The second edition of Music Video Monday is upon us!



Archie Powell & The Exports deliver a clip of ninjas, kidnapping and rock ’n’ roll amid a track equal parts The Hold Steady and Fountains of Wayne.



Manchester Orchestra’s entire life flashes before its eyes in this shiver-inducing clip. Consider me officially on the bandwagon for their new album.

Smith Westerns, whose “Dye It Blonde” I raved over here, gets a 10-minute mini-doc/music video called “Die with Your Chin Up.” The color palette particularly matches the band, which enhances the experience.



In honor of the Thunder’s victory over Birdman and the Forces of Garish Tattooage yesterday, here’s a clip sent over by Delo Creative (Flaming Lips, Broncho) that documents Thunder fandom way more intense than yours. And mine. It’s not music-related, but whoa. Just … whoa.

While you’re here, grab these free MP3s:
1.    “Cassette 2012” — Delay Trees. Finnish band keeps “Transatlanticism”-era Death Cab sound alive. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
2.    “The Echoes” — Cassettes Won’t Listen. Bass-heavy club tomfoolery with indie aesthetics? Yr rave just got fey.
3.    “Creature of Nature” — Witches. Nineties-friendly guitar rock with maudlin overtones and great bass work.

It was a big week for music-related videos. Here’s a stack that will keep you busy for a good while.

Here’s NMF Main Stage band Foot Patrol’s muddy, skanky, marginally NSFW clip about their new dance, “The Mudslide.” If this inspires your groove, well, your Saturday just got better.

Heard about The Flaming Lips’ gummy-skull-music-release method? Well, here’s Wayne Coyne dropping the very first edibles off for sale at Guestroom Records (via Delo Creative). Woo-hoo!



The members of Verden, Okla.’s Southern rockers Anti-Mortem have tons of hair to headbang, and they put it to good use here.



Directors Lamar + Nik get creative with melting and growing ice sculptures in this fascinating clip for chillwave/not-chillwave tune “Reds” by Houses.



Ruby Coast (RIYL: Tokyo Police Club) dropped this gorgeous video for “Made to Change” that includes synchronized ice skating, geese and snowy landscapes.

SXSW fave Braids gets a mini-documentary, complete with interviews and four uninterrupted performances. It is pretty remarkable.  

And for you tornado junkies out there, here’s terrifying video of some massive, deadly twisters that ripped through Alabama yesterday. —Stephen Carradini

But not really. Name’s Matt. Stephen’s off to graduate school on full scholarship, so I’m the new blogger ‘round these here parts.

Quick hits: Leo. Favorite non-Flaming Lips local band is Colourmusic. I know the lyrics to“Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” back-to-front. Random fun fact: My brother is on a first-name basis with Dan Marino. I’m still looking to replace a big LCD Soundsystem-shaped hole in my heart. Taylor Swift’s first and second albums have been known to rattle the speakers in the privacy of my car, on occasion. Big supporter of dance rock.

Underrated: The Drive-By Truckers’ “Brighter Than Creation’s Dark”, dance rock in general, post-“Girls Can Tell” Spoon, Lost in the Trees, and the Rolling Stones’ “Some Girls.”

Overrated: Passion Pit, Animal Collective, My Morning Jacket’s “Z,” and probably James Blake, too, but you’d have to put a gun to my head to make me admit it. Also, everything U2's recorded since “The Joshua Tree”. Though let it be known that “The Joshua Tree” is so unbelievably good that you can’t possibly overstate how good it is.

Let’s get on with the vids, then.

Broncho rapidly ascended to the near-top of my fictional All-Okie Festival bill when I bought their debut album a few months back. Caught them at the Soundpony in Tulsa a little while ago and, sure enough, the Internet warlocks at Delo Creative were there with a butt-ton of camera equipment in tow. I think I speak for the entirety of this state when I say these guys are gonna make it big. And soon:

Novak Djokovic’s appearance in this hilarious video probably had at least a little something to do with his recent #1 ATP ranking:



Freaky, psychedelic, synthy chicks glow in the dark:



Like Stephen, I’m a proud Tulsa native and, save for Hanson, nobody’s name’s better-recognized in Tulsa than Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey. Their new “Race Riot Suite” received standing ovations at the Tulsa PAC last month:



