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MGMT 'Your Life is a Lie' by Tom Kuntz

Davis Silis - 12th Aug 2013


Sonic adventurers MGMT are no strangers to wild, visually pioneering videos. In fact, their entire music video output is like an odyssey into the surreal minds of some truly fantastic directors. From early Tintori gems that are now modern classics, to this latest and very rare outing from Tom Kuntz, his second for MGMT.

You'd think Kuntz should be a regular on the music video circuit, with the incredibly distinct, playful visual aesthetic and sharp comic wit that's earned him legendary status in the commercials world. But no, Kuntz music videos are rare; when they do pop up, well, there's just nothing else quite like them.

After his first video for MGMT, 2010's desert epic 'Congratulations', which featured slow, drawn-out shots following Andrew, Ben and a peculiar desert creature on their long sandy journey, his latest video is the complete opposite.

'Your Life is a Lie' is probably best described as a rapid, amphetamine-fuelled episode of Sesame Street. Lyrics drawn in ketchup, a skeleton chorus, an incoming fax that tells you you're living a lie, even Henry Winkler briefly shows up to console an upset middle school girl in her soccer uniform.

Each line of the song is met with a ceaseless montage of shots that illustrate what's being sung in the most obscure and incredible way. Not only that, but practically none of the seconds-long shots ever get repeated. Well, except every four beats when the cowbell strikes and an old guy wearing an open Acapulco shirt takes the same bite of a banana, or a guy in a suit and tie repeatedly gets hit in the head with a green ball.

Be prepared to see pretty much every shot of this video appear as an animated GIF and spread on Tumblr like wildfire. Really, there's no one else that could have pulled this off like Kuntz, to create a video that's worthy of being added to MGMT's impressive catalogue. Enjoy.

Davis Silis - 12th Aug 2013

Tags

  • BUG
  • Comedy
  • Promos
  • Indie, Alternative

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Credits

Production/Creative

Director
Tom Kuntz
Producer
Brady Vant Hull
Production Company
MJZ

Camera

Director of Photography
Chris Soos

Art

Production designer
Andrew J. Clark

VFX

Post production company

Commission

Commissioner
Bryan Younce
Label
Columbia Records

Davis Silis - 12th Aug 2013

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