Directed by Lafayette-based visual artist James Tancill, the music video for the Preservation Hall / King Britt remix of St. James Infirmary by the Preservation Hall Hot 4 is an animated romp in the style of Max Fleischer (Betty Boop, etc.) that plays out like a storybook caper set against a backdrop of beloved New Orleans characters and institutions both old and new. Audiences familiar with the iconography of New Orleans music and culture will thrill as characters and beloved landmarks from the past and present find new life in an animated tableau.
Great little video, and a very well done rendition of a classic. My favorite version of the song is done by Hugh Laurie. (Yes, that Hugh Laurie; half of Fry and Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster, Blackadder, etc. Saw his Let Them Talk concert. Most excellent.) He didn’t put out an animated video, though, and even if he did The Preservation Hall Hot 4 gets the well-deserved nod tonight.
In the 1930s, mafia gangs clash on the mean streets of New York. Teddy Toad and his band of frogs engage in a battle with the powerful rhino White Coal for the affections of the delicious Horny Lady. Between love and vengeance – music, immerse yourself in the ruthless world of Omerta, and break the Law of Silence.
It’s a fun little story, but where this short film really shines is the music! Swing, jazz, and blues tunes of the time meld together and give the animation a cohesion. The composer took riffs out of a great array of tunes and melded and played with them wonderfully. Look for the scene where the frog is stomping around angrily in mud puddles – you’ll hear a “Singing in the Rain” riff through there and see a bit of Gene Kelly, and that’s not the only spot you’ll recognize a classic.
Animated by Nicolas Loudot, Fabrice Fiteni, Gaspard Roche, and Arnaud Janvier of Rubika School of Design, Animation, Game, in France.
Adam lost his beloved and his muse. To regain it he sets out to rebuild… First step, speed dating at his local cafe!
Animated by Galaad Alais, Benjamin Bourmier, Stephanie De Fortis, Amelie Gavard, Arnaud Lapeyre, Amelie N’Guekora, and Magali Vidal from Isart Digital.
Since the advent of the PC, and even more so the creation of the game console, parenting has never been the same. This is a story of one parent’s ordeal…
Animated by Alon Tako, Guy Elnathan, Daniel Lichter, and Sivan Kotek, with music by Assaf Shlomi, from the Bezalel Academy of the Arts.
A most excellent unscheduled weekend music video for this, a very metal weekend.
There’s quite a few Iron Maiden cartoons out there, but this is the best of the bunch in my opinion. I like Iron Maiden and have always loved their album covers featuring Eddie, so a well done animated music video with him creating mayhem on his way through a string of classic arcade and console games is, like, pretty killer, man.
Back in high school I needed to record a news report for our school’s radio station and hunted down a reel of tape to use. As is good practice, I cued it up and gave it a listen in case it was something important.
Well, it was. It was side one of All the World’s a Stage by a band named Rush. I’d never heard of them before, but it grabbed me and I listened to it every day until I found out who it was and where I could buy the album. When I finally got the album and heard side two… I was blown away by this symphonic metal twenty-minute science fiction story. At that moment I became a lifelong Rush fan. I do love my glitch-hop and electro-swing, but no one will ever beat out this Canadian power trio for me.
2112 is my favorite Rush song and it is the title track on an album for the ages. Okay, technically this isn’t a full animation but an animation of the graphic novel set to the music it was inspired by. File it under RC’s Shiny Things.
Rush formed in 1968 in Toronto, Canada though didn’t release a studio album until their self-titled debut record in 1974. That was the only album drummer John Rutsey was on. From 1975’s Fly by Night disc foreward Neil Peart took over the drums joining Geddy Lee’s vocals and bass, and Alex Lifeson’s masterful guitar. He also took over quite a bit of songwriting and wrote long, narrative, songs set in fantasy worlds that I think really played into Lifeson’s virtuosity.
I listen to the albums they did in the 1970’s most often, and my best friend liked the 80’s stuff best, but there isn’t an album without at least one epic track on it.
While their musical style shifted a bit as new electronics were introduced (And Peart’s drum kit grew. It’s really quite impressive) they never bought in to the commercial side of things – think arena rockers and hair bands of the 80’s – and had some struggles for recognition by the industry as a result. While they got some Grammy nominations, they never won. It took until 2013 to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, though Canada, being the good and polite folks that they are, inducted them into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1994.
Since I’m already playing fast and loose with the definition of ‘animation’ tonight I might as well go for broke and include this beautifully done video – some animation (of large scale) and some excellent camera work.
An excellent entry in the unscheduled weekend music video, uh, list of music videos that weren’t scheduled but everybody knows I’ll post one anyways list. Yeah, that list.
Celldweller is one of those artists that dominates my entire playlist for days at a time. I’ve only got four of Klayton‘s albums but the album this song comes from is my favorite. End of an Empire is a story album that tells of the fall of a far future civilization and the competition between factions as it tears itself apart. (At least as far as I can discern.)
His music in distinctly electro, but includes aspects of heavy glitch and DnB, as well as metal and even orchestral elements. Klayton puts together some complex soundscapes that lends itself well to story-telling.
Down to Earth is directed and animated by Michi Lange.
A hairdresser is tasked with giving the wife of the local gendarme a stylish ‘do while staying on the right side of the straight-laced-and-arrowed law man.
From the talented folks at ESMA. Animation by Florian Boury, Gautier Froehly, Manon Hirat, Matthieu Paugam, Cindy Redon, and David Varsi.
The Ruffled Crow 