Not unlike most of the planet, I really didn’t care much for Radiohead’s latest. I do, however, dig Nigel Godrich’s intimate “From the Basement” series and this frenetic, dual-drummer performance of “Staircase” is intense:  



Everything about Mastodon is massively awesome right now. Album art, track titles, and this puppet-stomping video for “Deathbound”:

I’m really digging the damaged vein the Lips seemed to have slipped into these last couple of years. 2009’s “Embryonic” was the freaky, border-pushing, psychedelic album they’ve always had in them, but were too busy having fun with sci-fi sing-alongs like “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” to record.

Anyhoo, check out this new clip from George Salisbury and his Delo Creative http://delocreative.com/nasa-on-acid/ dudes. It’s a really long song, but the Lightning Bolt choral part in the middle is really wonderful. Salisbury does well to represent on video the destructive energy of actually seeing Lightning Bolt perform in person.

Normanite and Gentle Ghost guitarist Brady Smith alerted his Facebook friends to another Delo Creative-created video testimonial promotion yesterday. This one, like the last one for the Voyager pedal, features three excellent local musicians playing around with it in the studio. This time, it’s Tulsa guitarist Clay Welch (Panda Resistance, Dead Sea Choir), Colourmusic drummer Nick Ley and Stardeath bass player Casey Joseph.



It sounds like this distortion pedal adds some serious force to the live performance. So watch out, Oklahoma music fans, as Brady Smith may be equipping your favorite bands with what they need to stomp on your eardrums.

When I took charge of OKSee from Stephen Carradini (who’s currently crashing with me on his first vacation from graduate school at Auburn), the main change I instituted was posting a music video of the day, almost every day.

I’ve spent the last couple days going back through the archives to tabulate the VOTDs you noble OKSee readers watched the most, and the following are the results. Glad to see you all skewed heavily in favor of locals! So we’re going to celebrate by naming our Video of the Day of the Year (VOTDOTY)!

While digging around, I also found some of Stephen’s most-trafficked video posts from earlier in the year and selected a few choice clips from those, as well as a few of my own favorites I felt deserved some recognition, for better or worse. Somebody went to the trouble of re-imagining LCD Soundsystem's greatest song in Lego form, for crying out loud.

pictured, clip from The Nghiems' "Dum Dum Dah Dah"

2011, we’re gonna miss you dearly, so we’re celebrating you all week long with a commemorative series that counts down all the way to OKSee’s Favorite Albums of 2011, compiled by myself, Mr. Carradini and Gazette regular Joshua Boydston.

So stay tuned — tomorrow we’ll look back at the year in photos; Wednesday, we’ll be playing with playlists; and Thursday, we’ll have our list of OKSee Honorable Mention albums before the big reveal on Friday.

VOTDOTY #10: Broncho — “Pick a Fight”

The dudes at Delo Creative really nailed this one. Broncho’s pop-punk songs inspire crowds to act more like hardcore-punk freaks, as evidenced by this summer show at the Crystal Pistol in Tulsa. Funny story: I went to this show — suit, tie and all — after attending my freshman-year roommate’s wedding. Don’t regret it (the sartorial choice) in the slightest.




VOTDOTY #9: Jay-Z & Kanye West — “Otis”

Spoiler: Even after stripping down a Maybach and letting the sparks fly, the hip-hop superstars didn’t generate as much traffic as when a certain local singer/songwriter hopped in the back of a van and covered Otis Redding truer. More on that later.




VOTDOTY #8: The Boom Bang — “Jabroni Ramoney”

Who doesn’t like “Teen Wolf,” pizzas, cartoons, high jnks and chubby dudes with “BACON” tattooed on the gut? Not OKSee readers, nosiree!




VOTDOTY #7: Black Canyon (featuring Sherree Chamberlain) — “Bottles of Shine”

Sometimes when a song’s as simply good as this, all the video needs is a pretty gal and a scenic spot to go with it.




VOTDOTY #6: Paul Simon — “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard”

Y’all got really excited when Paul Simon came to town last month. So excited that you watched YouTube user OkieSully’s video of Rhymin’ Simon entertaining a Civic Center lobby-full of fans a couple hundred times.



