Tag: Music Video Monday

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Music Video Monday: “Voices” by Joecephus and The George Jonestown Massacre

Credit: Joecephus and The George Jonestown Massacre (YouTube)

Today’s Music Video Monday takes a troubling, high-energy, color-saturated trip into the minds of Joecephus and The George Jonestown Massacre. “Voices” is a riff-heavy banger about, well … maybe about being your own best friend?

“No one ever calls one me,” Josephus sings. “That’s OK cuz I’ve got voices in my head.”

Well, maybe it’s a bit more sinister than that. 

“Voices that talk to me all through the night/Voices that tell me everything’s alright/Voices that tell me things untrue/Voices that tell me everything about you.”  

The band tapped Memphis director (and the Flyer’s own film and TV editor) Chris McCoy to capture the anxiety and paranoia of it all. And McCoy did it all, too — producing, directing, shooting, and editing, with some help from his wife and Memphis film editor Laura Jean Hocking for finishing touches. 

The finished product is a dizzying, dazzling display of disquieting imagery. Silent-movie-era Satan, fairies, and a guy spitting up … coins? 

“Since I was doing everything myself, I tried to keep it simple,” McCoy said. “I was going in an entirely different direction with it until I showed [singer Joey Killingsworth] the first cut. 

“He introduced me to the films of Segundo de Chomón, a Spanish filmmaker from the very early silent era who was kind of a proto-Surrealist. So, I threw away what I had and started over, remixing Chomón’s images with the band’s performance.” 

If you’d like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.

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Film Features Film/TV

Music Video Monday: “Never Give Up” by Muck Sticky

Let us now praise Muck Sticky. The pioneering stoner rapper’s been spreading good vibes since the 1990s.

Most of that time, he’s been dressed in nothing but pajamas. He believes July 1st, 2002 — the date of his best friend’s funeral — was the last time he wore hard pants.

But that doesn’t mean he’s lazy. His 16th(!) album Man In Pajamas weighs in at a robust 22 tracks. While The Sticky Muck has never been a stickler for genre, this album demonstrates the most musical diversity of his long, dank career.

Case in point is “Never Give Up”, the newest single from Man In Pajamas. Shot by producer Nik Nil and directed by Muck, the video shows the artist chilling on the Central Gulf Coast beach where he spends most of his time these days.

“It’s a departure from my normal sound for sure,” says Muck. “It’s a ballad, and I’m not known for doing many of those. I feel like the lyrics are a message from God. Sometimes we write the songs, and sometimes the songs write themselves through us. This is one of those that I was blessed to be the channel for.”

If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: “Little Crystal” by Model Zero

Model Zero in "Little Crystal"

“Hot stuff! I can’t get enough!” Even in the current heat wave, some Memphians survive the summer by simply owning it. And now, as we bake under the blazing sun, we’ll all be singing that deliciously catchy line from the new single by Model Zero. I choose this heat! Yet the hot stuff that the band sings of may also reside on the dance floor, in a disco ball, or even in a little crystal.

Just what that little crystal is doing to us is unclear, but there’s some kind of transcendence happening — as seen in the video, when the Model Zero lads-about-town find their night of pool displaced to a land of wizardry. Perhaps they were transported there by some esoteric piece of quartz in their vintage drum machine?

Singer/guitarist/sythesist Frank McLallen offers this bit of insight into the sheer grooviness of the new single and video: “‘Little Crystal’ is a break in the surrounding gloom,” he writes. “It’s a sense of hope and travel, love and magic. We’ve already spent the first album recording our anger, fear, pain and distrust. It’s time for Little Crystal take our hands again so we can dip in that hot, hot stuff.”

For her part, video director Laura Jean Hocking was delighted to have the Little Crystal take her hand. “Model Zero is one of my favorite Memphis bands,” she notes in a statement. “I had wanted to do a video for them for some time, and the plan finally came together. The concept I brought to ‘Little Crystal’ meshed perfectly with a visual theme they had in mind, based on art director Sara Moseley’s ‘Candy Cult’ motif.  

