Wiz Vids 2018 #8: 2 Chainz f/ YG & Offset “Proud”

At 49, YG may be the eldest of any current prominent trap artist. 2 Chainz might be in 2nd place at age 41. When we first saw this video claiming that these were really the moms of the three rappers, we were skeptical at first. But the age range seems appropriate. We believe it.

Wiz Vids 2018 #9: Ariana Grande "breathin"

In the UK, you can't walk 10 feet out of your house without running into Peppa Pig, usually in an ad on the back of the bus or something. Peppa made a special celebrity cameo for Ariana's "Breathin." She shakes like a little doggy in one part somewhere in the middle. Why isn't this #1?

Wiz Vids 2018 #10: Stefflon Don “Lil Bitch”

Sometimes the dentist's chair can feel the way it's described in this video. We're guessing the human in the trunk of the car covered in money is a dentist. Their profession is in danger. Beware all dentists.

Wiz Vids 2018 (HM): Famous Dex "Ridin Thru"

Murderous aesthetics. There's a story buried in here somewhere. Is it his house? Or does it belong to the lady in the shower with the butt? Maybe both? Maybe neither? So many questions...

Wiz Vids 2018 (HM): Broods "Peach"

Good costume design in this one. Music "performance" shows in the '70s often had people lipsynch while blankly staring into the camera, and we're surprised it's taken until now for this to show up in a modern video.

Wiz Vids 2018: Shown Us The Bonus

If there's one thing we know, it's that bonus videos happen every year. They are what make videos happen.

Crack Cloud "Uncanny Valley"
Part 3 of their trilogy that included 2016's "Image Craft" and 2017's "Swish Swash."


Lil B “YCFMB”
Not only does Lil B have both a sixpack and a belly at the same time, but he includes an entire extra minute of bonus footage after the song ends. And it's not because the video editor misjudged the song length. No, not at all.


Little Big “Skibidi”
We Googled "weird 2018 music videos" and several blogs wrote about this, possibly because a press release described the video that way. We did lol twice though so that's something. A similar video from 2006 has been posted below it.



Sting & Shaggy “Gotta Get Back My Baby”
For people like us, the Sting & Shaggy album was on our mind constantly. But most people probably didn't know this album or video existed or that either artist released music in 2018. This is an exceptional video of the highest quality.

"Wiz Vids 2018" Starts Now

Music video quality didn't necessarily drop in 2018; rap videos were as good as ever, but true milestones were tough to find.

In 2018, the creators of this blog posted 6 more editions of MTVZ, our approximately bi-monthly magazine collecting as many compellingly strange YouTube clips and (mostly new) music videos as we can find. We like to pass it off and consume it as its own separate cable channel, since there are currently no quality music video resources as good as the MTV of 1981-1999 or the MTV2 of 1996-2002.

The curation presents a unique challenge to create a playlist that feels like old MTV. What were the Buzz Clips of 2018? What older videos should be included? How many weird cartoons can we find to throw in between?

Old MTV typically labelled the best videos of any given year as Breakthrough Videos, which are the types of videos we tried to locate for Wiz Vids 2018.

Before we get into those, check these out:

DJ Burn "He's My President"
Punk as fuck.


Candy “Good To Feel”
You know what Jesus's big mistake was? He didn't offer up a sacrifice in his stead. The cruciform is a constant reminder of that.


Three Knee Deep (Full Set) at FYA Fest 2018
Did watch many times this year.


Peste Noire "Aristocrasse"
We would not normally include lyric videos but--


Melody’s Echo Chamber “Breathe In, Breathe Out”
Happened to us this morning, so we had to include here.


Connan Mockasin "Charlotte's Thong"
Alejandro Taruth's best since a few years ago.

Time To Spit Hot Fire 2018 Style

By New Years Eve, TMK will be the most fire spitting it's ever been.

It begins now with Retro 2018.

Last year around this time, we reported that rock and metal had improved in 2017. But nothing could have prepped us for the dopeness of loud rock in 2018 --

which is ironic since we've never seen so many blog headlines featuring old men (guys like Flea, Bono, Slash - usually people who go by one name) in interviews complaining about the state of modern rock. (God bless Tad, the only one-named rock god to publicly complain about the complainers.)

It was also a pretty great year for pop singles, which oddly suffered the same fate as rock music: Radio stays away from the best stuff, opting to flood the airwaves with songs written and recorded by people who hate music.

Hiphop & R&B could use some improvement, but they were fine overall.

The worst genre of 2018 was Pitchfork-friendly soft indie-rock. Goodbye Father John Misty. Farewell Sun Kil Moon. It was tough admitting that we actively enjoyed the Beach House album. But overall, the bands who were critical favorites between 2008 and 2011 are simply not what the world needs right now. The world needs loud and often angry rock music.

As always, our first EOY feature lists the year's finest and most noteworthy music videos. Stick with us.....

Holiday Content and the new MTVZ

Hi there. If you're looking for some holiday content while driving or washing the dishes, why not try the Dime Store Hegemon Radio Hour's 2-part Holiday extravaganza? Over the past two Wednesdays, the show has been kicking ass in Anckorage, Alaska pumping out the wintery jams and bringing you what you need.

