Evanescence
“Going Under”
Directed by Philipp Stolzl

OK, this horror movie in miniature is an improvement over this band’s breakout clip, in which singer Amy Lee, all decked out in a willowy white nightgown, hangs from the side of a building as a guy helpfully identified by MTV as Paul McCoy From 12 Stones grips her arm and does what he can with the voice his mama gave him over a limp Bizkit-style riff. (I swear, I must have seen that video a dozen times, and I still can’t hum a bar of the song.) This time, the frontwoman of these erstwhile Christian rockers takes the stage and confronts the scariest thing in the world – her own audience. As she performs, the faces in the crowd Photoshop themselves into twisted demon leers. If the visuals in Mark Pellington’s “Black Hole Sun” creeped you right out the way they did me, this may get a little under your skin, too. Stage dives take her underwater; wearing that same fucking nightgown, she swims amongst the jellyfish. I’m not sure I want to know what all this has to do with their status as Christians, but it sure is a surreal video. Rammstein-video veteran Philipp Stolzl busts some new moves, like animating the lens flares so they become part of the genuinely impressive visual strategy (I expect to see this effect used in a feature film inside of nine months). Mildly unnerving and with a zinger right at the very end, this is probably better than, say, anything Dario Argento’s done in the last 16 years. And I still can’t hum a bar of the damned song. B

Note: I had written a glowing review of the new Audioslave video "Show Me How to Live" to go in this space, praising it for its authentic sense of desert locations, but then I sussed out that much of the video is actually lifted wholesale from Vanishing Point, which I've never seen. At this point, I really don't know what to think. But I do suddenly want to see Vanishing Point.

Fountains of Wayne
“Stacy’s Mom”
Directed by Chris Applebaum

I guess the guys in Fountains of Wayne, who are a little bit older than me, would have been the perfect age to appreciate such gems of music video history as Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher” and to have their hormonal worlds rocked by the Phoebe Cates tit shot/masturbation gag in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. That explains the sharp-dressed little dudes with sunglasses at the top of the video as well as the MILF stepping out of the pool and unhooking her bikini top at the bottom. Supermodel Rachel Hunter plays the titular mother figure, and spends most of the video semi- and quasi-naked. The band, who are seen in cutaways – they appear in picture frames on the wall and on the TV set — barely register. It’s not particularly well made, but your reaction to the video probably depends mainly on your feelings about Ms. Hunter’s ample rack, which is pretty generously displayed. As a throwback to the ‘80s pop-video norm, it’s fairly efficient. But I say it’s about half as sexy as, say, Billy Idol’s Fincher-directed rock-your-yuppie-world “Cradle of Love” or Aerosmith’s Silverstone-and-Tyler double-header “Crazy.” (And the song is only about half as rockin’ and nowhere near as playful as Tsar’s brilliant “Kathy Fong is the Bomb,” which is in the same vein.) C

Linkin Park
“Faint”
Directed by Mark Romanek

The king of visual effects returns with another clip that is, like last year’s “Cochise,” so good-looking that it hardly seems to feature visual effects at all. Some digital enhancement no doubt took place, but there’s a live feel to the grandly staged spectacle that feels electric and immediate, and the editing is spot on, complementing the musical beats while keeping you from looking at any particularly striking image long enough to fully parse it. Like the best music videos, it’s enough to make you a believer in a band that otherwise leaves you cold. Must be nice to brainstorm ideas like this without worrying about who's gonna pay for them – the first section of the video is shot entirely from behind the band, the camera looking out over a sea of about 1,000 screaming fans, arms raised high, as a bajillion volts of juice is pumped through a wall of blazing lights stacked four or five stories high behind the audience. When the camera finally does a 180 and shoots the band from the front, they’re seen performing in front of a mocked-up bombed-out building — an appropriate testosterone showcase for a nation at war, for sure, but it feels more like the tragic rave-up at the end of the world. Or am I reaching? B+

New Pornographers
“The Laws Have Changed”
Directed by Brian Thurier

One thing I love about music videos is the pace. Thirty seconds in, I can generally tell whether or not I’m wasting my time. It’s less than 20 seconds into this one when a fabulous blonde in a red minidress steps out of the desert to implore a sandaled, self-important Messiah type, in subtitles, “Come down and return to the world.” Fantastic, I thought to myself. It’s The Last Temptation of Christ starring Sarah Cracknell. What could be better? He accompanies his date to a club where a New Pornographers tribute band is lip-syncing this single. Our man dresses well enough but hangs around the bar looking dour and sipping whiskeys as his temptress boogies down, grinning minxishly. Another thing I love about good music videos is their relatively high concentration of perfect moments. And the moment when she suddenly turns to face him, half the girls in the club falling in behind her in perfect choreography, is utterly sublime. Our man at the bar is stunned by the display. It’s fun, it’s sexy, and it’s all for him. In the face of such womanly showmanship, Christ gets his groove back, takes to the dance floor and spazzes right out like the party animal you always knew he had to be. “Form a line to the throne,” wails the band, in harmony. “The laws have changed, yeah.” Fin. A-

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Comments

You missed Lil' Jon & the Eastside Boyz' "Get Low," a stunning reductio ad absurdum of the half-naked stripper booty-shaking aesthetic. Are there any real strip clubs featuring barbershops?

Posted by: Steve Erickson at August 13, 2024 08:51 PM

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