depressing failure, which is only satisfactory from about 0:55 to 1:25, and 0:00 to 0:04…

By: Righteous Bubba

Righteous Bubba — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 04:36:56 +0000

Found-sounds-oriented, yet with some direction and thematic sense, and not completely musically tone-deaf, with a fairly interesting music video?

That’s what I was trying for with Matmos: they have one song that’s all noises made with balloons, another that’s all surgery sounds and so forth. The videos don’t quite match the music but the McLarenish thing was interesting.

By: salient

salient — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 04:15:07 +0000

Well, okay, since we’re abandoned the found-sounds-video-clipping entirely and have veered into Fatboy Slim / Christopher Walken territory, let’s go completely canonical and link to the Gnarls Barkley video: the best misuse of Rorschach the world has ever seen.

I think Pinker Tones accomplished the exact diametric opposite of Hexstatic and Coldcut. But this “Timber” was truly fun stuff: anyone have anything else along those lines? Found-sounds-oriented, yet with some direction and thematic sense, and not completely musically tone-deaf, with a fairly interesting music video?

Techno Overlay Theorem: Any two of these rhythmic-heavy found-sounds type songs will sound pretty not-terrible when played simultaneously. Pretty good, even. Right now I’m running Pandora on “Coldcut & Hexstatic” and letting whatever comes on play right over the top of Timber. Haven’t hit an unlistenable combination yet, and usually it’s been something of an improvement over the song on Pandora.

The overlay with Let It All Out (Tigerstyle) on Hybrid Present Y4K, whatever that is, has turned out to be truly incredible. The Y4K song is about twice as long, so all you have to do is click “play” again on Timber…

By: politicalfootball

politicalfootball — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 03:16:39 +0000

I was going to post sharon's Fatboy Slim video, but this Pinker Tones video is also pretty great.

By: sharon

sharon — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 22:09:43 +0000

Oh, c'mon. Everybody knows that if it doesn't have Chris Walken dancing it can't be the Best Video Ever.

By: Deliasmith

Deliasmith — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:39:06 +0000

44 million viewers can’t be wrong:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv5zWaTEVkI

By: Russell Arben Fox

Russell Arben Fox — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:35:23 +0000

Cripes, I can’t compete with this. I’m putting up videos every Friday morning these days, and I’m happy to be stuck in nostalgia mode while doing it, posting cool and cheesy and perfectly disposable pop stuff from the 80s mostly. That Beck video, though, is simply astonishing. Is that where videos have gone over the past couple of decades? Man, compared to that, my stuff—or even XTC’s best effort—just doesn’t rate. I feel embarrassed now.

By: ignalina

ignalina — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:47:48 +0000

Last attempt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9lpy6UROF4&feature=related

By: ignalina

ignalina — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:46:47 +0000

The same one, better quality.

By: ignalina

ignalina — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:40:50 +0000

This one, surely?

By: Henry (not the famous one)

Henry (not the famous one) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:17:37 +0000

Hard not to think of Busby Berkeley’s “Lullaby of Broadway” when you watch “Let Forever Be.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZws4r7IQPk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gGVryQDvv4&feature=related

Not the best that Berkeley did, but worth a look.

By: moc

moc — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:07:33 +0000

The greatest, without a doubt, is Chris Dane Owens' Shine On Me

By: salient

salient — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:51:36 +0000

That Chemical Brothers video is one of the best ever. By the 0:30 mark I was thinking, sure looks like it inspired that mesmerizing Beck video. OK, the technical wizardry behind the transitions are more sophisticated in the Beck video, but surely it's derivative? In a sense I was wrong completely: it's the same guy...