kevin-drew-good-sex

v-day video roundup: Kevin Drew, The National, Ariel Pink, La Dispute, GBV, Front Bottoms, Chelsea Wolfe, Blouse & more

by Bill Pearis and Andrew Sacher

still from Kevin Drew’s “Good Sex” video
Kevin Drew

It’s been a while since we’ve done one of our video roundups, but there were just too many good videos this week to pass up the opportunity. (Plus, in honor of Valentine’s Day, there’s some v-day-themed ones worked in here.) We already posted a bunch this week, like Little Dragon, Thurston Moore, Metronomy, The Notwist, Thundercat, OFF!, Marissa Nadler, Arctic Monkeys covering The Beatles, Mission of Burma covering The Beatles, Polica, DTCV, La Femme, The Marked Men’s return to NYC, and more, yet there were still plenty of cool ones we didn’t get to. Check out recent videos from Kevin Drew, The National, Ariel Pink & Jorge Elbrecht, Phantogram, La Dispute, The Front Bottoms, Guided by Voices, Blouse, Chelsea Wolfe, S. Carey, Death Grips, Quilt, Shellshag and Twin Shadow & Samantha Urbani covering The Smiths, below.

Kevin Drew – “Good Sex” Official Video

Broken Social Scene co-founder Kevin Drew just gave the video treatment to “Good Sex” off his upcoming album Darlings, and it features Kevin singing writhing on the floor, spliced with scenes of couples acting out the song’s main theme. As you might imagine, it’s not exactly safe for work. Kevin will be in NYC this April.

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The National – “I Need My Girl” Official Video

In what is another romantic video for Valentine’s Day (but much safer for work), The National filmed a clip with director Sophia Peer for Trouble Will Find Me highlight “I Need My Girl.” Like the song itself, the video is minimal and slow, but the characters in it are full of emotion.

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Death Grips – “No Love” Official Video

You may not have much luck seeing Death Grips live these days (good luck Pitchfork Fest), but you can get an idea of what it may be like with the live clips of the band in their new “No Love” video. And of course, leave it to Death Grips to make a video for “No Love” just ahead of Valentine’s Day.

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Chelsea Wolfe – “Feral Love” Official Video

Chelsea Wolfe’s new video for “Feral Love” is an excerpt from the film Lone that she worked on with director Mark Pellington, who’s behind Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” video (plus videos for Alice In Chains, Nine Inch Nails, The Flaming Lips and others). And if any modern artist’s music is dark enough to match the types of images Pellington’s been known to conjure up, it’d have to be Chelsea Wolfe. See for yourself:

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Phantogram – Fall In Love

Phantogram’s long-awaited new album, Voices, is out next week (2/18) but you can stream it now over at NPR. You can also watch the lovely-looking B/W video for “Fall in Love” which features a lot of angles — from the geometric projections to Sarah Barthel’s haircut.

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Twin Shadow and Samantha Urbani cover The Smiths’ “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”

As part of Twin Shadow’s ongoing UNDER THE CVRS series, he’s now taken on The Smiths classic “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” and gave it a shiny new wave makeover that makes it sound closer to a Twin Shadow original. He also drafted Samantha Urbani of Friends (who’s basically a member of Blood Orange at this point) to sing a duet with him for the cover. The original, of course, is one of the more morbidly romantic songs of the ’80s. The video finds a couple driving but no Double Decker buses:

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S. Carey – “Fire-Scene” Official Video

When Sean Carey isn’t playing as a sideman in Bon Iver, he makes equally delicate work on his own under the name S. Carey. His new album, Range of Light, is due out on April 1 via Jagjaguwar and its single “Fire-Scene” was just given video treatment. Not unlike certain Bon Iver videos, there’s tons of nature shots in this one, and the images go very well with the song. S. Carey’s tour with White Hinterland hits NYC on 4/16 at LPR (tix).

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La Dispute – “For Mayor In Splitsville” Official Video

When last talking about La Dispute’s forthcoming third full length, Rooms of the House, we said it’s “more indie rock with a singer who just happens to yell a lot more than he sings” than a post-hardcore album. The second single, “For Mayor In Splitsville,” keeps that trend going, and since it wouldn’t be a La Dispute song without lyrics that tell almost too many details of a story, they’ve given this one a video that does the same thing. La Dispute’s tour has them in NYC for a sold-out MHOW show on 4/10.

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The Front Bottoms – “Backflip” Official Video ft. Chris Gethard & others

The Front Bottoms may have the ability to make you very sad with the super-specific lyrics of their breakup songs on Talon of the Hawk, but they simultaneously sound like they’re having a great time. And a great time they have as the band members are joined by their friends Chris Gethard (who performed at their recent BV-presented Shea show), Kevin Devine and Sal Vulcano to jump on a trampoline, play with silly string and eat pizza in their new “Backflip” video. …Even once they start killing them.

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Shellshag – “Medley” Official Video & Contest

For Shellshag’s new video, they play “Medley” in front of a green screen while paying homage (in the song and with their costumes in the video) to some of their friends and influences, but this video has more than the duo’s typical quirk. It also comes with a contest that allows you to fill in the green screen with whatever you want and the winner gets a few prizes which include a date with Shellshag, a set of Shellshag action figures and more. The details are at Noisey.

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Guided by Voices – Planet Score

There should be a mobile app to let you know when Robert Pollard releases a new record. We can’t keep up. Guided by Voices’ new album, out next week (2/18), is titled Motivational Jumpsuit . There’s a video for “Planet Score,” from it, which takes the title to heart: Matt Jones (aka Breaking Bad‘s Badger) is shooting baskets with a globe-decorated basketball when he gets some unwanted help from Rob and Nate Cordry and a guy in a hotdog costume. It makes about as much sense as Robert Pollard’s lyrics, but that doesn’t mean it’s not cool.

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Jorge Elbrose (Jorge Elbrecht & Ariel Pink) – Called to Ring

You may remember that Mexican Summer put out a coffee table book to commemorate five years as a label. That book comes with a 10″ record of exclusive collaborations. One of them is between Violens’ Jorge Elbrecht and Ariel Pink, a track called “Called to Ring” and credited to Jorge Elbrose. They just made a video for that song (directed by Elbrecht) that features headbanging, hoods, fog and weird magic. Will it cast its spell on you?

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Blouse // “Happy Days”

We’ve all been there: a desolate stretch of road in the middle of a rainy night. Visibility is low, and a breakdown occurs. There’s only one thing to do…get out of the car and dance slowly in the headlights. Well that’s what happens in the video for “Happy Days” by Portland’s Blouse, who’ll soon be on tour with Dum Dum Girls. We personally recommend calling AAA.

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Quilt – Tie Up the Tides

Quilt’s new album, Held In Splendor, take’s the band’s psych-pop melodicism buffs it with a little krautrock shine, which works surprisingly well. (Their tour hits NYC on 2/28.) The video for current single “Tie Up the Tides” is basic but quite effective. Sometimes prismatic filters, soft-focus, sand, a Rubik’s Cube, and something to hold you upside down is all you need.

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