VOTDOTY #5:  Magnificent Bird — “Nowhere to Hide

A bunch of the local videos I’ve seen this year eschewed narrative, but this spectacularly creepy, ivory-toned video from Nathan Lofties’ group, Magnificent Bird, tells a visually elegant story.




VOTDDOTY #4: Ol’ Savior — two unnamed songs

Tulsa’s Ol’ Savior hasn’t released an album, but thanks to your efforts, it may well soon. Drummer Nathan Price told me a few months ago that he and Ben King (his Broncho co-conspirator) planned to take a bunch more Ol’ Savior songs into the studio, thanks to all the positive feedback they heard when these two leaked. Huzzah!




VOTDOTY #3: The Nghiems — “Dum Dum Dah Dah”

The day this stop-motion gem premiered, I was afraid all my social-media platforms had been hijacked by Okie video guy Kyle Roberts — not that that’s a bad thing. Gah, re-watching this video just helps reinforce how eternally catchy and perfect this little song is.  




VOTDOTY #2: Ben Kilgore — “These Arms”

Technically, this one wasn’t even a VOTD. But I asked you if you preferred Tulsa singer Ben Kilgore’s Otis Redding cover to Hov and Ye’s “Try a Little Tenderness” sample, and you responded by clicking on this Nathan Poppe-shot video 500+ times. Good work, Oklahoma.

Also I think my favorite part of this video is how Kilgore, just after nearly bursting his awesome pipes on this classic, finishes it by declaring, “Sweet cheese!”




VOTDOTY #1: Girl Talk — “Girl Walk // All Day”

Everybody and their dogs’ imaginary friends absolutely freaked out when Axe Body Spray announced it was sponsoring a Girl Talk show inside Opolis earlier this month. You guys clicked on this ambitious bit of fan art more than any other video on this blog this year, and lucky for us, the fun’s far from over. “Girl Walk // All Day” is currently going strong on its sixth installment. Click through at risk to your work today.




8 videos I loved in 2011

LCD Soundsystem — “All My Friends (LEGO version)”

Carradini and I agree this is probably one of the best songs in the last 10 years. I’ve always loved the video that originally went with it, and this Lego rendition really just sends it over the top for me. The little yellow, face-painted James Murphy communicates all the song’s sentiment almost as well as the real guy.




Mastodon — “Deathbound”

Mastodon was really on a roll there for a while, what with completely absurd album and song titles, and this Muppets-from-hell video. It’s too bad I didn’t get a reviewer’s copy of the album, as I probably would really loved all the campiness.




Beastie Boys — “Make Some Noise”

This comedy star-studded clip for a new song celebrates everything the Beastie Boys were about … a decade and a half ago. Love how they actually got Ted Danson in a restaurant for the line about opening up a restaurant with Ted Danson.




Battles — “My Machines”

Innovative, funny, perfectly-executed. And it featured Gary Numan! Congratulations all around!




Beyoncé — “Countdown”

The best pop song of 2011, hands down, and quite possibly the very best video. Mrs. Carter hides her baby bump well.




Mister Heavenly — “Bronx Sniper”

W.

T.

F.




No Age — “Fever Dreaming”

This one rewards those who watch intently all the way to the finish.




St. Vincent — “Cruel”

Dear Annie: I will always love you and would never try to bury you alive.

2 local videos that probably never should’ve seen the light of day

Dr. Smith — “The Time Is Right”

This is literally the creepiest thing I’ve ever watched on the Internet. I was so weirded out. Thankfully, Gazette managing editor Rod Lott is unafraid of such things, and posted it over at Rod & Reel.




Thunderbird Casino — “Casino Lady”

Sorry. I really shouldn’t have put this here. Oklahoma, people!



OKS in 2011 — Monday: Your Most-Viewed Music Videos
OKS in 2011 — Tuesday: The Year in Photos
OKS in 2011 — Wednesday: By the numbers
OKS in 2011 — Thursday: OKSee's Honorable Mention Albums of the Year
OKS in 2011 — Friday: OKSee's 30 Favorite Albums of 2011

What with last week’s 2011 retrospective, the holiday season and all, I’ve recently lagged behind in posting local music videos. Important lesson learned: It’s dangerous falling back of OKC’s creative folk, as they just continue to pump new stuff out by the hour.

