Songs to Watch: Band Spotlight

Pull up a chair and get your eyes and ears ready for another exciting edition of Songs to Watch! This time around I’ve assembled songs which put the band directly in center stage. Fully and completely in the spotlight. Don’t worry, these aren’t those music videos where it’s just the band playing, like a live recording. Those are still fun, and good, and a great way to see your favourite band in their full glory in the raw. No, these videos put the band right in the middle, but with enough artistic creativity to make the video’s a true piece of standalone art. These are Songs to Watch: Band Spotlight Edition!

Weezer – Africa
This song gets a lot of flak. I can’t even say I’m a big fan of it, but this music video is worth watching. The piece of secret information that should make you watch it: this video is directed by none other than Weird Al Yankovic. You’ll notice right away when you realize that the front man is the Al man himself, and the video just gets more and more ridiculous as it goes on. I absolutely love when the drummer just starts drumming air. This video does perfect justice to the song!

The Strokes – You Only Live Once
Are you ready to feel dirty? This video is quite straightforward. It’s just the band playing in a… septic tank or something? No, can’t be, there are lights… either way it’s a room that the band plays the song in while the room slowly fills with some kind of black fluid. I can’t help but wonder what that fluid is! Kind of looks like oil, but you know it just can’t be. It’s must have been an experience to film this, trying to play an instrument in nasty looking stuff. Feel like I need a shower after that song!

Foster the People – Houdini
This song has a bit more production value to it than just a band playing in the spotlight, but I love the fact the band dies, literally, in the first ten seconds of the song.

The music video is about putting on a live show by re-animating the recently deceased band, by means of robotics and green-screened stagehands. It’s a great song, great video, great concept, and fits with the magic of the title of the song: Houdini. Do you think Foster the People are still alive, or have they just been doing this the whole the time?

LCD Soundsystem – Drunk Girls
How I guess they came up with the video, “Okay, here’s the video: we’ll just do it but get a bunch of people in panda outfits to increasingly mess with us as the song goes on.” Every time I watch this I get a little more annoyed at the pandas. They really push some boundaries! Air horns, fire extinguishers, smashing eggs on people’s heads… all the stupid stuff you do when you’re drunk, right? Drunk Girls!

There they are, some awesome songs featuring the bands in center stage, without it being too boring, right? Leave a comment blow if you know any other great videos with the band in the spotlight that’s NOT boring! Oh, and keep listening to NR92, you never know when I’ll throw some of these songs on!

(Header Image by Maxwell Read with Pixel Studio and Canva)

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