The Top 5 Music Videos You Have Never Seen (Released After 2000)

I am a huge fan of the music video. I long for those nights where I just can't sleep, so I curl up in front of my TV and watch music videos until the sun comes up. Because of this habit, I have seen music videos some people may not even think really exist. This list is by no means exhaustive, even with the stipulation of the videos being released after 2000. It's a good starting point for recent forgotten music videos.

Number 5: Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap
Even with her recent Grammy nominations, Imogen Heap is not a household name, and she probably never will be. The most recognition she received was through the use of her song Hide and Seek on the TV show The OC, but even then, people learned the song and not her name. The music video is equally as impressive as the rich tapestry of layered vocals she created for the song with her keyboard and a vocoder. Instead of the standard wide screen format, the camera is turned ninety degrees, meaning the video is seen in a tiny vertical sliver on the screen. The visuals are simple: Imogen in a plain room with simple costume, lighting, and effect changes with her just singing her song. It's beautiful in its simplicity, and a perfect match for this rich musical experience.



Number 4: Gimme by Jill Scott
If I had to pick one artist who truly came into their own since 2000 that will still be relevant twenty years from now, it would be Jill Scott. Her second album, 826+, was a double disc album, featuring one CD of a live concert and another CD of newly released tracks that somehow didn't make it onto Who is Jill Scott: Words and Sounds, Vol. 1. The one single used to promote the release was Gimme, a mid-tempo jam about the joys of being in a strong, sexually fueled relationship. In the video, Jill Scott plays Dr. Love, who brings joy and happiness to all the patients in her hospital with her trust nurses Hugs and Kisses. In the end, everyone feels so great and filled with love that they all dance together. This video is great for two reasons: 1) it shows just how talented Jill Scott is while allowing her to show that she doesn't take herself too seriously; 2) it adds an entire new level of context to the song. Any video that can realistically expand and improve upon the song by adding more complexity to it is a great music video.

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Number 3: Natural Blues by Moby
This music video, more than any other, truly represents Moby's career. He is best known for his brilliant business sense, linking his songs to international ad campaigns with few people ever learning his name. This somber video shows Moby as an old man - a showcase of some of the best make-up since Michael Jackson's video Thriller - looking back on his achievements at the end of his life while wasting away in a nursing home. Eventually, Cristina Ricci appears as a dancing angel of mercy to end Moby's suffering and bring him new life. This video is so beautiful and so sad that I can't help but cry every time I see it. Leave it to Moby to create a brilliant statement on the fleeting nature of fame and everyone's inevitable end without anybody truly realizing what he is doing.


Number 2: Time and Time Again by Chronic Future
What? An anti-war video that doesn't blame the Bush administration for everyone's problems? Yes, Chronic Future's animated video for Time and Time Again is commentary on what can happen when people choose to fight in a war for reasons other than a true desire to defend their nation. Equally sad and infuriating, Chronic Future used simple, computer generated cut-out animation to make a statement that says far more in three and a half minutes than all the angry words a musician could ever say about war could ever achieve.



Number 1: Pagan Poetry by Bjork
This is a controversial video. It wasn't seen by many because it features brief glimpses of suggestive (and full) nudity. It wasn't aired by most because of the extremely disturbing physical content. The video to Bjork's greatest song - and my favorite song of all time (previously Gretchen am Spinnrade by Franz Schubert - has Bjork stitching strands of pearls into her skin with a needle. The sexual nature is suggested, not explicit, and the graphic content is artistic, not vulgar. This video may be hard to watch, but it is a perfect match to a deeply personal and passionate song. It easily belongs up on a wall in an art gallery as part of a digital display of film making.

Special Feature: The 2006 Sketchy's for Achievement in Film

In honor of the Academy Awards tomorrow night, I will be hosting my official film awards show live, right now, on my blog.

Introducing The 2006 Sketchy's for Achievement in Film

This is no weak little awards ceremony with five nominees and endless categories. We dive right into the nitty gritty here with Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards in a few succinct categories that cover the full spectrum of films released on 2006. And yes, there will be spoilers.

