We’re in the top half of our annual look at the best indie and underground music videos of the year. This is where we put all the strange and wonderful acts, the kind that you don’t see on the mainstream award shows. Strap in and enjoy!
Check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3
20. Cale Tyson, “City Girl”
Every creative on Earth lives in dread of having to learn the next incarnation of social media, and Cale Tyson takes that dread head-on in “City Girl.” After a friend convinces him it’s time to get on TikTok, he hires a TikTok dance instructor (Andrea Adolph) to teach him to cool. As a fellow old who had to be dragged onto the clock app against my will, I couldn’t help dig watching Tyson persevere and even put a little country into his journey. The video is peak cringe, as the kids probably don’t say anymore, but that takes nothing away from its appeal.
19. Ghøstkid, “Heavy Rain”
German metal masters Ghøstkid bring a disturbing tale of abuse and revenge in “Heavy Rain.” A young woman (also referred to as Ghøstkid and played by “Valerie”) is kept as a live-in pet by her husband (Tobias Blütner). Among his various tortures, he makes her wear a barbed wire mask across her mouth. The video is shot in a noir, gothic style by director Nick Hunt that lends it a ghostly, unforgettable quality.
18. Black Rose Burning, “No Love Lost”
It’s a crime that more people aren’t into Black Rose Burning. In addition to the classic post-punk perfection, they also make a hell of a music video. In this case, a young woman fights off an alien that would have looked perfectly in place for an old 1960s drive-thru. The Night of the Demon vibes seals the deal.
17. Chinchilla, “Cut You Off”
Imagine the act of blocking someone out of your life as a series of violent and majestic fever dreams and you’ll get “Cut You Off.” Chinchilla vamps through the video in various monstrous outfits while commanding a series of ghosts and using hypodermic fingernails to tear apart a heart in a jar. The whole thing is way Way WAY over the top and utterly delightful for it. Shout out to the legion of hair, nail, and makeup effects artists for this video, who are too numerous to list in this entry but all deserve a long, lingering applause.
16. P.O.D. feat. Tatiana Shmayluk, “Afraid to Die”
This year, P.O.D. went all out on the epic video for “Afraid to Die.” Directed by J. T. Ibanez and Parke Foxe, the viewer gets treated to vast alien worlds and a mass of downtrodden people led by a person in a mask with red lights. Over the screaming, defiant track, the harsh landscape beats down on the people, but they keep rising up. Honestly, I would pay good money to see the full space opera this is clearly someone’s prototype of.
15. Wolfie’s Just Fine, “Hulk Hogan”
I’ve already talked about how this video is part of the greatest lie wrestling ever told, but it’s still an absolute masterpiece of modern music video presentation. Directed by Jon Lajoie and Justin Slade McClain, the “slam heard ‘round the world’ is recreated with classic 1980s action figures. There is something endlessly uplifting about the rose-colored lenses of Lajoie’s music that turns pop culture into folklore. It’s that talent this one of the best albums of the year.
14. Darwin’s Finches, “Green”
For my money the best band in Houston right now is Darwin’s Finches, and “Green” is a wild ride. The band moonlights as a group of grounds workers who bury “flower children” in the dirt to produce all natural humans. Plus, there is a singing goat, which, in my totally opaque scoring system, is worth eleventy hundred points.
13. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, “Burn Into Light”
Sleeptime Gorilla Museum has always been one of the great, unsung modern masters of weird music. The video for “Burn Into Light,” directed by Tas Limur, is a folk horror smorgasbord of creepy imagery. From bleeding eggs to bird-headed shamans, watching it is like stumbling on a Cthulhu cultist gathering. I mean that as a compliment.
12. Sofia Isella, “Everybody Supports Women”
Hands down, “Everybody Supports Women” is the most intense music video of the year. Claudio Miranda directs Isella as she writhes and screams in an empty black void or squirms in the seat of a derelict plane full of mannequins. At one point, heads just start raining from the sky while Isella rails against the endless and unfair expectations of women in society. By the end, both Isella and the viewer are gasping for breath.
11. Fever Ray, “Even It Out”
Gather round, kiddies. It’s time for gender crimes with Fever Ray! “Even It Out” is basically a John Waters film about a vengeful drag queen that likes two things: her big titties and her ax. Throw in some blatant castration imagery and it’s just delightfully depraved.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
