Top 5 Music Videos of the Week: Stolar, Nadia Reid + more
Hello there, music video fans. We’re back for another week bringing you the brightest, the best and the weirdest videos to escape their cages and make it to the surface world before their creators got the blast doors down. Let’s see what this week holds for us.
5. Pissed Jeans — “The Bar is Low”
Given that I restarted this column after America began its new abusive relationship with fascism, I’ve been somewhat at a loss for light-hearted fare. “The Bar is Low,” however, is a welcome pick-me-up. Director Joe Stakun guides Pissed Jeans through the most intense, and yet clearly weakest work-out routine ever, something that gets more heated and hilarious when rival gym members show up to flex and lift bro. It’s a tongue-in-cheek jab at workout culture and toxic masculinity, and the members of the band are stellar at playing it absolutely straight. Oh, and it ends with hugs, so there’s your feel-good moment of the day on top of that.
4. Stolar — “Paralyzed”
“Paralyzed” from director Kevin Slack, is a bit more metaphysical, but undeniably beautiful. Interspersed with shots of Stolar singing, two models dance as dust cakes their bodies. It’s sort of Rebekka Karijord’s “Use My Body While It’s Still Young” meets Katie Herzig’s “Walk Through Walls,” and the result is truly a treat for the eyes and the ears.
3. Birdeatsbaby — “Eulogy”
Birdeatsbaby is a band that I haven’t checked in with in a while, and that’s a really a shame. “Eulogy,” is bleak and compelling. The execution is slightly amateurish, but it nevertheless manages to engross a viewer in singer Mishkin Fitzgerald drunken descent into hopelessness following the death of a loved one. The mix of lively crowd scenes, cemetery monuments, and empty beaches is haunting, and Fitzgerald’s tragic self-destruction leads us through every moment with painful glory.
2. Nadia Reid — “The Arrow and the Aim”
Here’s another for the “I want to be sad and disturbed” crowd, of which I am a card-carrying member. It’s hard to describe exactly what’s happening in director Julian Vares’ video here, but it seems to be a man stumbling across the scene of a murder from long ago. It’s unsettling the way a David Lynch film is, and leaves you with the same unanswered question you started with. As a momentary musical glimpse into something terrible, though? It’s tops.
1. Open Mike Eagle & Paul White — “Dang is Invincible”
Let’s end on a fun note with this animated video from director Alex Pierre. It’s a cross-over vehicle starring Noul from Skeletonblood, and has her on a metaphorical stream-of-consciousness adventure through the subway. Anxieties and a search for peace are portrayed as an anime-style quest, and every second is a high-octane bundle of joy. There really need to be more videos like “Dang is Invincible” in the world.
