Viddler

Comedy. Collaboration. (Not) Cats. That’s what is coming up in today’s Music Video Monday. Ready!

Everyone loves live puppies… right? Of course. Rhett and Link (subscribe) have gone to great lengths to scientifically prove this fact, and have banded together with some of the most popular live streamers.

You’ll see appearances from Snoop Dogg, Justine Ezarik (ijustine), Gary Vaynerchuk (garyvee), Chris Pirillo (l0ckergn0me), Amber MacArthur (commandn), and Leo Laporte.

Enjoy more music videos, comedy, local business commericals, and more fun at Rhett & Link’s website and by subscribing to their videos.

You also can find the boys on Twitter: Rhett: @rhettmc; Link: @linkamont.

Remember: If you’d like to suggest a music video for a feature on the Viddler blog and front page, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post.

It’s Monday and I have yet another example of why music videos evoke emotion, inspiration, and a ‘can do’ attitude.

Music videos allow not only musicians to express themselves, but visual artists to express themselves. Creative techniques and unique themes stand out from the crowd. The following video by In Case of Fire is a great example of this artistic creativeness.

First of all, it was commissioned by Radar Music Videos (subscribe). As we’ve mentioned before, they unite musicians with directors to create low budget, high quality independent music videos. Low budget just means it didn’t cost $2 million to make a 3 minute video, and high quality results in something more creative than scantily clad girls dancing around. Yes, high definition, RED cameras, and all that fancy gear is usually involved too.

This music video is for the track “Enemies” by In Case of Fire. While there may be an underlying conspiracy theory regarding the export of resources to foreign lands, I’d prefer just to focus on the creative aspects of the video.

There’s a great combination of 2D and 3D animation as well as recorded video in this music clip. Sure, it’s a little bizarre ans surreal, but that just makes it all the more interesting. Paper cutouts of people carving up a turkey is certainly ironic!

About the band

In Case of Fire (ICOF) is a 3-member alternative rock band from Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom. It consists of Steven (vocals and guitars), Colin Robinson (drums and percussion), and Mark Williamson (bass guitar).

They recently won the Kerrang! Award for “Best British Newcomer” and their single “The Cleansing” will be re-released on October 26th, 2009, with two new exclusive b-side tracks.

In Case of Fire’s music can be purchased at Amazon UK, Amazon US, iTunes (opens iTunes).

Discover more about ICOF on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.

Remember: If you’d like to suggest a video for a feature on the Viddler blog and front page, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post.

Aloha on this fine Monday! I have some more live music for ya this week courtesy of BalconyTV (subscribe).

i said yes (ISY) is a folk-pop band from the U.K. that has come far since they formed in 2007. The five members — Hugh, Robbie, Margot, Jim, and Kit — started out busking on a bridge over the River Thames in London. Their first gig was playing at the Art College bar in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Since then, they’ve toured the U.K. playing in various festivals, been aired on XFM (including a feature on the XFM New Music Rising podcast), 6 Music on BBC radio, and even recorded an album over new years 2008/2009.

Here’s ISY on the lovely balcony of BalconyTV in London, playing their single “When The Light Comes In”.

October 7th is going to be giddy for ISY! They’re playing a gig at The Allotment in The Betsey Trotwood, Clerkenwell, London. Tickets are £5. And, according to the poster, there’s free cake and watermelon. Broadcast 2000 (whom we’ve featured before) and Al Lewis & Sarah Howells will also be performing. Now if that’s not a bloody rockin’ deal, then you’ve never experienced free cake and watermelon before!

You can listen to i said yes‘ music on their MySpace, become a fan on their Facebook, and follow them on Twitter.

Remember: You can suggest a music video to be featured on the Viddler blog and front page. If you’d like to do so, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post.

Happy Monday! Music video time.

This is a neat collaboration between a singer-songwriter and a city’s tourism board.

Jon McLaughlin created the song “For You From Me” for the city of Indianapolis, Indiana. Jon’s home state is Indiana, and his debut album was aptly named after it. The music video for the song was created entirely in Indianapolis; showing off many of the activities available in the capital city. From the farmlands to the museums to the football teams; the video covers it all.