“In the ‘magic band’ section, the inspiration for director of photography Chad Barton’s camera moves and lens choices came from the original promo clip for The Rolling Stones’ ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ and Parquet Courts’ ‘Homo Sapien’ video.  I wanted the magic band to be pure escapism, wild and colorful, a portal into a world where you can dance the darkness of the world away.” 

Watch for more Model Zero coverage in this week’s Memphis Flyer music feature, out on June 29th.

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Film Features Film/TV

Music Video Monday (On Tuesday): “Get Out” by Dirty Streets

It’s a rare Tuesday edition of Music Video Monday featuring Dirty Streets. Memphis’ hard-hitting guitar rock trio has a new record out, produced by Matt Ross-Spang. Guitarist Justin Toland, bassist Thomas Storz, and drummer Andrew Denham are currently barnstorming the West Coast. If you’re in San Francisco, you can find them tonight playing at the legendary Bottom of the Hill with El Perro.

“Get Out” is a road song that is relevant to their current touring regime. “The first line refers to ‘moving out west to the rolling hills’ which is really just the concept of any place other than here,” Toland recently told Wildfiremusic.net. “Moving around throughout my life and going on tour has really made me think more about how the idea of going to a new place can be so inspiring, but can also be a trap within itself. The song is really just about how there is no escape from life itself.”

Toland says the band found inspiration in working with the soon-to-be-legendary, Grammy-winning producer. “Matt Ross-Spang is like nobody I’ve ever worked with. There is a knack some people have for sensing a feeling in one bone of a song and building a whole skeleton. Matt is one of those people. He works more like an artist than a producer, shaping sounds and guiding without effort.”

The video, directed by Blake Heimbach, brings you into Matt Ross-Spang’s new Southern Grooves studio with the band as they “Get Out.” Rock on!

If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.

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Film Features Film/TV

Music Video Monday: “Big League” by Moneybagg Yo ft. Yo Gotti and Mozzy

After an accidental two-week hiatus, Music Video Monday returns with a big win for a Memphis artist.

Tonight is Game 5 of the NBA Finals, with the seven game series between the Boston Celtics and the Golden State Warriors tied 2-2. While we all wish the Grizzlies were still in the mix, the soundtrack for the finals have a distinct Memphis flair. Moneybagg Yo and Yo Gotti penned the official song of the NBA finals, “Big League.” It’s all about that moment when the stakes are as high as they get.

Speaking of “as high as it gets,” the video shows game day at the Yo mansion. It’s every bit as decadent as you would expect. Go Grizz, we’ll get ’em next year. Meanwhile, here’s a sick beat from Memphis.

If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.

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Film Features Film/TV

Music Video Monday: “Fade Into You” by Valerie June

Valerie June is currently on the road in support of her 2021 album The Moon and the Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers, and is selling out venues like the legendary Filmore in San Francisco. MVM caught up with her prodigious video output earlier this year, and now she has a great new video of her and the band covering a classic from the alternative era. “Fade Into You” was a big hit for Mazzy Starr, who emerged from the L.A. Paisley Underground scene in the early 1990s. Valerie June breathes new life into Hope Sandoval’s ethereal vocal lines. Val’s appearance in Louisville, Kentucky, tomorrow night (Tuesday, May 24) looks like your last chance to catch her before a late spring swing through the Pacific Northwest and a summer tour of Europe. Meanwhile, here’s a little beauty for your Monday.