Our first category is Best Performance in a Feature Film

Bronze - Ellen Page in Hard Candy: Ellen Page provides a tour-de-fore performance unmatched by anyone in her age range in the horribly underrated Hard Candy.

Silver - Doug Jones in Pan's Labyrinth: It's hard enough to act in a horror film and do a good job. Doug Jones gives not one but two of the strongest performances of the year in film in the dual roles of Pan and the Pale Man in the twisted masterpiece Pan's Labyrinth. Chilling work.

Gold - Jackie Earle Hayley in Little Children: Jackie Earle Hayley gives an iconic performance as a pedophile who wants nothing more than to please his mother in Little Children that will love on as one of the greats in cinematic history. Every single frame he's in oozes the pain, frustration, and dementia of this character. This is what acting is supposed to be.

Our next category is Scariest Scene in a Film

Bronze - Mama's Dead in Little Children: When Jackie Earle Hayley's character becomes completely unhinged upon the death of his mother, you know all hell will break loose. I don't know what I was more afraid of: what he might do to someone else or what he might do to himself.

Silver - Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth: This is the scariest sequence in a truly horrifying film. From the blood colored walls to the eyeballs in the hand and hanging skin, this scene will be appearing in my nightmares for years.

Gold - The Palace Gates in The Queen: I know what your thinking: Trent Sketch, how the hell is that scary? You know nothing happens to her because this film is based on recent history and the Queen is still alive. Yes, yes she is. But that doesn't remove the tension, apprehension, and fear that Helen Mirren displays in addressing the silent crowd that hates her more than the paparazzi that chased down Princess Diana. Sometimes, implied horror and hatred is scarier than all the psychopathic killers you can lock up in a mental hospital.

Our next category is Funniest Scene in a Film:

Bronze - Borat Opening: Welcome to Kazakhstan indeed.

Silver - Meeting the Prom King in Little Children: This is the funniest sequence of the film, and the look of shock on those soccer mom's faces is priceless.

Gold - Meeting the New Prime Minister: This scene embodies the humor of The Queen and the approach to the subject matter: mocking the customs, not the people. That is why the film was so successful.

Our next category is Best Artistic Achievement in Technical Filmmaking

Bronze (Tie) - The Visual Effects Team of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer: This film had the single most convincing scene of CGI I have ever seen in a film: a handkerchief floating in the wind. Breathtaking and worthy of a spot on a digital gallery wall.

Bronze (tie) - Costume Design by Chung Man Yee in The Curse of the Golden Flower: Just Look At These Costumes. They look even better in motion.

Silver: Javier Navarrete's Scoring for Pan's Labyrinth - The single most haunting score of the year and probably one of the greatest ever composed for film.

Gold - Sound Department of Pan's Labyrinth: The most impressive aspect of this film is the sound design. It is pure perfection. Everything comes to life because you become surrounded in the fantasy world by the sound. Everything else just adds to it.

Our next category is Best Direction of a Film

Bronze - Guillermo del Toro for Pan's Labyrinth: His vision is so perfectly executed, his story so masterfully told, you have to give the man a lot of credit.

Silver - Stephen Frears for The Queen: This film could have easily been a total joke. Frears steers the film away from self parody and into an enjoyable drama that casts one of the most publicized deaths in history in an entirely new light.

Gold - Paul Greengrass for United 93: This is what direction should be. As World Trade Center showed, not just anybody can take on 9/11 and do it in a respectful and intelligent manner. Paul Greengrass is a filmmaker to watch for in the future.

Our final category is Best Achievement in Film

Bronze - Hard Candy


Silver - The Queen


Gold - Pan's Labyrinth


That's it for the 2006 Sketchy's for Achievement in Film

Review: Imogen Heap Album "Speak For Yourself"

I'll say it right now: I love Imogen Heap. I think she is an incredibly talented musician who, even after being nominated at the Grammy Awards, is extremely under appreciated by music fans. Her songs are solid and her use of electronic music technology is breathtaking. This talented artist is a true one-woman band who doesn't have to rely on tricks and gimmicks to stand out. Her crazy personality and talent work just fine.

