kprime, 20. June 2006, 23:28
The Strokes - You Only Live Once (Dir: Sam Bayer)


and also found a video which was
apparently pitched to RCA but was rejected
I agree with one of the comments, it does fit the whole concept of the album.


         
sam B gets away with the no concept concept again.
         
Thanks to his love affair with Green Day, I can no longer enjoy the works of Samuel Bayer. I'm afraid The Strokes have lame videos from their latest LP. Pity.
         
mehh it was a pretty cool performance clip but yeah pretty much the same idea as the "American Idiot" video - ya know, the American flag and oil are like metaphors for political stuff.

Anyone remember Stone Temple Pilot's "Vaseline"? meh-90s video but they had a few cool shots of the band swimming in front of a factory or power plant... i dunno it sort of reminded me of this:

         
This strokes video is def not the best video or even best performance video but its not half bad. I might expect a bit more from Bayer but then again his best video work seems way in the past. However, I dont think lack of 'concept' by nature is a bad think. Maybe its me but I'd like to see a fucking brilliant performance video..can't remember the last time I saw one. Dare I say it..I'm starting to get tired of overly clever conceptual videos that feel like a fun puzzle.

BTW ..just took a look at the STP video..god I remember that being so much cooler..though Kerslake did do some monumental videos
         
deja-vu / rip-off: rolling stones video from the 80's - band, dressed in white, performs in small room, wide angles, bubbles invade and overtake them (can't remember the song).

wow, warren's video was way better, even as an anamatic.
         
If Bayer made a good performance video in the past, then it must be "Rock Is Dead" by Marilyn Manson. Remember that? It was cool!
         
Wow, that's maybe the 5th version of Vasoline I've seen. They cut 3-4 versions of Vasoline, if you remember, and none of them featured Nixon - MTV couldn't handle that weird sequence? I think the entire set of Vasoline videos was really interesting - at the time it felt very original - the one above really doesn't sell it though, particularly because it's out of its context (the 'alternative' music scene, and the STP videography).

The 90's was always a mixed bag of goodies. Some stuff really worked well (and there was a lot of creativity to sift thru on TV), while some stuff was entirely cliched (i.e. the use of Super8 to make things look 'real' or non-'produced').

That Strokes vid would have fit nicely in the early 90's (though it's too slick for even that), but Bayer's work feels out of place in the 00's - MTV won't play the style of video where he's at his most creative.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but most "brilliant performance videos" never make sense. That's what made the 80's so compelling - the music was culturally relevant, and the vids never made any sense! here's one. I think that's why I like Patrick Daughters' Gold Lion so much: great music, and the video is near-mythic. If you want a good performance vid, go to Patrick.
         
In my opininon 'performance videos' DO make sense when the band is interesting to look at and each member has cool moves! Casablancas looks weird here, if not trivial. Remember The Strokes when shot by Roman Coppola? "Last Nite" was brilliant and it was just a performance! It's tricky but occasionally it works.
         
Yeah, ultimately Last Nite follows the Romanek Principle (ref): "It drops you into a very specific, hermetically designed universe."
         
KEV: I don't think you understand Romanek's quote. Last Night is no "hermetically designed universe". It's modeled after a late 60's-ish, television performance stage.

And Gold Lion is far from anything even resembling something mythic. Band in eccentric hip clothing plays gig around fire in desert.

- - -

Also. am I the only one who is bored out of his mind by performance videos? How many times are we gonna see a band looking cool or a bunch of guys banging on instruments?

And always the same instruments. Guitar, bass, drums, mic.
         

Are keyboards okay?
         
KEV: You win. I wish we had more videos like this:

Frankensteins in smoke filled aluminum foil mirror rooms surrounded by spaceship girls.

Not only is this one 'hermetically designed'.' But also more 'mythic' than Gold Lion will ever be.
         
Touché! :) Sorry if I don't make sense - I'm home, sick today.
         
Theres no doubt after seing this that music is dangerous.
         
sam's version at aol
         
Dam aol region blocker! Its been out a year also I assume?
         
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