The Savage Animal 11.11.09: The Videos of AFI
Posted by Mikey MiGo on 11.11.2009
In this edition of The Savage Animal, 411’s Mikey MiGo takes a look at and rates the entire videography of AFI.
It's been a long week. Things officially got back on track this week with productions. Apparently, my friend Joe's wedding was so badass it took a week to recover from. The final day of shooting for the third movie is approaching. Then we have about a month of post production and we're set to go. Three releases within the next 18 months. Mark my words! Good things are approaching for Digital Lizard Productions and myself. The support of everyone over the past couple of years has been very encouraging and fuels out thrive-machine.
After hearing "The Vow" on Chicago's Q101.1 this past weekend, I had to pick up Fashion Bomb's new CD "Visions of the Lifted Veil". I've waited for this one for awhile now. I'm not shy to admit my bias allegiance to the band, but holy shit this album is awesome. It's stuff with ingredients of metal, industrial, and just flat out rock. If I had to compare them to a few bands I'd go with Zombie, Tool, System, and a dash of NIN. For me that's a mighty fine talent pool to pull influence from and to mold. I'll be doing a review of some sorts of it soon and am ironing out details on shooting a really cool video interview segment to post up.
THE VIDEOS OF AFI
"I know it's only emo rock and roll, but I like it…"
I am against all that is emo in music. I'm a fan of emotions within music, but there's a specific sound to "emo music" that's like nails on a chalk board to me. Yet I still appreciate AFI. While I respect the genre, I'm not all that into punk music either. Still, I appreciate AFI.
I came across AFI like most folks. I heard "Girl Not Grey" and thought "Wow, this isn't bad". From there, AFI officially became part of my musical lexicon. At the time there were plenty of emo bands making it big and ruining music for me as I knew it. AFI, while I guess could be put in that group, was different. It's like calling Tool "metal". While it may be true, Tool is much more than a simple genre classification. To me, AFI is, or at least was, "emo-ternative". Not quite emo… not quite punk… but more times than not, I've found myself enjoying the hell out of their music.
Part of that enjoyment has been their video work. I appreciate a band that puts time and consideration into their visuals. I'm not talking about their physical appearance, but their videos. AFI, by all accounts, have evolved into a very respectable band of artists. Today we're going to look at their visual evolution and watch all of their videos.
[If a video won't play due to being taken down, check out YouTube or the other hundred places videos are posted. You WILL find these videos rather quickly upon search.]
"He Who Laughs Last..."
Album: "Very Proud of Ya"
Year: 1996
The 411: This is a side of AFI that I never experienced. I knew they were more "punk" back in the day and this is song makes that pretty clear. The video is a fantasy retrospect of Davey speaking of how he's "always wanted to be in a hardcore band". It's not a large budget video, obviously, but it's done fairly well. I like the old school retro concept. It's not an overly used theme still to this day. The best part is a bloody Havok singing from the trunk of a car. The song and video are rather short, but it gets the job done. You can see from the start that the visual aspect of the band was important. Rating: 7.0
"Third Season"
Album: "Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes"
Year: 1997
The 411: What we have here is the band casually sitting on a porch singing the song while local suburban children lurk around and try to buy ice cream. When that fails, the kids go crazy and take over the ice cream truck and steal their goods. The video looks really dated and reminds me of that old Smashing Pumpkins video. It's a decent song, but the video doesn't have much substance to it or really any interesting visuals. Rating: 5.0
"Totalimmortal"
Album: "All Hallow's"(EP)
Year: 1999
The 411: I vaguely remember this video. The whole "lets hang out in a grave yard so I can take a nap" thing is a bit too much, but it takes up a whole ten seconds. This video is right to the point. It's all performance outside of the nappy-time grave stuff. There's a good amount of energy to the video, so I'll at least give it that. Rating: 4.0
"The Days of the Phoenix"
Album: "The Art of Drowning"
Year: 2000
The 411: I'd assume this where their style shifted to a more mainstream sound that borders on "emo". Visually, it's like a way better version of "Totalimmortal". The portion at the end where three Davey Havoks stand in a hall way is a cool edit, but the "hold me, I'm tortured" poses and vibe he's giving is a downer. Other than that it's pretty much a cut and dry performance video. Rating: 6.0
"Girl's Not Grey"
Album: "Sing the Sorrow"
Year: 2003
The 411: This is probably the first song to make me mentally aware of AFI. It was on the radio A LOT during 03 and I'd be lieing if I didn't say it wasn't on probably a dozen mix CDs for that summer. A long with that fact, it's an awesome video loaded with color, surrealism, and art. The weird blueish creature running around and the human anime girl look awesome. Then for some reason the band wears blackface. It's almost like they're covered in oil, I don't get why, but it's surely not a racial thing. By far this is the most visually interesting and best video thus far of their videography. Rating: 8.5
"The Leaving Song, Pt. II"
Album: "Sing the Sorrow"
Year: 2003
The 411: At this point, the direction of the AFI videos have officially moved into the "this will probably at least be somewhat interesting" category. The part of people fighting/moshing/dancing is kind of weird, but it looks good at least. Then they have to go and make me say "what the eff" when someone starts using mace on people. This is not nearly as strong as "Girl's Not Grey", but not bad. The visuals are nice, but the video's story/theme is on the "meh" side. It doesn't give us much to analyze here. Rating: 7.0
"Silver and Cold"
Album: "Sing the Sorrow"
Year: 2003
The 411: We start off some dramatic preparation of coffee and jump into some somber, yet beautiful shots. The band runs. I don't know it's away from something or towards something until they jump in stolen car. Meanwhile, Havok stands on the edge of a bridge. At this point, I assume they're coming to save him. They get in an explosive car accident before he jumps. They die and he casually comes off the edge and walks away. It must be chilly because he puts on his coat before we fade out. This video has a pretty good narrative with an ironic twist at the end. I appreciate that. This is one of those cases where I somewhat like a song, but the video puts ME over the edge. Because of that, it makes for my favorite AFI video thus far. Rating: 9.0
"Prelude 12/21"/"Miss Murder"
Album: "Decemberunderground"
Year: 2006
The 411: I'm not used to see the prelude portion of this video. The direction and shots here are spectacular. After about two minutes we jump into "Miss Murder". The song is catchy and probably their biggest hit so far. I'm a big fan of the interior shots, but once it gets outside it feels like about a half dozen Marilyn Manson videos. Manson normally has good visuals so it's not a bad thing, but it ruins what had potential to be a very unique video. That's my biggest gripe with it. Well, that and the emo bunnies. Rating: 8.5
"Love Like Winter"
Album: "Decemberunderground"
Year: 2006
The 411: I don't remember this video at all. The snow falling over the blue tones are good visuals. I stare at it intently, but I'm having trouble picking up the narrative here. Havok lurks after a hooded girl as his band freezes to death(?) and when she removes the hood he falls into hole in the ice and drowns. I watched this video all the way through three times trying to gain a meaning behind it. The point isn't being shoveled at us and this is more of an art piece that makes your brain come to its own conclusions. I forgot music videos like this even existed anymore. Good on them for making my head hurt. Rating: 7.5
"Medicate"
Album: "Crash Love"
Year: 2009
The 411: The most recent video from the most recent album. They seemed to of dropped their "emo"/"gothy" look and are "normal" now. This is the first time I've seen this video and it's not bad. I'm a sucker for black and white and the direction here is crisp and fluid. The guitar riff sounds very familiar, but that could just be because it's a good one. The "sex cam" looking stuff of the girl is interesting and the ending with them all collapsing to the ground is good stuff. There's not a lot going on here, but it looks good and is a pretty strong video. Rating: 7.0
The Videography of AFI
Overall Rating: 6.95
The 411: It's safe to say as the band expanded their sound over the years that their visual style really took off. Their early videos are decent and casual punk pieces, but once they hit the new millennium their music videos became more artistic and interesting. Even with those older videos, they nearly average a 7 out of 10 for their video work. That's pretty impressive. While I won't go out and buy their CDs the day they come out and haven't been their shows, AFI is a band that I always keep an open ear and mind to. "Girl Not Grey", "Miss Murder", and "Love Like Winter" are all visually stunning videos. To me, "Silver and Cold" stands out as their best video work purely based off the narrative and storytelling. "Medicate" is a pretty good video too, but lacks a deeper substance. Bleeding gold and medication is a little too "Placebo" for my tastes. I'll be interested to see what AFI presents to our eyes next time out.
What's your favorite AFI video?
RANDOM VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Kickin' it old school with a timeless classic...
"Sweet Emotion" by Aerosmith
The 411: I may be hung up to dry on this one, but Aerosmith IS the American version of The Stones. Remember in the 80's when the internet wasn't around and sad individuals had to call hotlines to get their rocks off? This isn't Aerosmith's best video for sure, but it's one of their best songs hands down.
RANDOM MOVIE REVIEW IN 411 WORDS OR LESS
"IT"
STARRING TIM CURRY, RICHARD THOMAS, JOHN RITTER, ETC.
The 411: I vaguely remember this movie as a kid. I remember the stuff with Pennywise in the library and that's really about all my cloudy brain could muster. So my recent rewatching of this classic mini-series felt really fresh. What we have here is classic and still pretty damn great. Tim Curry wasn't THAT over the top as people have claimed. He was kind of subtle with it, but still managed to be very creepy. Then from there, I couldn't remember a single person in the movie. When the credits hit and I saw names like Tim Curry, John Ritter, Richard Thomas, Tim Reid, Jonathan Brandis, and Seth Green I got a little more comfortable in my excitement for the movie. I've never read the book, but I hear A LOT wasn't adapted for screen. At over a 1000 pages, what would you expect? With no knowledge of the book, the movie stands on its own legs as an iconic masterpiece in the genre. The first half sets up the entire back story of the character's youth and war against "it". Then the second half brings the same group back as adults to relive their past and fight to move forward. It's a great movie up until the last portion with it being revealed as a monster spider at the helm of the evil. That was lame, but the good outweighs the bad leaps and bounds. It's like a great album with a weak last track. It's still a great album, and the lameness of the ending doesn't overshadow the awesome story and art just shared. Stephen King's brain should be studied by science. There's some dark shit hidden in there.
RANDOM STUFF ON MY TV IN 411 WORDS OR LESS
STRIKEFORCE: FEDOR vs. ROGERS
Over the past couple years a good friend of mine has raved about how bad ass Fedor is so when this free chance came to check him out I took it. I am not a fan of MMA. Being a lifelong fan of professional wrestling, I prefer my violence orchestrated and with personality. So getting me to watch this was a bit of luck. I returned home and saw the end of the fight before this. The guy with the colorful hair is the FIRST TIME I've ever seen anyone MMA related that didn't have just the "I'm a bad ass. GRRR!" persona. That was cool and I'm upset he lost. From an "outsider perspective" I thought he was the better man outside of being tied up so much. Going to the marquee fight, I knew nothing about Rogers, but felt bad for him. During his prefight interview he seemed really soft spoken and a nice guy, but I was positive that the legendary Fedor would destroy him just based off the stories I've heard. What do ya know… Fedor IS a bad ass. This fight had more energy than any casual UFC or any other MMA I've come across. I wonder if it's because Strikeforce's rules or what. Regardless, it didn't convert me. I gave it a fair shot, but MMA is still everything I don't like about it. To me, MMA is NASCAR with the car. The "Affliction" shirt IS the new wife beater. I won't even get into the fact that the biggest MMA star is only famous because Vince McMahon took the time to make him a known entity. For years people have claimed professional wrestling to be "gay-ish", but MMA's "submissions" look way more the part. It's a bunch of overly macho guys in Billy Gunn tights hugging each other to the point of brutality. There's enough brutality in the world. I'll stick with "the fake stuff".
WRESTLING WITH PILLOWS
Looking Out From the Inside.
I've not gotten a chance to order the Dragon Gate USA PPV yet so that's a bummer. Speaking of bummers… how about RAW? The show was pretty damn lack luster if you ask me. There was literally nothing worthy of even an raise of the brow, that a lone get excited about. I gave up on it and ended up flipping back and forth to the Broncos/Steelers game. For those that know me, that's a surprise as I'm not even that huge of a football fan to begin with. I felt as if this episode was so bad and that I wasted my time watching it that I won't waste mine or yours talking about it. The show was boring, bland, and nothing worthwhile happened. I'm not even sure if I care about Survivor Series AT ALL now. That's how disappointing this show was. I'm not expecting a classic or anything, but holy shit… give us SOME… A SMALL TINY BIT of quality. I can say though, that even the worst of WWE products beats the best of TNA's so don't think this is my way to "jump bandwagons".
That's that for this week's edition of The Savage Animal. With the chaos of all the projects and life in general going around me, it's great to have an outlet to just let loose about music. Hopefully, when you read a column like this it sparks distraction from life and discussion about things that'll consume some our collective remaining brain cells. Until next time… Have a Great Week!
