Video Of The Week: The Strokes

I couldn't think of a better way to sum the week up than saying it's Hard To Explain, as The Strokes so aptly put it in on their seminal 2001 album Is This It? (also their first ever single).

NME, Rolling Stone and Spin were among the band-wagoners who named this either in their top 10s of the year of top 40 of the decade, leading average music listeners to think the band never put out anything else worthy of attention later when, in fact, Juicebox stands as their best track - and one that can favourably be compared to almost any other song put out this millennia.

Still, the video, directed by Roman Coppola, Johannes Gamble and singer Julian Casablancas using mostly found footage was a nice calling card that kept just enough mystery to grab the attention and ask for more, which I guess to some extent, the early-2000s rock scene really did.

I'm of the school of thought that claims The Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Jack White saved us from even more Nickleback being thrown at us, and possibly longer reigns for bands like Limp Bizkit. We dodged a bullet, folks, and it started with this:

Video Of The Week: The Dead Weather

At long last, The Dead Weather (Alison Mosshart of The Kills on vocals, Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs and The Greenhornes on ass, Dean Fertita of Queens Of The Stone Age on guitar and a guy named Jack White on drums and vocals) are set to release their third record, Dodge And Burn, at the end of the month.

As with most things Jack White, it happened with one phone call and a couple of days to record two songs in late 2013, the same for two more mid-2014, and 8 more songs this Spring. Crash, bang, boom - 12 songs, one record.

I won't pretend that I Feel Love (Every Million Miles) is the most original track each of these four artists have ever created, but it certainly fits in all of their respective cannons as a groovy, listenable song, etched in blues and hard rock, with just the right amount of lyrics for the right amount of time it lasts.

And the Ian & Copper-directed video has just the right amount of budget to be considered serious and professional while not being over-the-top nor overshadowing Mosshart or the music. You can hear White's voice at times, particularly near the end, but it's all Mosshart walking up a street against a wind machine.

Video Of The Week: The Pack A.D.

I started the week with The Pack A.D., so I might as well end it the same way...

Rocket isn't my favourite song off their Do Not Engage record, but I must admit that starting the day with a post-apocalyptic video set in a desert felt pretty great, particularly after a chilly night where I left my windows open. So kudos, director Jimi Cuell, for instilling warmth in my day through a Mad Max-versus-Girl Power clip that inexplicably takes an animated and colourful turn at the end.



And good on everyone involved to dress the girls like everybody else, and not have them be showing (more) skin just because they have a different chromosome.

Video Of The Week: Arctic Monkeys

And in the category ''Best rip-off of Black Sabbath's War Pigs'', the award goes to... Arctic Monkeys?

Yes, indeed. And just like last week's Beyoncé video, it was directed by Jake Nava. It's a black-and-white shot of the band playing in a Beat Generation-type of 1960s jazz bar orgy attended by British ''rockers'' of the time (you can tell by their leather jackets), so you half-expect the video to end with them entering a fight with ''mods'' (their Vespa-driving, fashion-obsessed amphetamine using counterparts):



Like most songs by Arctic Monkeys, it's irresistibly catchy and relatively dancey, but this time they've put more rock in their sound, and it suits them just fine. 2013's AM was also less ''let's be clever at all costs'' and more, uh, ''good'' than their previous efforts except for their first album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006), which was successful on both ends.

Video Of The Week: The Pack A.D.

I was all set to feature a cheesy 1980s video this week when I learned that a band I really like and whom I have seen 5 times in concert had released a brand-new video to set up the release of their next record early next year (well, 5 or 6 weeks from now), The Pack A.D.

They hail from Vancouver, BC and, because they're a two-piece, have often been compared to The White Stripes (of course), The Kills (more understandably), and The Black Keys (hopefully not lately), though I'd put their brand of garage rock closer to the likes of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (though cleaner), where, sure, the riffs abound, but they're packed with a dark bass-level ''full'' sound that works wonders with singer Becky Black's clean and pitch-perfect voice, one that is slightly reminiscent of Elastica's Justine Frischmann.

In concert, the duo exhibit a fierceness and edge like you'd expect, but also a dry sense of humour the British would love. I was somewhat surprised to learn they'd jumped from small indie label Mint Records to the bigger Nettwerk for this release, but perhaps it's a step they needed to make to move from playing bars with 100 standing-room only places to the 1,500-3,000-people places they should be in and would fill out easily - both in crowd capacity and largeness of sound.

Without further ado, from Do Not Engage (January 2014), Big Shot:

Video Of The Week: Astral Gunk

A few years ago, young musician Joe Chamandy applied to have his band - oddly named The Beatles - play my annual UnPop Montreal festival, despite not knowing a thing about it. It didn't pan out in the end, and his Beatles are on hiatus these days.

But he's in another band called Astral Gunk, which he sometimes plugs on his blog, which consists mostly of artwork he's drawing, as independent pieces as much as show posters.

In any event, Astral Gunk - based not in Montréal but in Sackville, New Brunswick - made a video for their song Modern Life, and it's fun to watch: