Blur---No Distance To Run Underworld---King Of Snake
Stereolab---The Free Design Iggy Pop ---Corruption

  Blur ---No Distance To Run / Virgin
---Reviewed by John Kane

Blur--No Distance To Run Video Still Quite funny, but maybe not intentionally, this video from the increasingly less interesting Brit Pop band Blur has cameramen filming the foursome sleeping. After the guys blather about how nervous or not they are about seeing themselves in the dreaming state the melancholy song starts and we get to see the guys snooze and that's pretty much it. Guess what, rockstars don't sleep any different then we do! We get shots of them tossing and turning, rubbing their faces, drooling... I suppose if I were some popscene girl (or boy for that matter) I might be able to get some sordid fetish kick out of watching Damon Albarn sleeping shirtless but I'm not and all I could think was that it can't really be like this for him. I mean the whole reason someone becomes a rockstar is so they can buy enough drugs and alcohol that they can stay up all night and when they do crash there is always someone warm to share their bed. There is a good bit at the end though where a sleepy Damon tries to explain what his song's about and ends up creating a self-serious rockstar moment worthy of Spinal Tap.



  Stereolab ---The Free Design / Elektra
---Reviewed by John Kane

Stereolab--The Free Design Video StillWhile liking Stereolab's catchy songs, I have to admit that they can be pretentious art wankers. But luckily this video, while being something pretentious art wankers would make, is cute and endearingly nostalgic. Shot in black and white, with scratches added to give it the illusion of being from the early days of cinema, we're presented with Indonesian shadow puppet theater. There's the lead singer as a moon goddess intertwined with other ghosts flying around a magic lantern starry sky background. Towards the end of the video the puppets give way to the silhouette of a naked stripper (I love how they chose someone with a bit of fat to maintain the old days theme) intercut with a skeleton and a phallic rocket shooting into the sky and meeting the moon. I fear they might be trying to make a statement about sex and death and how there is no "free design" but I just ignore that part, sit back, and watch the pretty pictures.



  Underworld ---King Of Snake / TVT
---Reviewed by John Kane

Underworld--King of Snake Video StillAt every show or club there's always that one guy dancing way too excitedly all by himself. You know, the Spaz. This video is centered entirely around such a man. Looking like a fatter and older Deiter from Mike Meyers' Sprockets sketches, the Spaz shows you all his dancing moves as a typically entrancing Underworld song plays. Flailing limbs, weird hand gestures, spooky writhing of a disturbingly sexual nature, all the standard Spaz dance moves are here for your viewing enjoyment. The nice thing about this video is despite the fun it pokes at the Spaz, it does give him a certain dignity. Anybody allowing themselves to be filmed making an ass of themselves has to be respected. Whether he's sweating pounds, fogging up his glasses, or appearing uncertain about what to do during the spoken word part of the song, the Spaz is ready and willing to give his all to make this video memorable. And he succeeds. Further proof that the key to the best videos is simplicity.



  Iggy Pop ---Corruption / Virgin
---Reviewed by John Kane

Iggy Pop Corruption Video Still Two suburban kids, of the jaded snot-nose variety, are doing that holiest of suburban acts: zoning out in front of the TV set. Channel surfing away the kids get an eyeful of what I suppose are examples of corruption---violent news footage, world leaders (Boris Yeltsin, Bill and Monica), silicone-enhanced bikini-clad women, cigarette ads, that Heaven's Gate guy, and of course the latest Iggy Pop video. Things that if I were I still a kid I would consider fun and cool. For these kids though, it's just more of the same, not enough to even make them blink. It's the standard corrupt world desensitizing the young line, to which all I can say is blah. What's always been exciting about Iggy Pop is that he's never seemed to give a damn about the world and what's going on in it. His anger is more internally based, at the risk of sounding pretentious I'd even use the word existential. Anyone out there remember his song 1969 where instead of caring about the social changes and struggles of the time he just sees it as another year with nothing to do? Maybe it was a self-centered viewpoint, nihilistic, but at least it was vital, passionate. Which this video isn't. One thing I was impressed with---Iggy's muscled out physique. At fifty plus it has to be said the man's in great shape.