Today's video is by Matthew Good Band. It's titled Load Me Up and is four minutes long.
Are you trying to tell me something, Lita? Hmmm?
We start the video with a big eye. In it we can see the reflection of people running. It's like the Drew Carey show is about to start. Three guys escape from a building while a bunch of dumb people run right into the doors. They eventually figure out that the doors go inward. I hate it when that happens, because some doors are poorly designed and yet you feel like a complete moron when you push instead of pull. These people look like they're dressed to go to a private school. Whoo hoo, schools out!
The singer who we don't see tells us to picture ourself sleeping on a plane with a possible bomb ticking. Well there's a pleasant, not scary at all scenario. Everybody is dead, and we're informed that everybody probably didn't go to heaven. Super. We reach the refrain and singer is asking us if we're feeling ok and looking out for ourselves. Well we were until your depressing little exercise. The three guys run up a curved flight of stairs while the private schoolers follow.
Singer wants to be put out of his misery, most likely by drug or drink. Sure, why not? I'll have what he's having. Three guys jump off the top floor of the building and the mob follows. Wasn't there a Beatles music video like this? They all somehow land in a pool or a river or something. I find it implausible that the building would be so close to this body of water and I find it implausible that they didn't fall on each other. Now singer wants us to think about being alone in the ocean with bunch of corpses. You just keep piling on, song.
Three guys (or is it four?) emerge from wherever to a fake wall at the end of The Truman Show. At least that's what I'm thinking of when looking at the background. The private school kids give chase, and this gives the video the opportunity to show several women dripping wet. Totally part of a story and not a cheap excuse for wet tshirts, really! During the break the gang catches the three guys and tackle them back under water. This will load you up: Drowning! One girl even bites a guy's hand, which seems like overkill. I guess you really, really don't ever screw with their school mascot.
One guy gets tackled by a girl. It's not me*. He ends up at a soccer field somehow. Did they really think that soccer was going to liven things up? It's raining while the crowd is yelling insults at him from the other side of the field. One woman spits to illustrate how murderous they are. This is how I view the world, but I may be but a wee bit paranoid. Singer is now singing about picturing yourself losing your shirt at Vegas. Our final guy must be hearing the same lyrics I am and takes the only way out by trying to crowd surf.
But wait! This guy is really sleeping. He wakes up to see the spitting chick in his room looking down at him. SHE'S GOT A KNIFE!
This song is ok, as long as you don't pay attention to the lyrics. Usually I don't when I first view a video and I rely on lyrics web pages a lot. The music video fits the theme. I'll give it that. The singer is trying to run away from the bad stuff, in this case a mob.
The awesome thing about this video is the story I made up to explain why the crowd was so angry. You see, they listened to the song when the band, the three guys, played it to them. The crowd was already feeling bad and the song was driving them into depression. However, they decided they could deal with their emotions by beating the heck out of the band. That made them feel better.
* - That was self-depreciative humor. Not bragging.
2 comments:
Leo Laporte, quoting some other guy, once said that if you ever push on a door that's pull only (or vice versa), then it's badly designed. It should be obvious just by looking at it which you need to do, even without a sign. It's the heart of user friendliness.
Ok, on to my actual thoughts about this video. I love it. I also think it's really funny that even when the band is named after the lead singer, you still can't remember his name. He's just "that guy."
It looks like I love this song for the same reason you don't. The tune is so peppy that if you listen to the song without listening to the lyrics, you might think it's a happy song. You would be wrong. This is a Matthew Good Band song and happiness cannot be found here. This gradually dawns on you as the song goes on.
The video does the same thing. As you noticed, the beginning is reminiscent of the Beatles in Hard Day's Night. At first you think the band is being chased around by rabid fans. You slowly begin to realize as the video goes on that these aren't adoring fans, this is an angry mob. Suddenly it's pretty dark. I like it.
I heard this song on the radio the other week after years and years of not having even thought about it and I was like, "Yeah, I should put this on Tork's list."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm9W4Ts-tw0
I appreciate that insight about how you actually do these posts, Torrk. I watched the video and then read your post and I was like, "How does he even know what the words say?" I thought that maybe I was the only person who didn't listen to the words and just watched the images. So it's good to know that you have to hunt down the lyrics so you can give a balanced presentation.
This song reminded me of Ratchet & Clank, for some reason. I think it's the part where they finish running up the stairs and come running out of the door. The camera is on an angle and it almost looks like they're running on the side of a building. Very R&C.
Dear God, I'm sounding like Torrk with the video game comparisons.
Also, at the end, when the guy woke up, you hear the sound of rain, but he was rolling around and I thought he was rolling on a bag of potato chips. Seriously. I did. It took me a minute to realize that it was rain.
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