This website is the home of Day For Night, a Brooklyn-based music collaboration. Here are our thoughts, our songs and other things that inspire us.
Spike Jonze & Ty Evan’s created an explosive titled open for the Lakai - Fully Flared skate film. Brilliant slow motion footage is seen as skaters perform in an urban environment that is literally blowing up around them. This footage was reworked into a music-like piece for the UNKLE track heaven.
School of Seven Bells just dropped this moody little video for the single Half Asleep.
Mastodon have a new album releasing this month. What I’ve heard is AMAZING!!! Watch the band take on the Abominable Snowman in the video for the first single, Divinations.
One of the UK’s top music video directors is a fellow who goes by the moniker WIZ. His visual signature is rather cinematic and often he manages to elevate the video format to something more important, a stage for social commentary. A common theme in his work of the last few years is British classicism. Here are four examples:
Dizzee Rascal / Rascal Sirens
Kasabian / Empire
Kaiser Chiefs / Angry Mob
Oasis / Falling Down
Supercar was a Japanese rock band who were actively making music from 1995-2005. The band’s sound combined digital loops with shoegaze inspired melodies and drones to create a unique brand of pop. I discovered their music when I saw the incredibly weird video for their infectious single White Surf Style 5. Since their music is pretty hard to come by in the US, I thought I’d share some of their bizarre music videos.
A few weeks ago, I posted the video for the first Fever Ray single. The clip was directed by Andreas Nilsson. He has also recently created a trio of videos for the freshman release of NME darlings White Lies. Check out their collaborations on the following videos:
Despite plummeting budgets and TV no longer being a good outlet, I still find music videos to be one of the best ways to discover music. Martin De Thurah is one of the most gifted directors working in the business. He brings a unique vision to everything he shoots and ultimately creates visual poetry for each song that he couples with imagery. Here are two of his most recent videos. Both are extraordinary.
Glasvegas / Flowers and Football Tops
Fever Ray / When I Grow Up
Eeek what a horrible title for a post. My new favorite music video is from Southern Records act Mouth to Anus.
When I was in art school, one of the most creative people that I knew was a guy named Michael Sanchez. He wasn’t a student; rather he was a childhood friend of another exceptionally talented student that I knew. Michael and my friend DW epitomized young indie-rock. If I enjoyed the The Pixies, they adored them. And it wasn’t just their love of music that said so. The songs that they were writing at 19 or 20 years old were really something special. Recently, I got back in touch with Michael only to find out that he is living in Chicago, is a pretty hilarious stand up comedian with a great Joy Division joke, and is still playing music with his group The Way It Is. Go to their site and check out their video for You Chose Heads; it’s a perfect little tune, clocking in at under a minute and a half.
Karin from The Knife has an album coming out from her side project Fever Ray. The first single, If I Had A Heart is rather hypnotic and the strange video is pretty mesmerizing too.
I really love the strange harmony of the Lykke Li song Breaking It Up. But I love her odd style of dancing seen in the moody video even more. The fashion sense and overall mood of this promo is a perfect pairing to her music as well. Previous to seeing the video, I had images in my head of poorly behaved British prep-schoolers singing in a choral group and making a ruckus as the instructor struggles to maintain order.
We enjoy and admire the breathy music of Beach House. Here is a perfectly little dreamy video that they commissioned to accompany the track Used to Be.
Happy New Year everyone. Perhaps you should celebrate the event with some Black Balloons like The Kills.
My friend Ben is a genius songwriter from France with a very compelling voice. His project Løzninger reminds me of David Bowie’s acoustic side with a hint of the urgency found in Elliot Smith’s music. I wanted to share this video of him performing Nobody Knows solo. I know one day he and I will collaborate on something.
Last year Siouxsie Sioux resurfaced with a new album and a video for the track Into a Swan. Now in her 50s, Siouxsie still has more style and attitude than pretty much any female rock crooner to follow her lead.
Primal Scream’s latest video clip for the track Can’t Go Back sees Bobby Gillespie bouncing off the walls of a technicolor hallway. The video feels like something iconic fashion photographer, Guy Bourdin might have been proud of.
