The art (or commercial enterprise) of making a music video has been the healthy motivation for many curious collaborations between artist, musician, and various designers. Ok Go were a YouTube phenomena when their choreographed treadmill routine for the track Here It Goes Again went viral in 2006 (it's own Wiki page is here). Fortunately, the group have maintained a fairly loose and unpretentious strategy for their follow-up videos, and despite the huge man-power involved (and months of preparation), their latest video for the track 'This Too Shall Pass' keeps a firm grip on dignified music-video making. Watch it HERE!
The old Rube Goldberg machine has rarely fallen from the attention of artists, hobbyists and/or nutters, but as you watch this machine, which fills a whole warehouse and runs for the entire length of the song (a single-shot video), a new magnitude of absurdity and physical drama really has surpassed any other Goldberg machine I've seen before.
Watch for yourself as furniture gets catapulted around, paint gets fired, a TV is ritually smashed, a band member is even swung across the room... all making for an incredible machine, which is occasionally beautiful, sometimes melodic, and all too very much.
Thanks to www.booooooom.com I also discovered another great video from Hold Your Horses which is entirely different, but similarly surprising (some pictures below). Hilariously recreating some of the worlds classic and recognisable art works, the band manage to keep straight faces in their compromising compositions, with instruments appearing at all the right dubious moments. I think for me the clincher was The Last Supper, not only for its perfectly timed appearance of the Guitar from under the table, but the all-important hubbub, which I think it's all too easy for us to neglect on da Vinci's painting given the supposed circumstances of the portrayed gathering.
Enjoy the sounds and sights.