visual synergy: we're an animated band

A neat visual gimmick? A statement about the artificiality and superficiality of modern pop music? The basis for this week's lazy music video post?


a-ha - Take on Me - The cartoon bits are what everyone remembers, but few people realize that the live action sequences were filmed using a then-experimental process known as Mentos-Vision.


Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood - Other bands may dabble with the whole cartoon thing, but the Gorillaz took it all the way. I really, really want a hand puppet of the rapping ghost from this video. Anyone want to make one for me?


Bloc Party - Helicopter - I get odd flashes of déjà vu whenever I listen to modern indie pop bands. It's not flashes of historical awareness (like being able to detect traces of Roxy Music in Duran Duran's "Hungry like the Wolf") or obvious sources of inspiration (like with Marsheaux and the Human League and OMD), but rather a feeling of false nostalgia, that I've heard these songs before, but can't place where.


ABC - (How to Be a) Millionaire - I can't get past how much animated Martin Fry looks like my brother in this video. All that's missing are a pair of spectacles and a Captain America t-shirt.

ABC - (How to Be a) Millionaire (from How to Be a...Zillionaire!, 1985) - Such a perfect embodiment of an era in musical form, made even more entertaining by the way my brain overlays Eddie Murphy's "You've got no ice cream, 'cause your on welfare" on top of the "I've seen the future/I can't afford it" parts. Given the choice, though, I'd rather listen to the band's more substantial Lexicon of Love LP.