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Film Features Film/TV

Music Video Monday (on Tuesday): Frog Squad Live

Technical difficulties delayed this week’s Music Video Monday until Tuesday, but we’ve got a special treat for you today. Memphis jazz ensemble Frog Squad recently played the Crosstown Arts Green Room. The group, which consists of saxophonists Chad Fowler, Hope Clayburn, Franko Coleman, and Aaron Phillips, keyboardist Cedrick Taylor, bassist Khari Wynn, drummer Jon Harrison, and the bandleader, guitarist David Collins, loves to reset the music of composers from across the ages to their psychedelic free jazz mood. For this performance, it was eccentric French composer Erik Satie. Memphis Flyer Music Editor Alex Greene said, “One might compare it to the finer instrumental work of Frank Zappa, or perhaps the wilder, latter day efforts by Gil Evans, but ultimately it was its own sound. There were even lighthearted moments, as when the horn section’s oom-pah-pah dynamics were amplified by all the players doing knee bends in time to their parts. And an intriguing bit of futurism was added by effects pedals that Clayburn and Phillips played through, not to mention some fine synth renderings by Taylor.”

Justin Thompson filmed the performance for Crosstown Arts, with music mix provided by engineer Daniel Lynn and mixer Shelby Edwards. You can see the entire performance here, or if you just want a beautiful 7-minute jazz respite from the world, you can watch “Gnossienne No. 3” below. Frog Squad are currently crowdfunding their first full-length studio album Special Noise, so if you like what you hear, drop a few coins in their Indiegogo.

If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.

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Film Features Film/TV

Music Video Monday: “Strawberry Mansion” by Dan Deacon

Filmmaker Kentucker Audley got his start in Memphis at the Digital Media Co-Op, and was a two-time winner at Indie Memphis. He now resides in New York, where he has made two features with director and producer Albert Birney. In 2021, I interviewed Audley when Strawberry Mansion opened the first Sundance satellite screening in Memphis. Now, it is open in select theaters across the country — sadly, not in Memphis, but it is at the Belcourt Theater in Nashville — and will debut February 25th on VOD platforms. To give you the flavor of the film’s beautiful, magical realist vibes, here’s the trailer.

Electronic music legend Dan Deacon created the appropriately trippy score for Strawberry Mansion, and has released the main theme as a single. Birney and Audley directed this amazing video, which incorporates some images from the film along with some new creatures and outstanding glitch work. Check it out!

If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.

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Film Features Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: “Don’t Come Home” by Emily Rooker

Happy Valentine’s Day! If you want to warm your heart with stories of love, Daphne Maysonet’s Flyer cover story awaits with champagne and chocolate.

If, on the other hand, you’re done with the pretty lies of “romance,” Emily Rooker welcomes you to Music Video Monday.

Rooker is a Memphis based singer-songwriter and a member of the Memphis Flyer’s 20<30 Class of 2018. In “Don’t Come Home,” she’s giving the final brush off to a lover who has been neglecting her for too long. “How long do you think I’ll wait? / All alone and keeping faith / I’m not running, running, running looking for you / I’m not waiting any longer, baby / I’m through.”

She created this spectacular video with DP and editor Mitchell Carter, who shot Alex Hensley (another 20<30 alumnae), Mariah Venzant, Krystal Jackson, and Kristian Thomas doings some truly twisted pole dancing. Along the way, the girls get to go full Charles Foster Kane on the boudoir. And really, is there anything more satisfying than trashing a room after a bad breakup?

The video, which was shot at the Bartlett Performing Arts Center, will appear in the upcoming Venice Short Film Festival. Enjoy!

If you’d like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.

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Film Features Film/TV

Music Video Monday on Tuesday: “Seven Ten Split” by Lipstick Stains

Xanthe and Ryan Mumm-Saucier, Eric Potasky, and Jacob Pekas are better known as Lipstick Stains, everyone’s favorite Midtown punk band. Their latest album Controlled Chaos, which was recorded at Young Avenue Sound with Matt Qualls, consists of six blasts of straight-ahead rock that go down like a shot and a beer.

“Seven Ten Split,” the lead track from Controlled Chaos, starts with a catchy descending bass hook and never lets up. The video, directed by Jimi Myers, maintains the feeling of momentum by skating the streets of Memphis while the band lays down a mean sound in front of a mural by Birdcap. Take a look!

If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.