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Grandaddy Reunite

Wide-eyed space-pop explorers Grandaddy, who broke up in 2006, are joining the ever-growing list of reunited bands; they’ll reassemble to play at least a few shows this year. As NME reports, they’ve only got one gig announced thus far: A set at the End Of The Road Festival, which comes to North Dorset, England 8/31 – 9/2. That festival’s bill also features Grizzly Bear, Beach House, Tindersticks, the Antlers, Dirty Three, and a bunch of others. And Grandaddy are also planning to announce more reunion shows shortly.

Givenchy Liv Tyler Need You Tonight video clip

This week, we ran into a bit of a problem as it pertains to this list: For some reason, YouTube embed aren’t rendering when we put them in. We’re not sure why that is, but we’re looking to fix it. (And if any readers know anyone at YouTube or Google who could help us out, please do!) In the meantime, we found Vimeo embeds for four of these five videos and posted a link to the other. Click below for this week’s list.

5. Lo-Fi-Fnk – “Kissing Taste” (Dir. Magnus Härdner)

The two members of this returning Swedish synthpop group, as well as an assortment of other attractive Norse young people, endure what you’d have to imagine would be extreme coldness to romp underdressed through their homeland’s wintry tundra. It’s all done with the sort of sharp atmospheric austerity that could only ever come from Scandinavia; consider it a less creepy, more affectionate cousin of those great Fever Ray videos from a couple of years ago.

4. Islands – “Hallways” (Dir. Lex Halaby & Toben Seymour)

A fun haunted-house romp of a video with an ending that’s gruesomely funny without overdosing on gore. But the real reason this belongs up here is that those skeleton marionettes are just great; they dance exactly the way you’d hope skeleton marionettes would dance.

3. French Montana – “Shot Caller Remix” (Feat. Diddy & Rick Ross) (Dir. Colin Tilley)

Old-school rap-video largesse of the type that we rarely see anymore, shot in black-and-white so sumptuous that it doesn’t look low-budget. Diddy’s asymmetrical-haircutted girlfriend Cassie steals the whole thing with one cold, hard stare at the camera. I have no idea why those Chuck Taylors and basketball nets are on fire, but it works. And is that Waka Flocka playing trumpet? I hope so.

2. Screaming Females – “It All Means Nothing” (Dir. Screaming Females & Ken Castellano) (NSFW)

In which we learn that this trio’s rhythm section has serious sketch-comedy chops. Unlike in the Islands video, the joke’s gruesomeness here does kind of overwhelm the punchline, but it’s pretty funny regardless. Also, those performance shots of the band in the backyard are straight fire. (Watch it here.)

1. The Shins – “Simple Song (Dir. DANIELS)

This is one of those situations where the obvious choice is also the right one: An impeccably shot shaggy-dog family story that manages to create pretty fully-formed characters without the benefit of dialog and then gives them all a heartwarming ending. Shout out to James Mercer for not embarrassing himself in the acting department. And somehow, a perfectly timed shattered vase to the head is always funny.

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