Over the course of the last three days, there have been far too many new music videos to ignore — from M. Ward, Foo Fighters, Liturgy, Raekwon, Die Antwoord and The Darkness — so let’s explore, shall we?
First up is M. Ward’s “The First Time I Ran Away,” the first song from his forthcoming new album “A Wasteland Companion.” This animated clip was created by the same artist, Joel Trussell, who made the excellent clip for the singer-songwriter’s standout “Chinese Translation” from 2006’s “Post-Time.”
Whimsical as Ward’s old-time churnin’ butter of a voice, this clip again goes with an Eastern theme. I love the color scheme and I would like to a fly a plane, please.
“A Wasteland Companion” is due through Merge on April 10; it’s his first solo set since 2009’s “Hold Time,” though he’s been releasing music under the name She & Him with glitter dustbunny Zooey Deschenal and joined forces with Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis and Jim James for Monsters of Folk.
The album was recorded with 18 different musicians — including Deschanel and Mogis and longtime collaboratoris like Mike Coykendall and Howe Gelb — at eight different locations.
“Between now and when I made Hold Time there has been a lot of traveling which requires a lot of reckoning with what to leave behind and what to carry – material and otherwise – and thinking about what I want versus what I need, creatively and otherwise,” Ward said in a statement. “I wanted to get a reflection of that on the album. It was a process of stripping away my security blanket, which is the same four walls I always record in.”
Well said.
Up next is The Darkness who haven’t managed to put out a new song in about seven years. Well, shut it, naysayers. The cock-rockers tread that thin line between parody and homage of ’70s hard rock and hair metal, declaring “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us” in a series of animated .gif-worthy appearances from Yetis, Prince and two dudes on a bike. It was directed Thom Lessner and Ted Passon.
The English quartet last released transcendent-titled “One Way Ticket to Hell… And Back” in 2005, and then broke-up-slash-went-on-hiatus. However, they’re working on an as-yet-untitled third album now, for release in the spring, and have more than a dozen tour dates on the map.
You can download “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us” for free here and check out the tour here.
The Foo Fighters drop you straight into one of their concert experiences in the new clip for “These Days,” released as a free download via iTunes a couple days ago.
The video was culled from a lot of live show footage. It’s like one long high-five.
“These Days” was featured on the band’s latest “Wasting Light” and is the fourth single from the set.
Raekwon spent part of his winter cooking up his “Unexpected Victory” mixtape for a New Year’s drop, and now The Chef has a “Toast” to celebrate.
“Just a Toast,” too, is like a high-five, a liquor-name-dropping, boozy clink-clinking high rise high-five. Remember the Peach Pit, never forget.
In other Raekwon news from the Oh Really, NOW You Think So Department, the rapper’s quoted as saying that solo careers have hurt the larger trajectory of Wu-Tang Clan.
“When we had something so pure and so solid together, it could”ve been structured more togetherly,” Raekwon told VladTV. “It could”ve been more stronger if we knew it had to stay like that. But when we allow[ed] each other to do us, some did better than others and when some did better than others, it caused a certain kind of reaction in the whole movement.”
You know what else hurts? When not all of you show up to a “full” Wu-Tang bill.
Next stop is Die Antwoord, who was sent out to pasture by Interscope and now everything in the world makes sense again. They appear to be, again, on a mission to offend with the black-faced children and deadpanned abuse of “I Fink You Freeky,” below, plus the gory cover to their next album “TEN$ION.”
However, I am happily mesmerized by this one. I like Ninja’s climactic climbing verse and the high levels of dirt. I think it’s freaky, and I like it a lot.
“TEN$ION” is out Feb. 7.
Lastly, considering how much I enjoyed their 2011 album “Aesthethica,” I’d be remiss to ignore Liturgy’s clip for “True Will,” which holds off on the blissfully big-loud thing until about 1:05. Bless them.