MUSIC|MEDIA|DESIGN

Cincinnati’s Psychodots have been a fixture for nearly 2 decades.  While they’ve previously used The Bears website to display their work, they’ve recently revamped their own site, and included a video from their 2006 release Terminal Blvd.  Their friends at Flashpoint Academy in Chicago have dropped a video for the track Not a Pretty Face in the Sights and Sounds section.

I’m gonna get myself in trouble here.  From the day that Video Killed the Radio Star I’ve hated the conventional MTV music video form.  You know the drill: 4 guys jammin’ hard, intercut with the concrete images of the video directors idea of the song’s narrative.  The problem I have with this is that I rarely have the same vision of that narrative.  So first I struggle to understand the concept.  But once grokked, too often I reject the concept in favor of my own.  It’s too concrete.  And I get very little from watching my favorite bands lip sync.  In this case, the craft is great, and I didn’t struggle too much with the concept.  It’s a nice piece, and a good effort.  

Unfortunately, it doesn’t erase my own vision of that narrative.  From the moment I heard that song in the mastering session, it reminded me of an individual and time in my life, which not surprisingly was shared with Psychodots Rob Fetters.  For me, the song’s about much more than the music business, and the video isn’t funny enough to take me wherever it’s aiming.  I confess it’s great to see Bad Bob in metal garb and the costume girls are great, but it’s kind of a one liner.

But that’s just me.  It’s still cool.  But I say music video won’t mature until it can support more than one narrative vision.