Local tourism ads are generally pretty creative, but I’d definitely love to see a music video during a television ad break rather than a typical 15-30 second commercial showing just a couple key things a particular place has to offer.

Indianapolis has a very informative and easy to navigate website for visitors and locals alike to research upcoming events, local hotspots, the best places to stay, and more. Doing Indy (subscribe) is their video podcast which highlights businesses and events around city. It’s like a travel show, but local. (I’ll embed the latest episode after the jump.)

For now, enjoy the wonderful musical talents of Jon and the lovely scenery of Indianapolis.

Pretty cool mashup, hey! I’ve never been to or researched much about Indianapolis (until now) and the video covers it all very well.

Visit Indy is on Twitter and Facebook — as any good city should be. Follow them for an interactive experience of the city’s latest happenings.

Continue on to see the latest episode of Doing Indy, featuring the best pizza joints in town. Delish! (more…)

Ahh, ’tis a lovely Monday morning, wouldn’t ya say? The fresh air, the various animals singing, and a time where productivity can only go upwards!

Today’s music video features some live music from the streets and subways of New York City.

In every city you’ll find people busking or performing street theater in exchange for the audience’s (people walking by or watching on) discretionary money. In well-established tourist locations you’ll often discover great talent in the form of music, stunts, magic, and more. Sometimes all of those at once.

New York City is especially popular for busking because it’s one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, and it has Broadway theatre.

Big Apple Channel (subscribe) has provided this candid view of several buskers in NYC. Enjoy!

Find out more about the history of street performers in NYC.
For updates on the latest street performers — including how to become one — visit the Times Square Alliance’s website.

Big Apple Channel can be found on Twitter and Facebook. Follow them for original content based in New York City.

Remember: You can suggest a video to be featured on the Viddler blog and front page. If you’d like to do so, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post.

Happy Monday. Happy 7th. Happy hello, everyone!

Last Thursday (September 3rd, 2009), Michael Jackson was finally laid to rest in Glendale, California. 70 days after his death. He can now be at peace and we’ll continue to remember him for all the greatness he did in the world.

As another tribute, I’m featuring a cover of Michael Jackson’s “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)“. It’s performed by J.Lynn Johnston (lead vocals) and Andrew Heine (piano, vocals). J.Lynn’s great dane, Benatar, appears in the video. It’s such an emotional and engaging music video. Enjoy!

I’m typically not a fan of cover songs, but when they’re preformed in such a passionate and unique way they just knock the wind out of me. Yup, apparently there’s wind in me.

Be sure to check out J.Lynn Johnston’s blog, Twitter, and Facebook Fan page for updates on new music and he next time he plans to shower. When that shower video is done you can be sure to check it out on his Viddler.

Andrew Heine makes art, writes ideas, performs music, tweets, and obviously has a fan club too!

Remember: If you’d like to suggest a music video for a feature on the Viddler blog and front page, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post. I love seeing all kinds of creative music videos!

Happy Monday morning, Viddler!

Do you know what a She Wolf is? I’m sure the majority of the population wouldn’t be very familiar with the term, yet according to sources such as Wikipedia it’s self-explanatory; a female wolf. La dee da.

Shakira’s latest single is named She Wolf and I, personally, would have not discovered it if Justine Ezarik (subscribe) hadn’t made a spoof video of it — I rarely listen to radio. Before watching Justine’s spoof I decided to watch Shakira’s She Wolf music video in order to understand the spoof. Further down this post I’ll recommend you do the same.

Upon watching Shakira’s music video (which she wrote and produced along with John Hill, and Sam Endicott) I was taken aback by the stuttered dancing. Though, in hindsight, it is rather creative. Less can be said about the bodysuit revealing more buttocks than Jessica Simpson, but less than Britney; Shakira fits in that category of ‘A Little Too Provocative for Derek to See This on Mainstream Platforms”. We all know that’s what sells though, so enjoy your success, Shakira.

