Top 30 Videos Of 2012: Nos. 5-1

Hang 'em high: a still from our No.1 video by Primus

Here’s the sixth and final part of our Top 30 Videos Of 2012. Featuring Dinosaur Jr, Diemonds, Alcest, Black Drawing Chalks… and Primus at No.1!
 

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.”

5. Dinosaur Jr – Watch The Corners
Watch The Corners starts out with chugging riffs that ease into J Mascis’ vocals, and properly closes with a shredding solo. Wedged in the middle of the tune is an atypical breakdown with a brief flash of acoustic guitar. “I always liked that since I was a kid, from like, Black Sabbath,” Mascis says. “Suddenly they go into acoustic, back into electric – I guess I’ve always been into that.” As for this excellent video… well, the moral of the story seems to be: don’t snog a weirdo with a strange pixelated face.

4. Diemonds – Get The F&$k Outta Here
This clip from Canada’s Diemonds features a guest appearance from an unremittingly evil character called Gas Mask Gary. He’s a theatre janitor who lost his face after a gas leak exploded, he’s just broken out of an insane asylum and he’s currently wreaking havoc among the geeky teenage populace of Toronto…

3. Alcest – Autre Temps
Autre Temps is a track from French band Alcest’s third album Les Voyages De L’Âme. Don’t be put off by the foreign-language lyrics and just enjoy this giant-sounding, hypnotic piece of work. The video is sensational, too. The song’s (translated) lyrics reflect on the sadness of growing older: ‘The golden leaves dying on the ground/Will be reborn under bright skies/As this weatherworn world remains the same/And tomorrow, you and I will be gone.’ The clip interprets those words perfectly.

2. Black Drawing Chalks – Cut Myself In 2
Black Drawing Chalks formed in the Brazilian state of Goiás in 2005. Cut Myself In 2, a jagged, edgy, stoner-y, minor masterwork of a song, comes from the band’s just-released third album, No Dust Stuck On You. The accompanying video is one of the best we’ve seen in a long time, containing a bit of simulated girl-on-girl action, some sensual skinny-dipping (almost) and culminating in scenes that could’ve been nicked from the opening credits of a James Bond movie. To sum up, it’s a like a wet Cadbury’s Flake advert (without the flake).

1. Primus – Lee Van Cleef
Primus are this year’s winners! Deceased movie star Lee Van Cleef gained notoriety by starring in Spaghetti Westerns alongside Clint Eastwood (ie. The Good, The Bad And The Ugly). Primus clearly prefer Van Cleef’s acting talents to Eastwood’s, as the song’s lyrics go like this: ‘On the big screen they wanna see ol’ Clint… they all wanna see ol’ Clint… but I wanna see Lee Van Cleef.’ Primus might have a point, but we always preferred Bob ‘Tumbleweed’ Baker (aka ‘The Singing Outlaw’) ourselves. It’s worth watching the video to the end, when a crumbling and zombified cartoon version of Van Cleef finally wreaks his revenge on The Man With No Name…

 That’s our Top 30 completed. Happy New Year – and see you for more great videos in 2013.