Music Video #35 (Day 5 of 2008)

Today's video is about how you should never escape from the suburbs. At least that's what I tell myself. It's Inner City Pressure by Flight of the Conchords. It's 2 and a half minutes of being smacked in the face by reality.


That was a change of pace. My reaction was to just nod with the video. Of course, I'm a wimp who would get crushed in the city. Heck, I hate going to Washington D.C. or any other city. I never feel comfortable in them. They're always so dirty and crowded. Anyhoo...


So we start in the apartment of two guys. The one without glasses starts singing about how suffocating it is to live in the inner city. Again, this just conforms to my biases about the city, so no argument here. Bearded no-glasses guy now goes through a list of how bad it is. We see him pawning everything just to make it. Even a camera phone. I guess he found out that the SDK for the iphone isn't that great. Next he talks about wondering aimlessly. Even if that's a problem in the city, I do that all the time, so it's not unique.

Next he complains about standing in the sitting room. While I'm sure that he's appreciating the bitter irony, I have to ask what a sitting room is. ... Ok, so it's the British term for living room. Good thing he's not American. He sings about how his shirt is covered in lint. Why didn't you pawn it? That would have solved two problems. He sings about how he sold his chair and can't sit, but I see a table that should be fine.

Guy with glasses is up. He sings about a unpleasant experience counting pennies at a 7-11. Then he walks around the seedier side of town and mentions that he's so poor that he's considering second hand underwear. Bleck. I'd recommend a robbery at this poin, but he can't afford a gun. He wonders how it got so bad while a landlord asks for the rent. Brutal.

After the break, glasses guy talks about the possibility of prostitution. I wouldn't, but that's because how I was raised. Also the looks thing. Definitely the looks. It's not even working for him, and he should at least look cute to women who like nerdy guys. This ruins his chance to be a flutist, which is kind of a dumb last resort job. Maybe it's more popular in England. The song ends with the guys jobless and playing synthesizers, which also could have been pawned. Or sat on. I'm just saying.


This was a fun song. It's the best song that isn't Thriller. It's gloomy but I don't feel bad at all. I guess I would feel different if I was struggling to make ends meet in D.C. or Baltimore.

The awesome thing about the video is that they don't show the fetishes mentioned by glasses guy. Since we live in the Internet age, I appreciate that.