The video for the latest Portishead single titled Magic Doors, feels more like a some sort of brainwashing montage.
Thurston Moore will be introducing and providing commentary for the early videos of David Bowie presented Monday December 1st at MOMA.
First Amy Winehouse had success with her single, rehab. And now Rihanna plans to do the same with a little help from Justin Timberlake. Maybe “rehab” is where it’s at.
I’ve never listened to a single song by The Hours even though I’ve heard their name tossed around a lot. However; this week I just saw the music video for their newest release See the Light. The short film-like video stars Sienna Miller and was directed by Tony Kaye with art direction by Damien Hirst. Translation, not a small budget. Here is more from NME.
When we are first exposed to a band or a piece of music by a visual representation, we are bound to have impressions shaped by that very image. Often, I find myself off-put by a performer’s sense of self aesthetic; this is of course most disappointing when there is something really good about the music glimmering in the background. There are countless ways to encounter new music and it’s maker; in a movie or perhaps in the aisle of a grocery store. Because of my obsession with music video as a form, I am rather critical of this marriage between sound and vision.
Just this morning, I discovered a band called Dimmer through the promo for their track Degrees of Existence. On frame one - note one I was immediately curious. It became clear very quickly that I was in for a visual feast of photographic portraiture. The sound is something pensive with a washed out wall of guitars and angular bass lines. There is something absolutely familiar about this song and I like it. But more than I am moved by the song, I am reminded by the video that every now and again imagery has the ability to make something good great. In this case, the sound has been heightened and rendered more visceral. I am struck by the notion that a music video is almost always a visual afterthought and thus in a certain way is by it’s very nature at odds with the musical starting point. I believe that it may be this tension itself that makes some videos exceptional and others complete distractions. This video is an example of the former.
Escalading aggression is a common theme in the works of music video director Paul Gore. Here is another music video featuring tusseling ballerinas. The song is called “Can You Touch Me” and the band is The Film.
Film and music video auteur, Chris Cunningham fell off the creative map several years back. He had given up on promos and slowly turned out a few experimental films that seemed to be an arduous task. Rumors that he would make a feature film proved to be just rumors. And then he resurfaced with a tease; Cunningham shot his first music video in seven years for the breakout act The Horror’s - “Sheena is a Parasite”. Since then, Cunningham hasn’t released anything else. Although the buzz is that he has been working with The Horrors again; only this time in a different capacity as record producer. And now while we wait to see the results, Cunningham has teased us again with a rather disturbing photo spread that he shot for Dazed & Confused Magazine of none other than Grace Jones.
I had never heard of Omaha Bitch until I came across the video for their track “Orgasmic Troopers”. There is something so lovely about the thought of ballerinas moshing.
I just stumbled across this 1981 music video for Debbie Harry, directed by HR Giger of Alien fame. This looks like a collaboration of two very talented people who should have never met.
I just saw the video for the new single by The Pretenders. I had no idea that they were back at it. What a nice surprise. Chrissy Hynde still kills it and is sexy as fuck at 57.
HBO Docs recently picked up for distribution a brilliant documentary that some of my friends made called In A Dream. Out takes and deleted footage were worked into a gorgeous video for the moody track “Cutting Ice to Snow” by Efterklang. The song reminds me a bit of something I’d expect from Sigur Ros.
Efterklang - “Cutting Ice To Snow” from Herzliya Films on Vimeo.
I really like both this Raveonettes song and the video produced by some of my friends at Blind. The only thing missing from it is Sharon Foo’s pretty little face; she sure is a looker.
The Raveonettes See in Black & White
A few days ago, Bill told me that he has only been listening to Gorgoroth. I nodded. Of course my only knowledge of the band is from the Vice film on True Norwegian Black Metal. I bet he also listens to Dimmu Borgir. I came across this video of theirs. I don’t know if I’m suppose to be scared or laugh. But then again I am going to see Gwar tonight. Really, I am!
Banner photos courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photos Division, FSA-OWI collection.
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