Dirty Dishes “Thank You Come Again”
Dirty Dishes highlight the wonderful life of a sales associate in “Thank You Come Again”. Let’s face it, sales associate is a stupid term that’s supposed to make it seem like your job is more than just a cashier. You are going to bag purchases, and if you work at a place like a donut shop you will be giving donuts and coffee and other things to people for money. There will always be people who treat you like dirt, and you get your fair share just working as a sales associate. Watch this video and understand it doesn’t matter how little you respect the person on the other side of that counter, they aren’t you servant put here to do your bidding. They are indeed providing you a service.
The latest video by Zola Jesus is for her single “Hunger”. The video stars Zola in an empty warehouse. She’s there being herself, singing and dancing, and posing. In a way, this video embodies what hunger is. Whether you’re starving for food or just have a strong desire for something, you feel an emptiness inside. It’s a space that needs to be filled, like a warehouse. Towards the end, Zola is more or less shaking. Hunger can make you shake, or you can become so obsessed trying to achieve something that it’ll throw you into a fit. By the end, she’s laying on the floor because hunger is also exhausting. I’m not sure that’s how she intended for the video to be seen, but it does fit the bill.
Run the Jewels had the Surviving the Golden Age’s song of the year with “Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)”. They also had the album of the year with Run The Jewels 2. The act is the first to complete the Surviving the Golden Age Best of Double. That may not mean a lot to them, but it’s a pretty big deal here. In a way, it makes them a super act. Their latest video for “Lie, Cheat, Steal” throws them in comic book, sort of. It’s actually just Killer Mike and El-P rapping for the greater part in front of a wall with the groups logo appear as graffiti on the wall behind them. But there is a comic book like filtering going on. At times their eyes glow. At other times they just get washed in colors while the words they are rapping are written in white around them. It’s reminiscent of the Sin City films but using louder colors rather than a black and white wash.
Matisyahu “Hard Way”
Matisyahu’s latest video is for “Hard Way”. Now, doing things the hard way is sometimes the result of being stubborn. Often, when you’re in the midst of learning a lesson or making a life change you’re not in favor of, it also becomes the necessary way. The video starts off with Matisyahu wrapped in rope, but the other end isn’t tied to anything. And the way for Matisyahu to get out is to spin around unwinding the rope. This scene here is the focal point, because all around him hanging from the ceiling are reflective squares that function like mirrors. It’s a symbolic way of showing that you have to take a hard look at yourself in an uncomfortable situation to realize the truth. It’s not what you want to see, but you need to. Without it you go living the lie. It all becomes an act, as indicated by Matisyahu ending up in a theater on the stage. There are some people in the audience, but to really achieve something you want, you have to take center stage. There will always be a smarter way or an easier way, but when you find yourself in a tough spot there’s nothing wrong with getting stuck in the ground and fighting your way out.
RL Grime “Always”
We saw RL Grime appear twice on the 2013 Video Rewind. Those videos dealt with some energy blasting through a core in the earth and a futuristic military response to it. The latest video for “Always” is a serious take on a UNICEF issue dealing with the high number of girls in Chad who are married before 18. It starts out with a message that a girl in Chad is more likely to die in childbirth than go to secondary school. It then shows a girl dying in childbirth, and goes backwards from that showing her life. The only time she smiles in the first half of this video is when she looks out a window and sees girls going to school. It’s the life she wants. She is interrupted by her mother-in-law who makes her sweep the floor and berates her for being lazy. We go back through her wedding, where she looks completely miserable. We follow her wedding party back to when she was leaving her house. The video stops then starts to play forward showing an alternative life where she gets to go to school. It’s a better vision, where she is up at night doing her homework, but feeling as though she has a future.
