Tag: music video

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Music Video Monday: Top 10 Memphis Music Videos of 2018

Memphis music was vibrant as ever in 2018. Every week, the Memphis Flyer brings you the latest and best video collaborations between Bluff City filmmakers and musicians in our Music Video Monday series. To assemble this list, I rewatched all 34 videos that qualified for 2018’s best video and scored them according to song, concept, cinematography, direction and acting, and editing. Then I untangled as many ties as I could and made some arbitrary decisions. Everyone who made the list is #1 in my book!

10. Louise Page “Blue Romance”

Flowers cover everything in this drag-tastic pop gem, directed by Sam Leathers.

Music Video Monday: Top 10 Memphis Music Videos of 2018 (13)


9. Harlan T. Bobo “Nadine” / Fuck “Facehole”

Our first tie of the list comes early. First is Harlan T. Bobo’s sizzling, intense “Nadine” clip, directed by James Sposto.

Music Video Monday: Top 10 Memphis Music Videos of 2018 (11)

I used science to determine that Fuck’s Memphis Flyer name drop is equal to “Nadine”.

Music Video Monday: Top 10 Memphis Music Videos of 2018 (12)

8. Aaron James “Kauri Woods”

The smokey climax of this video by Graham Uhelski is one of the more visually stunning things you’ll see this year.

Music Video Monday: Top 10 Memphis Music Videos of 2018 (10)


7. Daz Rinko “New Whip, Who Dis?”

Whaddup to rapper Daz Rinko who dropped three videos on MVM this year. This was the best one, thanks to an absolute banger of a track.

Music Video Monday: Top 10 Memphis Music Videos of 2018 (9)


6. (tie) McKenna Bray “The Way I Loved You” / Lisa Mac “Change Your Mind”

I couldn’t make up my mind between this balletic video from co-directors Kim Lloyd and Susan Marshall…

Music Video Monday: Top 10 Memphis Music Videos of 2018 (7)

…and this dark, twisted soundstage fantasy from director Morgan Jon Fox.

Music Video Monday: Top 10 Memphis Music Videos of 2018 (8)

5. Brennan Villines “Better Than We’ve Ever Been”

Andrew Trent Fleming got a great performance out of Brennan Villines in this bloody excellent clip.

Music Video Monday: Top 10 Memphis Music Videos of 2018 (6)


4. (tie) Nick Black “One Night Love” / Summer Avenue “Cut It Close”

Nick Black is many things, but as this video by Gabriel DeCarlo proves, a hooper ain’t one of ’em.

Music Video Monday: Top 10 Memphis Music Videos of 2018 (4)

The kids in Summer Avenue enlisted Laura Jean Hocking for their debut video.

Music Video Monday: Top 10 Memphis Music Videos of 2018 (5)

3. Cedric Burnside “Wash My Hands”

Beale Street Caravan’s I Listen To Memphis series produced a whole flood of great music videos from director Christian Walker and producer Waheed Al Qawasmi. I could have filled out the top ten with these videos alone, but consider this smoking clip of Cedric Burnside laying down the law representative of them all.

Music Video Monday: Top 10 Memphis Music Videos of 2018 (3)

2. Don Lifted “Poplar Pike”

I could have filled out the top five with work from Memphis video auteur Don Lifted, aka Lawrence Matthews, who put three videos on MVM this year. To give everybody else a chance, I picked the transcendent clip for “Poplar Pike” created by Mattews, Kevin Brooks, and Nubia Yasin.

Music Video Monday: Top 10 Memphis Music Videos of 2018

1. Lucero “Long Way Back Home”

Sorry, everybody, but you already knew who was going to be number one this year. It’s this mini-movie created by director Jeff Nichols, brother of Lucero frontman Ben Nichols. Starring genuine movie star (and guy who has played Elvis) Michael Shannon, “Long Way Back Home” is the best Memphis music video of 2018 by a country mile.

Music Video Monday: Top 10 Memphis Music Videos of 2018 (2)

Thanks to everyone who submitted videos to Music Video Monday in 2018. If you’d like to see your music video appear on Music Video Monday in 2019, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com. 

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: F*ck

Today’s MVM is NSFW.

’90s indie rock fans will recognize the un-Googleable name of Tim Prudhomme, Geoff Soule, Kyle Statham, and Theodore Ellison’s band that released two albums on Matador records before being asked to change their moniker. Now, Prudhomme lives in Memphis and, as you will see, he is a big fan of the Flyer. Fuck is on the comeback trail with a new album called The Band, a recent West Coast tour, and a new music video about the scourge of social media called “Facehole.” Catch the wave!

Music Video Monday: F*ck

If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, we here at the Memphis Flyer strongly recommend giving us a cameo, like our friends in Fuck did. If you don’t want to do that (and frankly, we don’t blame you), just email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com, and odds are you’ll get in anyway. 

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Big Waves of Pretty

Surf a wave of nostalgia for this week’s Music Video Monday. 

A few years ago, Memphis filmmaker (and Flyer contributor) Ben Siler started making a video for “Shoot Him Again, His Soul’s Still Dancing” by Minneapolis band Big Waves of Pretty. But life intervened, and he only recently finished the project, which he calls “pure, experimental lo-fi imagery…it features me and Monica Summerfield doing our best Wild at Heart impressions.”

The video is a hypnotic montage of hazy memories of the ups and downs of a relationship. As with many Siler productions, things seem unconnected at first, until a narrative subtly emerges, and the lost love turns dark. 

Music Video Monday: Big Waves of Pretty

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

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Music Video Monday: Fredd Velvet

Today’s MVM wants to stare deeply into your peepers.

Fredd Velvet’s “Green Eyes” is a shambling rocker about relationship dysfunction that’s pretty relatable. Erica Qualy teamed up with Ben Siler to translate the song’s frustration into images. Appropriately, there are a lot of ocular close ups. So if you spent your weekend drinking alone in your kitchen wondering what the hell your boyfriend/girlfriend was thinking, this one’s for you.

Music Video Monday: Fredd Velvet

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

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday on Tuesday: China Gate

It’s Tuesday, but yesterday was Memorial Day, so we have a music video anyway, and it’s super!

You can read up on China Gate’s new album Good Grief in Josh Cannon’s recent Memphis Flyer music blog entry. The Memphis rockers, led by songwriter Tiger Adams, celebrated the release of their record with a party last week. Now, here’s the music video for the first single, “Covered In Flames”.

Directed by Noah Miller, “Covered In Flames” lays on the nostalgia element with a Super 8 look. The film grain and light leaks give the footage of Adams and the band the feeling of being rescued from a long-lost reel of vacation footage from the 1970s. Even better, the video features a cute dog.

That’s right. It’s puppy time. Check it out:

Music Video Monday on Tuesday: China Gate

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: Aaron James

Today’s Music Video Monday will make you go “A-Ha!”

The University of Memphis’ music department has its own record label—Blue Tom Records, which gives students invaluable, hands-on experience in the chaotic world of the twenty first century music industry. Their biggest annual event is the Hear901 Festival. Now in its third year, Hear901 features the University of Memphis’ best bands, all on one stage. This year’s festival will take place on Friday, April 28 at The Bluff on Highland (formerly Newby’s for all you old schoolers out there). Sharing the stage with Haley Daniels, Flirting With Sincerely, Sonic Pulse, Kyndle McMahan, and headliners The Band CAMINO, is Aaron James. The indie folker serves up polished tunes on his new Blue Tom release Caught In The Corner of a Half Moon.

James’ new music video takes a page from the classic MTV playbook. “The Wile” combines hand-drawn rotoscoped animation by Shakeya Merriweather with live action footage of dancers Rachael Arnwine and Fannie Hortonm, shot by Eli WIlson. The effect will be familiar if you’ve ever seen the 1985 classic “Take On Me” video from Norwegian synth popsters A-Ha, but these young filmmakers take the trope to a new, intimate place.

Music Video Monday: Aaron James

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

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Music Video Monday Special Thursday Edition: Dead Soldiers

Music Video Monday is on a Thursday and its time to PANIC!

On Friday, March 31 at the New Daisy Theatre, Dead Soliders is throwing a record release party for their third release The Great Emptiness. The band’s electrifying live shows and careful song craft have made them one of Memphis’ favorites, landing them on the Memphis Flyer’s Best of Memphis Best Band list. For the new record, guitarist and vocalist Michael Jasud says, third time’s the charm. ““If you make furniture, is the first table you make going to be the best? No! The last table you make is going to be the best one…If you want longevity, then lightening in a bottle is not the way to go about it. If it happens by accident, that might make a great record, but it doesn’t necessarily speak to the artistry behind it.”

