Pitchfork

It's that time again, when we gather together the best videos from the previous month in Forkcast. October had some good ones: Justice mixing it up on Kimmel, Black Moth being Black Moth, Liars nuzzling kittens, rad skate footage to Panda Bear, lots more. Here are our recent favorites:

>> Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band With Win Butler and Régine Chassagne of the Arcade Fire: "State Trooper" [watch] | [original post]
"As Pitchfork's senior news editor Amy Phillips reported last night, members of the Arcade Fire joined Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band onstage last night during his performance in Ottawa, Ontario, for performances of Springsteen's 'State Trooper'."

>> Black Moth Super Rainbow: "Sun Lips" [watch] | [original post]
"This piece by director Matt Dilmore is for "Sun Lips", the song from Dandelion Gum we had on repeat way back in April, which first got us thinking about BMSR this year. The story here centers on the hazards of collecting and disposing of animal carcasses. It's goofy and weird, so yeah, it's Black Moth Super Rainbow."

>> Daft Punk: "Harder, Faster, Better, Stronger" [watch] | [original post]
"In August, Daft Punk put out a call for "several hundred MiniDV owner/operators" to shoot footage at their show in Brooklyn. "Harder, Better, Faster Stronger", shot by a couple of hundred cameras, has been edited into a video. Like every shred of Daft Punk live footage we've ever seen, it looks amazing."

>> Glass Candy: "Digital Versicolor" [watch] | [original post]
"Few details are out there about this clip yet, but it has a similar feel to that of labelmates Chromatics' "In the City" video, which happened to be directed by Glass Candy member Johnny Jewel. "Digital Verisicolor" stays in the city, too, Ida No's hissed whispers adding suspense to a young woman's night out, pantyhose troubles, and trips to the laundromat."

>> Animal Collective: "#1" (Live on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien") [watch] | [original post]
"Animal Collective appeared on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien", playing "#1", one of the shorter and less immediate songs from their wonderful Strawberry Jam album. There was a bit of an odd effect on Avey Tare's vocals, but the group admirably battled against the difficulties of doing something interesting on a late-night TV stage."

>> R. Kelly: "Real Talk" [watch] | [original post]
"Basically just Kelly's side of a phone argument sung expressively over an anxious groove, it's a song that takes the stream-of-consciousness dialogue of the 'Trapped in the Closet' series to its appropriately unhinged apotheosis. The conversation starts out calmly enough, until an accusation about Kelly's behavior at a club comes up and his voice turns as steely as it is smooth. 'Don't you think I've got enough bullshit on my mind?"'Um, yup."

>> Matthew Dear: "Don and Sherri" [watch] | [original post]
"I've become so used to Hot Chip's buoyant remake/remix, it's kind of nice to return to Dear's darker, more commanding original. The video, which premiered today over at Subterranean, is correspondingly noir, all glimmering Miami Vice streetscapes, with Dear in the foreground, cradling a mic on a stand and looking like a for-real frontman."

>> Sally Shapiro: "Jackie Jackie (Spend This Winter With Me)" [watch] | [original post]
"Directed by Jamie Milligan for Tarantula Productions, the video shows a pop-besotted, longhaired child pulling a Sally Shapiro record out from between albums by Cyndi Lauper and Duran Duran. Like someone straight from the Smiths' "Rubber Ring", the kid lies in awe on the bed, sings into the phone at Sally, and dances around the bedroom giddily, completely transported."

>> Black Dice: "Kokomo" [watch] | [original post]
"The video nicely encapsulates the track's disorienting repetition of fuzzy bass, off-kilter bleeps, and pre-verbal yammering through a dizzyingly quick succession of startling, sometimes hypnotic images. Froot Loops commercials, spaceships, monsters, motorbikers on alien planets being chased by giant spiders, disembodied mouths licking their chops... all these images whir past between brightly colored shapes and animations. Fuck art, this is as impressively detailed as it is possibly downright insane."

>> Robyn: "Handle Me" [watch] | [original post]
"In the original video for this song, Robyn plays up her toughness, wearing a hoodie or donning gold chains as pals stand by up to back her up. This time, its more about her quirkiness, as she cycles through a variety of loud outfits and lets her dark eyebrows contrast with her platinum hair. 'Your song is the bomb, but you're outrageous,' she sings. In Robyn's case, at least, being a little outrageous isn't usually a bad thing."

>> The Arcade Fire: "Neon Bible" [watch] | [original post]
"Working with director Vincent Morisset, the band created a sharp interactive video piece for the album's title track. It's a chance to go eyeball-to-eyeball with Win Butler as he sings, and you can fiddle with everything on the screen to produce different results with each play."

>> The Cave Singers: "Dancing" [watch] | [original post]
"The video, with its scuffed black-and-white shots of tent revival rituals (we see people clogging and testifying, being healed by a hand and baptized in a river), finds its participants moved less by the holy spirit and more by the undeniable propulsion of the song's groove."

>> Justice: "D.A.N.C.E." (Live on "Jimmy Kimmel Live") [watch] | [original post]
"OK, this is genius. Parisian electro-house duo Justice enlist some very prestigious guest stars to assist with a performance of 'D.A.N.C.E.' on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'. Please god let this be the new touring band."

>> Liars: "Homeclouds" [watch] | [original post]
"Aaron Hemphill and Julian Gross are all dressed up for the occasion, but someone forgot to tell Angus Andrew that they were shooting a video today, so he's shirtless. The most striking footage shows Andrew and a tiny feline sharing a long, tender moment. He's not the kind of rock frontman you expect to see singing to an 8-week-old kitten while the little fuzzball paws lazily at his lips-- Ben Gibbard, maybe-- but that disconnect is part of what makes this simple video so great."

>> Of Montreal: "Gronlandic Edit" [watch] | [original post]
"The song transports baroque psychedelic harmonies into 21st-century ennui, talking about 'bitches' and 'indie star[s]' over a taut bass line. The animated clip, produced by David Barnes and Nico Danger, similarly updates the drug-friendly cartoons of the 1960s and 70s with lushly animated, half-human, half-beast creatures and modern-day references. Any trip that includes Dick Cheney is a bad trip, though, man.

>> Simian Mobile Disco: "The Hustler" [watch] | [original post]
"At first it looks like your typical exploitation fare, but then things take a surreal and disturbing turn, and the video becomes a statement; it looks as though director Ace Norton is familiar with Chris Cunningham's oeuvre. Not safe for work and anything having to do with eating."

>> Panda Bear: "Comfy In Nautica" [watch] | [original post]
"So, so nice. Directors Patrick O'Dell and Sam Salganik soften the lens, drop the contrast, and shoot a bunch of skate footage, with the camera pointed into the sun. The video captures perfectly the throbbing happy/sad ache at the heart of the song."

>> The New Pornographers: "Challengers" [watch] | [original post]
"The Darren Pasemko-directed clip starts in black-and-white, as a woman in a polka-dotted dress and a guy in a black Western shirt make out on a love seat. Neko Case's vocal is both forceful and tinged with regret. As the rest of the band materializes, the video switches to color, beginning with Case's cold beverage, and then eventually overflows with the stuff (color, not the beverage). 'Whatever the mess you are, you're mine, OK?' Case sings, envisioning a beautiful alternate history, putting the leaves back on the trees."