There isn’t much innovation out there in music videos anymore. For good reason, too: the music channels on TV don’t play them anymore! Why should a label or a band spend (waste) the money on a video when it’s not really a road for promotion anymore? It’s actually not a bad thing: it means that the music and the talent mean more again. Ugly musicians rejoice! This is your time! Of course, I’m (half) kidding.

While those music TV channels are busy shopping twentysomething reality TV whores who will do anything to try and make a name for themselves, the only place to really see music videos anymore these days are on a band’s website or YouTube. Even then, the pickings are still slim – it’s either a bunch of half-naked women in a rap video or a rock/pop band painfully lip synching a live performance.

However, once in a great while, a really good piece of actual art via a music video actually happens! I don’t know where bands get the budget. Maybe they just have good friends who are digital artists. Back in the Tar Hut days, I combed the local art colleges looking for kids who wanted to do music videos for free or for a school project. Never happened, but still. I wasn’t gonna pay for a video!

Anyway, one of the favorite bands of the last couple of years is The New Pornographers. I don’t need to get into how awesome they are, today we’re talking about music videos and they have not one, but TWO doozies from their latest album. If you are at all into art or digital art, watch these. You don’t have to like the songs to appreciate them, although if you don’t like the songs, I will question your taste in music and pass unfair judgement on you. Again, (half) kidding.

I found the use of color in “Challengers” to be subtle and inventive:

And here’s the real wild one, “Myriad Harbor:”