We all heard a very good Hanukkah (sp?) song by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings on the "Part 1" episode the other day. Did not hear the "Part 2" yet but it's probably somehow even better than the 1st one. Also, the Late Night Noise holiday show (the one more closely affiliated with this website) was not posted yet, so just listen to Dave's show because it was better. The shows are posted below.

Also posted below is the most recent edition of MTVZ which somehow has been viewed over 150 times and we're not sure how that happened. It also includes lots of holiday content.

SNL "Weezer" Sketch Was Good

LOL. How embarrassing (and completely in character) that THIS is what got us back here again after a month of absence.

Weezer will not be appearing anywhere in Hot Mix 2018, so this seems like a good opportunity to fulfill our required bi-annual Weezer shit post.

SNL did a Weezer sketch this past weekend. And there was no way we weren’t going to watch this, our lone SNL compulsion for 2018. What does this say about us?

(Fact check: This is actually not true. In the Spring, we also watched a sketch highly recommended by A/V Club about deciding whether to order the lobster at a diner - a fresh-sounding premise surprisingly unrelated to pop culture that felt genuinely funny throughout the sketch’s first 60 seconds. Sadly, the remaining 75% of the sketch gets overtaken by awkward Les Miserables parody songs. LAME.)

We also did LOL at the Weezer sketch about 10x more than any other SNL-related thing we’ve seen over the past half-decade. (And yes, we’re aware that 10 x 0 = 0 but you know what we mean.) Again, what does this say about us?

So many thoughts...

#1 Upon hearing this sketch existed, we imagined they got four unfunny SNL dumbasses to dress up like Weezer. But this was not the case. Sweet relief.

#2 If this had this been cast differently, we probably wouldn’t have laughed once. We had no idea that Leslie Jones was still around at SNL. As long as she is there, the show will always have one (and probably only one) genuinely funny cast member. Matt Damon with hipster glasses was the perfect choice for Leslie’s opponent. (Keenan is occasionally ok, but we’re happy he wasn’t one of the focus characters. We have no idea who the other 3 people are.)

#3 “Is this a thing people care about?” “I'm gathering that Rivers might be a guy in Weezer?” We’re guessing this dialogue speaks on behalf of most people who were watching on Saturday. It feels super niche compared to most sketches that make it to air, even though they apparently also had a Sheck Wes parody video a few weeks ago. Perhaps, it’s not all up to 74-year-old Lorne Michaels anymore. He must have some “pop culture consultants” on deck, because how the hell else would this sketch have gotten approved?

#4 Matt Damon’s character has helped us become aware of a sector of Weezer fandom far outside of our inner circle. There are people who apparently really say things like this:
- “You haven’t heard this? This is Weezer’s cover of ‘Africa.’ It’s good, right?”
- “I mean, come on. They’re playing New Years Rockin’ Eve!”
- “’Pork and Beans’ is better than ‘Buddy Holly!’”
- “Weezer didn't start until Scott Shriner got there.” (This can't be a real thing that people really think, can it?)

We couldn’t help noticing (and this is definitely 100% coincidence) that Matt Damon’s character does not defend his take citing any music released between 2013-2016, the recent shockingly ok era that begat surprisingly tasteful songs like “King of the World,” “Everybody Needs Salvation,” and “I’ve Had It Up to Here.” Even that awkward “L.A. Girlz” song wasn’t bad in context. (It reminds us of the Green Album b-sides.) We got excited enough at this ok-ness that we placed The White Album at #60 on our top albums of 2016, which still seems accurate in retrospect.

#5 This past summer marks a full decade since the “Pork and Beans” video premiered on YouTube. It placed very well (somewhere around #3) in Pitchfork’s “Best Musc Videos of the '00s” list, and it won the Grammy Award for “Best Music Video.” People have tried to convince us multiple times that it’s anything other than a gigantic pile of horse shit.

"Pork and Beans" is a video full of keywords, and it launched Weezer’s “keyword” era which inevitably spawned their unfortunate “Africa” cover - a song that sadly will follow them for a very long time and will get performed at every Weezer show for the next 7-10 years no matter how 2018-specific it gets. Keywords are anti-creativity. Coincidentally, SNL is a show that relies on keywords in order to continue existing, occasionally dabbling in tastefulness but ultimately growing worse with every passing year - just like Weezer.

Rivers now wonders, “Why don’t people take us seriously like they do with Pearl Jam?” My dude. Pearl Jam are not a keywords-band. There’s no memes in their songs. They just do their thing and drink wine straight from the bottle and hang out with Liz Phair at baseball games.

We’ve seen Weezer play “You Gave Your Love to Me Softly,” “Suzanne,” and “Across The Sea” as recently as 2011. But now check out their setlist from 2018’s Riot Fest: “Take On Me?” “Happy Together??” “All The Small Things??” SIX cover songs??? What the fuck is honestly happening here? Are they really THAT desperate for keywords? (And again, nothing from 2013-2016 era.)

2016 was not that long ago. Just like we all thought, they can turn it on and off anytime they want. They know exactly what they're doing. SNL took the bait. Weezer loved it. The frustration continues.