22nd October 2009

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we are scientists - liars inre: band title; experts inre: funny music-video-making

Ok, first, to the super-hip music types: I know this band has already been out for a few years, but I’m just getting familiar with them. SO EASE UP.

At any rate, We Are Scientists is an American band that, unfortunately, seems to only find big success in the UK. (Sidenote: shame on us as a nation for allowing the Brits to beat us at anything, even if it is We Are Scientists fanhood.)

This crew makes great music and, even more important for purposes of this post, hilarious music videos. The four vids you are about to see were directed by Mr. Akiva Schaffer, the SNL writer best known as the co-rapper with Andy Samberg in this video which you may or may not have seen (38 times).

Now that we’ve established the pedigree of these vids’ director, let’s turn to the band itself. These dudes have an offbeat and very entertaining sense of humor, as evidenced by the “advice column” on their website. And the videos’ subject matter speaks to that. You’ll see.

Without further ado, let’s get to the videos. I’ve ranked them in order of excellence, based on a mathematical multi-part index that takes into account quality of song and hilarity of video content. Among other things. Very scientific.

So let’s get to it [exclamation point].

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4. “The Great Escape”

Pretty simple. Dude gets up, showers, eats breakfast, drives to the office, goes to work, (has to use the restroom), goes on a date, does a choreographed dance to woo the date, tries to kiss the date. WITH HIS TWO BANDMATES NO MORE THAN SIX INCHES FROM HIM AT ALL TIMES. (Don’t worry, he escapes later. Hence the name of the song.) Who hasn’t seen that scenario play out?

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3. “Chick Lit”

Let’s walk you through the general premises of the video and check your reactions:
1. It’s a Western theme. [Ok. Standard.]
2. The band appears as cowboys. [Nice. Cowboys are so hot right now.]
3. The fictional cowboys are herding animals and generally acting hella masculine. [Well, yeah, what do you expect a cowboy to do?]
4. The animals that said cowboys are herding are…Pomeranians. [This sound!]

Yeah.

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2. “Impatience”

Just your run-of-the-mill story about your buddy turning into a werewolf before your eyes…and then asking you to pose for pictures with him.

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1. “After Hours”

(First, apologies for the 30-second commercial.) Boy meets girl (blonde assistant from 30 Rock), boy sets his roommate up on a double date with girl’s friend, friend turns out to be a dog (literally). Yea. That’s right.

WHAT ON EARTH WILL HAPPEN? (Hint: it ends with jealousy, a beer bottle, and unconsciousness.) I guess the knocker-outer never learned his Aesop’s Fables.

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So there you have it. Give these guys a look.

Thanks for reading, as always. And more to come soon…