So when Imogen Heap started her own record label to release her solo album "Speak for Yourself", I figured she might get some good reviews in the US, but might not even receive US distribution. But when RCA Victor picked up the rights to distribute in the US, I knew something big was going to happen.

Fast forward to Imogen Heap, dressed like a background performer in the Calista Flockhart version of A Midsummer Night's Dream on Grammy night losing Best New Artist to the far more well known and commercial Carrie Underwood. More surprisingly, Imogen Heap was the only Best New Artist nominee NOT to perform at the Grammys. Though, interesting sidenote, a friend of mine who works for Atlantic Records told me how the head of the label had to call and bitch every day to NARAS to get James Blunt a performance slot for the show, so at least Imogen wasn't supposed to be alone. But what can a self-run artist do to get that kind of respect in the industry?

Release an incredible album. "Speak for Yourself" is an underrated masterpiece, filled with great song after great song. All of her music incorporates catchy repeated keyboard patterns with nice touches of other instrumentation and creative use of vocals and wordplay. The crowning achievement, of course, is the show-stopping track "Hide and Seek". Imogen takes the traditionally used for effect only Vocoder and, with the help of her trusty keyboard, creates a musical landscape of layered vocals that could make a grown man cry.

This CD is routinely available, even after the Grammys, in the discount bin at stores. It's more than worth it to invest your time and money in will undoubtedly be one of the most listened to albums in your collection.

Review: Hard Candy DVD

I've been toying and taunting with you all for more than a day and the overly awaited event is finally here.

Introducing, the weekly Video Blog.

I wanted to start off really artistic with a cool concept, so I present to you:

Hard Candy DVD: A Silent Film Review

Enjoy.



PS: I will speak in future reviews. This silent acting thing was hard.

PPS: Theme Music available at the official Trent Sketch musical Myspace.

PPPS: Join the YouTube video group and let me know what you think. Awesome one stop shopping for videos of almost every reference I make. You can add your own videos to suggest what I should review next. Or post your own reviews.

I'll stop whoring myself out now.

For now.

Review: Avril Lavigne's new video "Girlfriend"

Ladies and Gentleman, I introduce to you, the long awaited follow-up to critically acclaimed album Under My Skin, from the punk rocker that brought you such hits as "Complicated", "Sk8r Boi", and "My Happy Ending", former nominee for Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards, Mrs. Avril Lavigne with her soon to be Kids Choice Awards winning Music Video: "Girlfriend"



Words cannot describe the pure artistic genius of this video.

For starters, that no talent ho Christina Aguilera TOTALLY stole Avril's whole Vanilla, Srawberry, Chocolate hair and choreography concept for her Candyman video, but really, who wouldn't?

Second, that song is SO smart, like "Sk8r Boi", but fortunately, all the on-tour tutoring corrected Avril's prior spelling errors and taught her that linguistic shortcuts are no way to build a career.

Third, Mariah must be steaming that Avril borrowed her video concept from "Heartbreaker" and made it award worthy.

Fourth, if Perez loves it, then it must be good.

Fifth, if you believe a single word I wrote in this post, you, my friend, need to revisit sarcastic snarking 101 and then come back to this site.

Sixth: I still have not posted my totally ground breaking, award worthy, artistic, creative, wonderful surprise post for today, and I genuinely hope to have it up by midnight. Hallelujah Hollaback, bitches. I'll eat your food.

Sorry, I started to think of The White Rapper Project for a second there. Fake as it is, it really is funny to laugh at the stupidity and lack of talent among the contestants.

And just so everyone hates me after this: Yankees suck, Scorsese sucks, ScarJo Sucks, Obama Sucks, JayZ sucks, TV sucks, Earth Sucks, and Your Mama sucks.

PS: Did you go back and review your snark manual for that last part? I sure hope so.

PPS: I still will hold out judgment on Avril's album "The Best Thing" because I really believe this girl is talented. But if all the songs are like this, she really should just stick with writing songs for Kelly Clarkson and other Idol alums.