OKLAHOMA CITY – There’s something of a lost art to the music video, that once-ubiquitous and requisite part of the music industry that kept a stranglehold on popular music for decades, right up until streaming and cable-cutting changed the game.
But some artists are still committed to the unique creative possibilities of marrying music and visuals, whether it’s a full narrative compressed into a sing’s length, an evocative or experimental art film with a pop soundtrack, or even just a creatively shot band performance.
And right here in OKC, some of our most exciting and irrepressibly imaginative artists are covering all those bases and more, joining the city’s wealth of wildly talented indie filmmakers with some of the most catchy and creative recent tracks from across a wide swath of the music scene.
From early-morning partying to late-night, neon-backed jamming, and from abstract, contorted choreography to electrically charged sci-fi laser fights, these recent OKC-made clips are here to prove that there’s nothing “lost” about the art of the music video.
stepmom – ‘Survival Mode’
Continuing the surrealist, anti-corporate narrative that is stepmom’s “Profitopia,” this new clip for EP standout “Survival Mode” serves up all the oozing, brainwashing, and pink fantasy freakout energy that fans have come to expect.
Utilizing loads of sets, props, and concepts that diehards will recognize from Factory Obscura’s immersive “Profitopia” experience, the video picks up somewhere after the “Chaos Candy” clip left off, with stepmom ringleader Lindsey Cox successfully assimilated into the hyper-capitalist TV-worshipping corporate cult.
Now schilling empty promises on a pitch-perfect home shopping-style TV program, Cox finds herself breaking out of the brainwashing and (in classic rock video fashion) fighting off the blockheaded capitalists with the electric power of her guitar skills. Of course, she also breaks her bandmates free of the mass media spell and they join the fight to reawaken and free the spirits of their corporate captors.
It’s exactly the kind of pointed, teeth-baring satire that we need right now, but presented in an exceedingly fun, funny, and inspired way by frequent stepmom collaborator (and award-winner) Lauren Bumgarner directing alongside Cox.
Watch “Survival Mode” by stepmom HERE.
daychaser. – ‘Take Care’
Pop-punkers daychaser. scream it from the rooftops in their new clip for “Take Care,” setting up and rocking out on the Stonecloud roof in front of the iconic neon Sunshine Cleaning sign.
But even though that would already make for an awesome and memorable visual to accompany the track, director Tate Talley intercuts it with a poignant, wordless story of a passionate romance, an equally passionate breakup, and the lingering, unavoidable feelings left in its wake.
It’s an apt pairing for a song about the wounds that time doesn’t heal and the resignation that we hope eventually comes with maturity and perspective.
The cinematography is great, particularly in the neon-light, nighttime shots on the roof, and the performances of Carter Harvey and Rainey Denison feel emotional and believable, which is no small feat when there’s no audible dialogue.
It’s a wonderfully realized throwback to the videos that once dominated MTV in the bygone pop-punk heyday of a couple decades ago.
Watch “Take Care” by daychaser. HERE.
Sun Deep – ‘Water’
Leave it to the genre-smashing, cross-cultural mastermind that is Sun Deep to follow an on-a-lark brainstorm all the way to one of the most creative and compelling local videos of the year.
For the dense and delicately chaotic track “Water” from his brand new full-length “Ghar,” Sundeep Sharma wanted to try out a hazy concept of dual single-shot interpretive dance clips presented side-by-side in split-screen and starring Natasha Abu-Fadel and Paige Fischer contorting and blending their movements together.
The two views almost appear to be the same shot running both forward and backward simultaneously – with each beginning or finishing where the other began or finished – but they are, in fact, two wholly different shots following Fischer and Abu-Fadel exploring different movements and shapes around Sundeep’s own home.
If reading that doesn’t make any sense, I don’t blame you. It’s not really meant to be explained with words, but rather seems to be a remarkably simple and shockingly effective visual representation of the song’s lyrics exploring the intertwining and inexorable threads of life, death, and whatever may exist in between.
Watch “Water” by Sun Deep HERE.
Ben Quad – ‘It’s Just a Title’
Easily one of the biggest underground breakouts from Oklahoma in recent years, rockers Ben Quad have exploded across the national emo scene, converting bleeding hearts and emo diehards by the thousands with a blend of deeply earnest, energetic rock and totally irreverent and self-deprecating personalities.
After a brief foray into the screamier side of Midwestern emo, “It’s Just a Title” finds the Ben Quad boys returning to their more time-honored, melodic riffs and singer Sam Wegrynski’s smoother, pleading vocals, augmented by the mathy, finger-tapping lead lines of guitar wizard Edgar Viveros.
The new track – the first single from upcoming Pure Noise Records debut LP “Wisher” – seems to be grappling with the new responsibilities and expectations of being such an underground scene breakout, tackling the unavoidable reality that notoriety and respect alone can’t heal or change anything broken inside you.
But the tracks new Alex Scalzo-Brown-directed video takes a decidedly more fun approach to the band’s exploration of their own snowballing profile, with the guys taking in an Oklahoma morning in and around the kind of McMansion that we’ve been lead to believe Midwestern fame affords us.
Along the way, they pop up at some instantly recognizable OKC locales, including the Flamingo Apartments on 23rd and the Round Up Cleaners on Penn (making them the second group of pop-punkers in this article to rock out at an iconic local dry cleaning sign.)
And they do it all without ever changing out of their silk bathrobes, even when shredding some blistering emo lead lines silhouetted against the sunrise on the open Oklahoma plains.
It’s a super fun little clip that grounds the band firmly within their native OKC, and Scalzo-Brown’s camera work provides some genuinely gorgeous shots.
Plus, it’s just cool for us Northwest-siders to see some representation in media for a change.
Watch “It’s Just a Title” by Ben Quad HERE.
You can find out about local music and performance happenings in the OKC metro weekly in this music column by Brett Fieldcamp. | Brought to you by True Sky Credit Union.
Brett Fieldcamp is our Arts and Entertainment Editor. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for 15+ years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
