1. Green Day - "Walking Contradiction"
Perhaps my favourite Green Day album was Insomniac, the oft-overlooked follow up to Dookie. The first single, "Walking Contradiction" had a great video. Simple premise, the band is walking through the streets and are completely oblivious to the chaos they're causing all around them. The expressions on the guys' faces really puts this one over the top for me.
2. Matthew Good Band - "Strange Days"
Matthew Good has always provided interesting and entertaining videos along with his songs. "Apparitions" off of Underdogs comes to mind, but i'm going with "Strange Days" off of Beautiful Midnight. Tells a story with great pacing and hopefully by the end it awakens something in you. Great song too.
3. Hayden - "Hazards Of Sitting Beneath Palm Trees"
Because this video was filmed in Ontario's beautiful cottage country, Hayden jokingly changed the name of this song on it's card to "Hazards Of Sitting Beneath Pine Trees". This is the kind of video that I would like to make, if I ever made videos. Showcasing this naturally astounding country of ours with cinematography and colours.
4. DJ Format - "We Know Something You Don't You" feat. Jurassic 5
Not really much more I need to explain about this one beyond, guys in animal costumes rapping and break dancing. Check out that bear though!
5. Stabbing Westward - "Shame"
Stabbing Westward are a band that never got the full amount of accolades that I feel they deserved. Solid rock group with a variety of musical influences. Fore runners in the techno/rock movement of the late 90's early 2000's. This is a fun video that plays with the 4th wall and you can tell the band had some fun with it too.
6. New Found Glory - "My Friends Over You"
In a recent conversation about songs with good videos with my friends I brought up this one. When I was asked what makes it a good video however, I had a tough time communicating it. You just have to watch it. I get the vibe that they just wanted to put a bunch of stuff in the video that was funny or cool to them. You can tell they had a great time doing it.
7. Lights - "Second Go"
Another simple premise, but executed perfectly and masterfully tied in with the song. Videos don't need to correspond with the song's lyrics or content, but it helps when the energy the song gives off is matched by the visuals. And Lights sure is a comely lass of virtue true ain't she?
8. Metallica - "The Memory Remains"
Metallica were never known for their revolutionary videos, in fact they didn't even make music videos until their fourth album. The video for "The Memory Remains" seems like the director had this idea he always wanted to try but needed the perfect song for it. It's a visual ride full of optical trickery and special effects. I bet it took the guys a few weeks to recover from it.
9. The Bravery - "Honest Mistake"
A few bands have done the Rube Goldberg machine music videos, OK Go comes to mind, and honestly any of them could have been included on this list. The concept is cool, but how these guys pull them off so cleverly is something I can't wrap my head around. The Bravery had the Rube Goldberg treatment for their "Honest Mistake" video and I like the minimalist colourized approach too. Nice touch.
10. Queens Of The Stone Age - "Go With The Flow"
This is perhaps one of my all time favourite videos. The digitized backgrounds and objects. The contrasted colours and characters. The not-so-subtle sexual innuendo. And just the general fast-paced feel of the video that compliments the song perfectly. It's a great one
Thanks again for reading!!
JZ