When I watched Justine’s video I was wondering if she’d wear the exact same outfit(s) as Shakira did in her video. There’s no doubt guys would scramble to see that, but Justine has more class than that, and I think she pulled of her rendition very well!

Okay. Time for the videos.
First, I recommend you watch Shakira’s original video by clicking here.

Watch Shakira’s She Wolf music video after the break…

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For many years Tuesday has been my favorite day of the week. There’s too many reasons why to list here, but trust me it’s an awesome day. That said, Monday has climbed up the ranks to take the second best day of the week in my mind. It started a steep incline into this spot when I started Music Video Mondays last February. There are so many epic music videos — most of them by indie artists — that I just can’t help get excited for a Monday!!

One dynamic (they define the word) duo which never fail to impress and bring a chuckle are Rhett & Link (subscribe). Throughout their lives they’ve created countless videos that entertain the ginormous audience on the Internet. Some text on their website describe them as Internetainment. That’s a cool word for some cool guys.

One of their specialties is their music videos. They’ve made plenty and have been featured on MVM before. Now, it’s time to take you in a time warp back to the 1980s; where the skinny jeans of today were born; where people actually owned DeLoreans; where hair was BIG!

Go on: Watch it three more times for good luck. You know you want to. *Play*

Wow. It gets better every time!! Rhett & Link sure are legendary! Of course, they couldn’t have done this video without the help of many members of their community that have refused to throw away precious items from the 80s. All of which you saw in the video. You can see a complete list of all the people that helped out on their website.

Lyrics, MP3 downloads, and 80s t-shirts can be found on the video page.

You can find out everything about Rhett & Link on their website. Yes, they do use Twitter (Rhett/Link) and Facebook.

Remember: If you’d like to suggest a video for a feature on the Viddler blog and front page, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post.

Here’s a political music video that actually doesn’t have anything about politics in it. Here’s a music video essentially about America’s current president, Barack Obama. From what I can tell Elizo likes Obama quite a bit.

The song and music video — Like Obama — was written, produced, and recorded by Elizo under the Sushiraw label. Sushiraw is Kaysha’s (friend: kaysha) record label and it produces some outstanding music videos by many talented artists.

There’s little to be found online about Elizo, but more info about his music is coming soon. In the meantime, check out more artists like this at Sushiraw Life. Follow Kaysha’s productions and travels on Twitter: @kaysha.

Remember: If you’d like to suggest a video for a feature on the Viddler blog and front page, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post.

Earlier this month Ranger3 released their latest single “Sense Of Direction”. It’s available for download on Amazon and iTunes.

Along with the release of the song, they also released the official music video for the song. Directed by award-winning animator Eric Power (RMV profile) and commissioned by Radar Music Videos (subscribe), the music video features the adventures of claymation animals in a Texan woodland. Of course, claymation and stop-motion go hand-in-hand.

The single also comes with a remix of Ranger3’s song “Old Simplicity” by Irish electronica artist Acera. Value baby!

About the Artist

Ranger3 are an Anglo-Irish duo formed in 2005 in Camberwell, London. They named themselves after the highly successful technology laden US Rocket whose mission was to land on Earth’s moon, but actually missed the moon by 36,000 km and spiraled off into space, losing contact with the earth. Cool name; pretty sad story about the rocket though.

The English half, Jim Perkins, is a composer, arranger and producer who blends acoustic and electronic instruments and sounds. The Irish element, Ronan Burke has a fondness for electronica, krautrock and folk songs about romance and death. It takes a dynamic duo like that to create the awesomeness you just heard and watched.

Bigo & Twigetti is Ranger3’s label and I must say that B&T’s website is damn funky and fun! They have (LOTS) free downloads, mixes, and much more. Seriously, check it out!

Ranger3’s debut album “Old Simplicity” can be downloaded from Amazon, iTunes, and obtained in CD form from Rough Trade.

Discover more about Ranger3 on Twitter, mySpace, and Facebook.

Remember: If you’d like to suggest a video for a feature on the Viddler blog and front page, then please send me a message, link it up in our forums, or just comment on this post.