“Prophets of Doom” is is the galloping first single from The Great Emptiness. The band indulges in a little media criticism, calling out the Fox News fearmongers and self-serving propagandists with lines like “We’ve got to keep you scared to keep our jobs.” In the video, directed by Jasud and shot and edited by Joey Miller and Sam Shansky, the band hits the streets to get the wrd out about the dangers of Candy Crush invites.

Music Video Monday Special Thursday Edition: Dead Soldiers

 For more about Dead Soldiers new record, check out the music feature in next week’s Flyer. Meanwhile, I’ll leave with a little more media criticism from Jasud: “I think the modern comic book movie is one of the worst things that’s ever happened to cinema. They’ve made enough of them, they’re using all the money, Hollywood won’t take chances any more, because they can just spend $300 million on an X-Men movie that has the exact same plot as every other superhero movie. I don’t care about aliens destroying the earth any more. I don’t care about ANYTHING destroying the Earth. In fact, I want something to destroy the Earth for real. I don’t want to go to work tomorrow. So I guess that’s why people go to see superhero movies, but I don’t like them, either.”

Preach it, brother!

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: MonoNeon & A Weirdo From Memphis

And now, Music Video Monday brings you a new Weirdo.

I know what you’re saying. “If there’s one thing Memphis has plenty of, it’s weirdos.” But we (and by “we”, I mean “I’, because it’s pretty much just me doing this MVM thing) have a new weirdo for you, and he’s the kind of high quality weirdo you expect from Memphis. His name is A Weirdo From Memphis, and you’ve got to respect the fact that he’s just putting it all out there like that. Not only does he have a smooth, smart flow, but he tops it all off with a floppy pink anime hat.

In “America’s Perverted Gentlemen (Drawls)”, he’s joining bass virtuoso MonoNeon for a towed skateboard trip down Madison Avenue. The crew makes a short stop at venerable Memphis smoke shop Whatever, because this kind of weird doesn’t just make itself. You have to work at it.

Both artists come from the IMAKEMADBEATS Unapologetic crew, and he also directed the snack-sized music video. Peep it:

"America's Perverted Gentlemen (Drawls)" – MonoNeon & AWFM (A Weirdo From Memphis) from Dywane MonoNeon Thomas Jr. on Vimeo.

Music Video Monday: MonoNeon & A Weirdo From Memphis

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

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Music Video Monday: Idle & WIld

Today’s Music Video Monday is gonna patch things up. 

We’re going to wish you a happy first day of spring with a world premiere from Memphis duo Idle & Wild. Caleb Sigler and Sara Jo Cavitch have been playing together since meeting in church in 2014, and they have just released their first single “Come A Little Closer”, a bubbly homage to togetherness recorded at the Gove Studio.  “Every person involved was not only someone we respect at what they create,” Sigler said, “but also a dear friend.” The song is now available on iTunes, Amazon, and Bandcamp. Idle&Wild will be performing at Lafayette’s Music Room on Thursday, March 30.

This video, directed by Noah Glenn of Choose901, depicts Singler and Cavitch as relationship repair service, helping out a pair of lovers in a spaghetti fueled spat. It’s joyful ending montage of happy couples is just what you need to brighten your Monday.

Music Video Monday: Idle & WIld

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

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Crown Vox

Bow down before Music Video Monday!

Jennifer Burris is back as Crown Vox, Memphis’ gothic synth pop queen, with a world premiere! In “Ruler Of The Ball”, she’s taking drastic steps to maintain her hold on the realm—and some of the steps are backwards. Vox’s spooky, atmospheric song was produced by Eliot Ives at Young Ave. Sound. The video was directed by Mitch Martin, and shot by Gabe DeCarlo in the Annesdale Mansion. Robert Fortner returns in his role as Vox’s chief antagonist, a role he originated in last year’s “No Loving But Yours” video, and this time he’s brought along a squad of bannermen. I think I speak for all music video directors in saying that we hope to one day make something that needs Six Corolino’s services as weapons master. So while we’re waiting for the belated Game Of Thrones season premiere, here’s four minutes of sinister, sword-wielding bliss.

Music Video Monday: Crown Vox

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