This week’s best music videos were heavy on animation influenced by ’90s visual culture, especially video game graphics and cartoons: noise champions Lightning Bolt’s visual for “The Metal East” features what look like mutated Dragon Ball Z characters; Heems’s video for “Sometimes” includes a parody of a dorky retro infomercial; and Tops’ “Driverless Passenger” is illustrated with a story of getting high in a flying car told through awkward graphics.
Todd Terje – “Alfonso Muskedunder”
Directed by Espen Friberg and animated by Bendik Kaltenborn, Todd Terje’s video for “Alfonso Muskedunder” wouldn’t look out of place on a Nick Jr. kids’ show in the ’90s, with its colorful, playful cartoons of singing and dancing animals.
Lightning Bolt – “The Metal East”
Lightning Bolt’s video for “The Metal East,” off Fantasy Empire, their first album in five years, looks like Dragon Ball Z mixed with Mario Kart mixed with acid; monsters and futuristic racecars stampede down a never-ending road. heads, Directed by Lale Westvind.
Heems – “Sometimes,” starring Hannibal Buress and Eric Andre
Heems (ex-Das Racist) sells a skin-whitening cream to comedian Eric Andre via a disturbing infomercial in this video for “Sometimes,” off his new album Eat Pray Thug. Andre learns a lesson the hard way after a stare-down with Hannibal Buress.
Tops – “Driverless Passenger”
The laconic cartoon stoners flying in a car in “Driverless Passenger” are what the cast of Daria might’ve been like if they’d gotten into psychedelics.
Panda Bear – “Tropic of Cancer”
Panda Bear’s new video for “Tropic of Cancer,” directed by Animal Collective member Avey Tare, is a slow-motion dreamscape featuring a family of paisley panda bears.