The Canadian band Hollerado had not appeared on my musical landscape until I came across the following mind blowing music video for their song “Americanarama.” From what I’ve seen this very well could stand as the best music video of 2010!
After researching the band it seems like they have all the ingredients to go large in this new world order that is the music industry post YouTube and Napster. The following video as explained in the YouTube description is:
The “Human 8-bit Video”. We wanted to make something cheap and awesome. It was directed by our buddy/chief mad scientist Greg Jardin. It was all shot in one take. It took lots and lots and lots of practice to get it right. A guy in one of the cells also played the serial killer on season 5 of “The Wire”.
This really is a masterfull piece of work that features lead singer and guitarist Menno Versteeg, lead guitarist Nixon Boyd, bassist Dean Baxter, and drummer Jake Boyd playing in front of a 6×4 human cube that simulates an old 8-bit matrix. The 24 members inside the cube perform choreographed actions that coincide with music and lyrics of the song as well as the actions of the band.
Without further ado here is Hollerado’s fantastic music video for “Americanarama.”
How freaking cool was that!?! I think my favorite part was when the bass solo is accompanied by a tab in the 6×4 human cube. What a brilliant concept combined with execution.
Along with the video the band has one of the better websites I’ve seen. It’s highly stylistic, featuring hand drawn writing reminiscent of Daniel Johnston’s artwork that provides exploratory means to find out about the band. Their most recent release, Record In a Bag, was originally released as a free download. I think these guys inherently understand what it takes to get the ball rolling these days in the new music economy, especially the “release a viral worthy video” aspect.
Hollerado has opened for such acts as Jack White’s Dead Weather while appearing at festivals including SXSW and Pop Montreal. The band took home $250,000 by winning the Big Money Shot music competition in Ottawa.
Here are a few additional stills from the video:
Hollerado and director Greg Jardin, you out did yourself gentlemen.
