The other night in Indianapolis, during a party Margot House, we started getting super geeky with music and looking up awesome internet music videos. It was really fun!

Here’s what we watched:

1. Jay Z on the MTV Video Awards

Even if you are sick as shit of this song you can’t deny that’s it’s one of the catchiest anthems to hit the radio in a long time. This live performance from the 2009 MTV Videos Music Awards is bad-ass. If you want to learn how to perform, you should take some notes from Jay Z: hands in pockets,cool as ice, straight killin’ it:

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2. Radiohead on the Grammys

Radiohead never ceases to apocalyptically blow my mind. In this performance on the 2009 Grammy Awards they joined forces with the USC Trojan Marching band for a high-energy spectacle that will raise the bar of award-show performances for years to come:
http://www.dailymotion.com/videox8b5rp

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3. Radiohead: “Jigsaw Falling to Pieces” music video

After watching one Radiohead video we knew we needed more. Although the music from this video comes from a recorded track, the footage is taken from a live studio performance. Embracing the lo-resolution aesthetic of youtube, Radiohead strapped light-weight security cameras to their heads to create one of the most imaginative and insightful live performance music videos of all time:

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4. OK Go, “This Too Shall Pass”

No internet music video session would be complete without an entry from OK Go. Their home-video treadmill dance routine for “Here We Go Again” changed the way that we think about music and film on the internet, garnering over 50 million hits views with a shoestring budget. Their newest video they for “This Too Shall Pass” may have topped it by effectively creating and capturing the most elaborate chain-reaction “Rube Golberg device” ever imagined. Skeptics claim that portions of this video are computer generated but the band denies it. Regardless of  the controversy, the creativity and ambition of this video alone will carve it an important place in film history:

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5. Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s, “Quiet of a Mouse”

Seeing as how we were partying with half of the old members of this band we really wanted to see at least one of their videos. This is the one that they said was the best. It’s a beautiful narrative animation of some very original art by Stacey Novak which must have taken hundreds of hours to put together. It’s amazing to see independent artists going above and beyond to make something unique, and just as amazing to count them as friends:

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6. Judgement Day, “Cobra Strike”

It’s always kind of lame to be the guy who puts no his own video at the party, but in the friendly, supportive context of the night it seemed appropriate. Here is our attempt at an entry into the world of fun, creative internet music videos: