Top 30 Videos Of 2012: Nos. 10-6

A clip from our No.8 video by The Datsuns

Here’s the fifth (and penultimate) part of our Top 30 Videos Of 2012. Featuring Jeff The Brotherhood, Down, The Datsuns, Toadies and The Last Vegas…

Note: The Top 30 was compiled by Geoff Barton, who comments: “When the Classic Rock website was relaunched this past May, we made a conscious effort to crank up the music content and regularly post the best new rock videos around. This end-of-year list is comprised of clips that made the greatest impression on me, personally, during 2012. Some are big-budget affairs; others may have been filmed on a shoestring. Some feature major bands; others focus on relatively unknown artists. But all, in their own ways, are vicarious visual treats. It goes without saying that the music is damn fine in each of ‘em too. Be sure to visit the Classic Rock website tomorrow for the final part of our Top 30 rundown. Who will be No.1? Find out on December 31!”

10. Jeff The Brotherhood – Sixpack
Alright, so bits of this vid might resemble Deliverance without the violence, but apart from that it’s a total hoot. Forget about stale cucumber sandwiches and lukewarm Tizer, here we have canoeing, skinnydipping, boozing, smoking, flabby stomachs, campfire shenanigans and a whole lot more besides. In fact, we’re so impressed by the clip, we’re heading out to Regent’s Park boating lake this lunchtime to replicate it in full. (If we don’t update the CR website anymore today, that’s because we’ve been arrested.) Sixpack comes from JTB’s  album Hypnotic Knights.

9. Down – Witchtripper
Like a Hammer horror movie starring The Goodies, this video is a total hoot. And we guarantee you’ll be growling along with the refrain “Witchtripper! Witchtripper… alright!” before the clip’s finished. (Oh, and is it just us, or does that creepy string puppet scare you shitless too?)

8. The Datsuns – Gold Halo
At No.8 we have Kiwi rockers The Datsuns’ Hitchcock-inspired video for their track Gold Halo. Concerning the clip, the band comment: “We used double layers of woman’s stockings over the lens to give that old soft look. They used the same technique in 1940s films to make women look more beautiful. The main inspiration was 1950s horror films. It’s very Hitchcock-inspired; we even replicated the shower shot from Psycho.”

7. Toadies – Summer Of The Strange
Warning: this video contains roast-chicken-fighting, refrigerator-trashing, chainsaws, guns and nudity. Hang on a sec… roast-chicken fighting?! Sheesh – where’s Harry Hill when you need him?

6. The Last Vegas – Evil Eyes
The video to Evil Eyes has a distinctly voyeuristic vibe, depicting as it does a sleazy, night-stalking individual with a camera, focusing his long-distance lens on all manner of nefarious goings-on. TLV singer Chad Cherry explains: “We wanted to write a tune that people would want to rock out to, feel sexy and dance to… but in reality, the song’s message is creepy as hell. It’s about stalking people, watching them in their private and personal environment behind closed doors doing things they wouldn’t do in front of people… but someone is in the shadows watching it all.”

Coming tomorrow: Nos. 5-1 featuring… well, that would be telling!