Step into Catfish and the Bottleman’s Monochrome, Rock ‘n’ Roll Madness with their new video for ‘Pacifier’.

I usually have no time for montage music videos. If I’m a fan of your work, chances are I’ve been to your gigs and I’ve got a firm idea of what you’re about. If I’m not a fan and you’re a band that’s formed within the last five years, then I certainly don’t want to sit through 3 minutes of you rehearsing, hanging out and just generally playing up to the camera showing us how cool and funny you all are. Having said this, I found something quite admirable about Catfish and the Bottleman’s new video for ‘Pacifier’. The follow up to their charming animated video for ‘Rango’ which tells the amusing story of Rango the Sperm’s determined fight to race to the egg, their new video gives you an three minute twenty-two second ‘behind the scenes’ look at the band in action.

Shot entirely in black and white, we see them en-route to their performance at Leeds Festival, rehearsing, taking part in photo shoots and participating in the usual tour tomfoolery. Cut to a few scenes of crowds rocking out and you’re left with an uplifting visual accompaniment to a track that contains a pretty sad subject matter (the song is about a friend of the vocalist Van McCann who lost her mother when she was young).

Having signed to Communion Records, Catfish have gained support from The Guardian, XFM and Radio 1 and are tipped for big things in 2014.

The band are set to support The Family Rain at London’s Heaven on November 25 and judging by their energetic performances shown in this video, fans are certainly in for a treat.

‘Pacifier’ is set to drop December 9^th on Communion Records.

Born Ruffians – ‘Permanent Hesitation’

Born Ruffians never fail to come up to something visually interesting when it comes to their music videos. Whether it be their oscilloscope offering for ‘What To Say’ (my personal favourite) or their headache inducing blur fest that accompanied ‘Needle’, I always find myself excitedly anticipating what they will come up with next.  Luckily they didn’t disappoint with their new video for ‘Permanent Hesitation’, which sees front man Luke Lalonde transformed into a mosaic distortion as he cavorts across the screen singing. Directed by Ron Eyal and Eleanor Burke, the multi-panelled effects were achieved using an 8-camera rig, which Burke and Eyal created with the help of cinematographer D.P. Eric Lin.

Even though it does make you feel like you’ve got lost in the mirror funhouse at the circus, the video is fun to watch, if not only to wonder how they did it.

It is however, uncannily similar to Metric’s latest video for ‘Synthetica’. Regardless of who had the idea first, ‘Permanent Hesitation’ makes for interesting viewing – just be careful of the motion sickness.

Aurganic – The Lost And The Found

Ask 10 people to close their eyes and listen to Aurganic’s latest single ‘The Lost and The Found’ then ask them to explain the type of imagery it evokes.

I would almost guarantee that at least 7 of them would describe a sunny day, perhaps an extended view of an ocean and maybe even a hammock swinging in the wind.

Well the Toronto based alt-electronica act provides exactly that (minus the swinging hammock) for their latest video.

After collaborating with Burning Bear Films, Aurganic bring in cinematographer Matvey Stavitsky for directorial duties where he sets the scene with a beautiful view of two yachts in the sea.

Add a few abstract shots of an electric organ while vocalist Scott Carruthers plays along and you’ve got the first 60 seconds of a pretty pleasant video. That is of course before you realise that you are actually over half way through, and the beautiful paradise soon becomes a beautiful prison. Carruthers’ constant sultry looks to the camera are almost too much to tolerate and when it finally came to a close I was just genuinely happy to see an end to his open aired crooning.

With the gorgeous location and ambient sound I really wanted this to develop into something more exciting than a man retreating to his house for even more drawn out, deadpan looks to the camera while his lady friend prepares to leave him. Unfortunately I was too bored by this to be sympathetic to his relationship woes and if I was placed in that beautiful setting, the last track I’d want to hear is ‘The Lost and The Found’.