Music Video #95 (Day 4 of 2010)

Today's video welcomes back the band that introduced the July Challenge to the world. The Chemical Brothers bring you The Salmon Dance.




Interesting.

This song is about some fish in a tank singing to a kid. It's one of those, "Here's a brand new dance and here's how it goes!" songs.

We start with some kid in bed in his large home. (What kind of lamp is that?) He is awoken by a loud but admittedly catchy beat. He walks through an unfinished room that might be a gross bathroom. He sees a big aquarium and walks up to it.

Whoa, the fish suddenly swim away and we get a record scratch. Ah, the record scratch. You'll continue to be around for a long time. Kid walks up to the fancy aquarium and we get a couple minutes of tension. The only fish we see are a blow fish, a piranha, and a red bug-eyed fish.

Suddenly the piranha starts talking to the kid, and he doesn't react at all. (CUT! Take it from the top!) The piranha is the leader and he introduces himself as Fat Lip. The red fish is a salmon named Sammy, although the quick image search I did doesn't match the fish in this video. Besides a new dance we're also going to learn some fun facts about salmon. Aww, why leave the other fish out? Oh yeah, they're dull, that's what.

The song is a rap, and it's slow enough and non-threatening so most can enjoy it. Oh wait, it's hip hop. Yes, I'm the type that can't tell the difference. I'm what scientist call a Whitus Boyus. I love how the blow fish puffs to the beat. Nice touch there.

The other fish start to come out as we learn that anyone can do this song as long as you have style. Doh! Basically you put your hands to the side and move your body like a salmon moving up stream. Does this dance involve people being snatched up by hungry bears?

Next we see several seahorses line up. Now, I loved the visuals in Let Forever Be, and here we have a great moment where the seahorses tails create a spiral effect from the side.

Our first fun fact about salmon is that they spend part of their lives in fresh water and the other part in salt water. Our second is that they don't last too long after spawning. I guess that explains the Dr. Zoidberg episode where his people died after mating in the ocean. What a way to go. Sammy the "salmon" talks like he's from Microsoft text-to-speech software.

Did I say that this song was non-threatening? Well it is, but only cause they took out some obvious swears in the next part of the song. Let's just say that The Salmon Dance wasn't an immediate hit. It confused people and they were afraid of its wild ways. Kid is on the floor, probably delirious. He moves his foot to simulate pushing one of the fish. Anyway, it wasn't long until people got The Salmon Dance and the other fish accepted it and they evolved, or whatever it is that happens when people accept something so radical.



Suddenly the fish, including all the seahorse, line up and a fancy angel fish emerges from the pebble bottom. Kid is so into it now that he starts kissing some yellow fish pressing up on the glass. Sammy tells us that fish have a better sense of smell than dogs (TAKE THAT!) and bears (ALSO TAKE THAT!) and they use it to find home. Salmon also rely on tides, current, and the friggen moon gravitational pull. Well la-de-da, Sammy. Can you invent a smart phone? I think not. Fat Lip is impressed by these latest facts, though. To illustrate the last point, a car flies to the moon. Wait, huh?

BUT WAIT! More facts! Sammy can go to Japan and back. From where? I want to know now. Wait, he doesn't mean from the moon, does he? Nah. Several fish come out of the underwater castle and form a cube. This is also a neat visual. It also shows us that the fish tank is bigger on the inside than on the outside. Next the fish make a double helix. Our last fact is not so fun. Pollution can kill both adult and baby salmon. Kind of goes without saying, huh? Kid responds to the sudden preachiness by throw food in the tank to assuage his guilt, but the fish are having none of that easy way out. One of the yellow fish commits suicide just to make sure that the kid spends every waking moment thinking about them. Or maybe not since the kid never notices the cat running off with the fish.

The song is over and Fat Lip asks for a round of applause. He gets it, but not from the kid. But fish can't clap. FISH CAN'T CLAP!!! The video ends with Fat Lip asking who's hungry. Oh yeaaaaah, the piranha thing. The other fish run away and we see a treasure chest toy opening up and closing three times. I guess that's the "Waah waaah waah waaah WAAAAAAAH" of the fish world.



This is a decent song, although compared to the other Chemical Brothers song I prefer the other one. I'll admit that at first I didn't think I would like this song but now I've warmed up to it.

The awesome thing is the spiral seahorse tail scene, just beating out the fish cube.