For starters, Delo Creative (the dudes behind Change Yr Life OKC) have a new series they’ve dubbed “Be Nice to Your Kids” (BNTYK, for short), which they christened with a pair of videos of The Boom Bang playing in a dirty men’s room. For whatever reason, it just makes sense. Watch “Vietnomnomnom” and “Sugar Ray Romano” below.





More exciting though are these two energetic vids from post-punk-rockers Chud, who cover themselves in glowing paint while they tear through “Handsome Vampires” and “Control, Alt, Complete.” Something shatters near the end of the latter song. What it is, who knows? Check back soon for a BNTYK session with Gentle Ghost.





Also, I’d be remiss to neglect this nutso Flaming Lips cover of John Lennon’s nutso classic “I Am the Walrus,” also shot by Delo. NYE is coming, folks, and rumors abound of Beatles covers for the visiting Mrs. Ono. Watch Steven Drozd completely lose his mind, below.



If you missed this ridiculous Zane LaRue-shot Chrome Pony video for “Christmas Babes,” his contribution to the Blackwatch Christmas album, then I pity you.

Also, Nathan Poppe snuck into Blackwatch Studios to do this simple, elegant one-shot of Beau Jennings covering Woody Guthrie’s lone Christmas song, assisted by the awesomely-bearded Daniel Foulks. This winsome beauty’s called “1913 Massacre” and it makes “Blue Christmas” sound about as happy as “Super Bass.”

For starters: How badass a song title is “Spearherder”?

I guarantee you the song and its new, blood-spattered video from Delo Creative match the furious, guttural tone the name suggests. Tyler Huskerson does his best Explosions in the Sky impression and Sethy McCarroll emotes in an impressive range of groans and grunts.

Also, it’s good to see Blake Studdard (he plays the keys and extra percussion on the right) back and rocking again after his old band, The Neighborhood, provided a spirited Norman Music Festival 4 set.

This installment in Delo Creative’s Be Nice To Your Kids series (BNTYK, for short) falls nicely in the category of Full-Scale-Apocalyptic Guitar Onslaughts. Watch:



Rumor has it Delo’s got another, gorier video on the way for a second new Gentle Ghost song. Tough to imagine it’ll top this, but I’ve got my fingers crossed. Excellent work all around, everyone.

Gentle Ghost’s continuing collaboration with Delo Creative on the “Be Nice to Your Kids” video series has yielded not one, but two (!) visual accompaniments for new songs. Check out “Dark Parts,” a nuanced, five-minute track that changes pace a couple different times and has a cool “cut out the heart” lyric, apropos for all the dried blood that’s all over the place.

This one doesn’t include a keyboard and is a little less urgent than “Spearherder,” which we first heard last week, but the songwriting has a bit stronger, more present narrative to it, I think. Watch:

Remnants of The Flaming Lips’ epic, two-part New Year’s Eve Freakout #5 continue their fallout across the Internet with a pair of Delo Creative videos that I proudly helped to shoot.

First up is a trippy new track called “Is David Bowie Dying?” It featured special guest Alan Palomo, whom you may know as Neon Indian. I spoke with Palomo after his second-night opening set before the Lips went on, and the guy was one of the most endearing, friendly musicians I’ve ever encountered. Watch him and Steven Drozd get into a fight to see whose instrument can make more video game bleep-bloops:



And second is The Lips’ Nels Cline-assisted cover of The Beatles’ blues-addicted guitar standard “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” They played it both nights, each with the jam stretched for more than 15 hypnotic minutes. I seriously thought my arms were going to give out from holding my camera up for that long. My personal challenge to you: Watch this thing all the way through. If not, then here are a couple of highlights:

• Alan Palomo’s nerdily enthusiastic fist-pump.
• A signature Nels Cline-contorting-his-body-so-frenetically-that-you-think-his-neck’s-gonna-snap-right-off-his-shoulders-’cause-he’s-kinda-old crazy extended guitar solo.
• Fans looking pissed because of all the instrumental wanking going on.