Has anyone seen it? I checked it out on Saturday and thought it was terrific! They used some of them on the video screen backdrop on tour, but only a few.
Any other thoughts?
― Matt W, Wednesday, 4 December 2002 19:52 (twenty-two years ago)
Video albums always make me suspicious. I was amazed how well done each video on Sonic Youth's "Goo" turned out to be... whether it was a higher budget single video or something more raw like Richard Kern's work on "Scooter and Jinx", for example. And it's been my yardstick for video album quality since.
As nice and weird as a lot of the "Ring" videos are, it just doesn't quite hit it for me. The DVD version of "Juxtaposed With U" is one of the best videos of the year...(not the robots in the WTC version.. but the walking paper maché media gear one). "Sidewalk Serfer Girl" deserved a FAR better video than that. "Receptacle for the Respectable" was really colorful and odd. Otherwise, most of the rest seemed like cartoon video demos, or silly incidental background outtake footage for a Beta Band show or something. And the "Run Christian Run" video is just intolerable, unless you're a self-obsessed atheist art student who's really into "deep, direct, and political" statements in the video arena.
I'm becoming convinced more and more that Super Furry Animals should evolve into being producers, and less being a "band". (To apply the final nail in the ELO comparison) I think they write some great tunes, of course. And, boy, they make things sound so different and better than any of their peers, but all the other elements of their name.. live shows, videos, remixes, etc. are all just mediocre and lack life, generally.
Though I'll add that, shit I forget his name, Peter Fowler(?), the guy who does most of their album covers, and did some of the video work is an amazing cartoonist, and his association with the band almost rivals that of say Hypgnosis : Led Zeppelin, or Brute : KMFDM.
― donut bitch (donut), Thursday, 5 December 2002 00:05 (twenty-two years ago)