Thursday Afternoon Music Videos: Matthew Good - Weapon

I haven’t been posting much recently – part of this is due to an increased workload, part of it is just general apathy – but in the interest of maintaining some semblance of activity, here is one of my favourite music videos by my favourite artist, Matthew Good. "Weapon" was the first single off of Good's first solo album, the brilliant Avalanche, and it marks a noticeable shift in his style of song-writing, moving from the aggressive, angst-ridden post-grunge of the Matthew Good Band to a slower, more ethereal sound. Orchestral flourishes give an almost heavenly air to a song that already feels deeply immersed in inner struggle, with the blaring din of the guitars representing the conflict that surrounds the speaker. Like a lot of Good's songs, lyrically, "Weapon" doesn't so much as follow a strict narrative or have a clear meaning to it as it does present a kind of poetic imagery, relying on the strength of its singer to convey the emotions of the words as they relate to the mood.

It is perhaps because of this that Good's music videos are often as beguiling as they are. Without having to push a particular story as it exists within the song, he (as well as whoever happens to be helping direct the video) is allowed to instead go the direct route of appealing to the mood of the song, rather than follow some pre-conditioned meaning that may not fit as well. Indeed, this is both an artfully and satirically adept music video that follows an entirely different path than the song, and yet, manages to enhance it beautifully. Through a bleak yet enrapturing collage of images and colours, the video provides a cynical and subversive backdrop that impresses upon its viewer the same feelings of desperate, mocking dissonance that resonate throughout Good’s material (albeit much moreso in his pre-solo career). At first, the video may appear to go the traditional route of "band pretends to play song while you listen to song", but that standard is immediately subverted through sarcastic and self-depricating editing, quick cuts filled with pseudo-subliminal messages, and a potent yet subtle sense of irony that takes nothing sacred.

But enough of my rambling:

The Joys of Voter Apathy

This is sort of a follow-up to my previous post. It's just a video I really liked featuring one of my favourite artists (probably my all-time favourite, but I'll play it safe), Matthew Good, discussing the perils of [cue 50's horror film voice] Western Voter Apathy.

Some background first: back in the day, Muchmusic (kind of the Canadian counterpart to MTV, only they sometimes played music videos - they don't anymore) would occasionally do these shorts in which they'd profess an interest in some kind of issue, and bring in someone to talk about it. For example, in the following video, the keyword was politics and finding some way to get young people to vote; in others, they would play to teaching media-consciousness, a vicious irony once you consider the source. Enter Matt Good, with his edgy brand of gen-X cynicism that was just bound to get the young peoples attentions. Or something. I remember seeing these videos at the time, and in the past couple years, upon discovering Youtube, managed to find a couple of them on there much to my delight.

I figure this is from the early 00's, during that brief period after Stockwell Day (see video) became relevant, but before he became a complete joke.

there's holes up in the sky
the devil punched down to the monkeys
and now they've got drive thru
and a video store where there used to be real live actors
used to ride around here
up on my high horse
with all the other good little butcher boys
a plagiarist of course
so roll over sweet thing
like a nuclear reprisal inbound from outer space
there's a comparison here that i'm trying to swing

but god damn it's deafening
wish you'd shut up about everything
the future is x-rated

there's holes up in the sky
and no one's seen your son in days
and things just keep getting weirder and weirder
and now christmas is for shopping
and the shopping god is everything
so roll over and lose it
cuz power is just another one of those things baby
it's pointless if you ain't gonna use it

god damn it's deafening
wish you'd shut up about everything
the future is x-rated

used to ride around here on my high-high horse