There’s a picture in a family album somewhere of me as a diaper-clad youngster dancing around the TV whilst in cowboy boots. That’s probably the earliest memory I have of MTV. Growing up, music videos were always something I would turn to whenever I had the chance. These days I turn to the internet for my music video needs and I thought I would share my top ten with you.

HERE WE GO!

10. I Want The World To Stop from Belle & Sebastian on Vimeo.

Whether or not this is technically a music video is up for debate. Frankly, the song is good enough to where I don’t really care. It’s cut from a larger video which features at least two performances from Belle & Sebastian’s album Write About Love. I like seeing the visuals of the band playing and the song is way too distracting to do much in the way of nitpicking. This is just a great song!

9. She & Him In The Sun from rhivanz on Vimeo.

If you hadn’t heard, or were maybe just living under a rock, Zooey Deschanel is in a band. She sings and dances around while her cohort, M. Ward looks cool and plays his guitar. That’s essentially the plot to this music video and I’m quite fine with that. While the album itself has fallen some from my interest, this song remains a favorite and this video complements it nicely!

8. Warpaint “Undertow” from maudegone on Vimeo.

I never gave the new Warpaint album enough of a chance to give it a place in my top album list, but their music video for Undertow is top notch. Directed by Shannyn Sossamon, the video elicits a kind of whimsical dreamy state that’s fitting for the music. Definitely a favorite. Plan for 2011: Get acquainted with Warpaint!

7. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs from Merge Records on Vimeo.

A good video for a good song. Directed by Spike Jonze. I have a feeling you’ll like this one too.

6. Los Campesinos “Romance Is Boring” from Alanedit on Vimeo.

I’m not entirely sure if this is the “official” video for the song, but I’m going to assume it is and continue watching. You should too. It’s Los Campesinos!

5. The New Pornographers: Crash Years from Rockonlelkek Staff on Vimeo.

While this won’t go down as my favorite New Pornographers music video ever, it’s a nice complement to the Neko-fronted song and features a bunch of cool umbrella choreography! Don’t know about you, but I imagine that the entire band is down there twirling the umbrellas around. WAVE TO DAN BEJAR!!!

4. Broken Bells “The Ghost Inside” from Jacob Gentry on Vimeo.

What’s better than a Broken Bells music video? How about a Broken Bells music video featuring Christina Hendricks in a sci-fi setting, selling her body parts to make her way across the galaxy?

3. Gorillaz – Stylo from Mario Ucci on Vimeo.

This music video from Gorillaz is a rather striking departure in that it ditches the 2D animation from the band’s previous outings in favor of creepy-CGI. Bruce Willis joins the fun as an antagonist with a great car and a huge gun. The result is a really fun and engaging music video.

2. Vampire Weekend – Cousins (Official MV) by. Garth Jennings from JOOONAE LEE on Vimeo.

This is perhaps my favorite song off of Contra, and as such is my favorite music video thus far for this band. There’s a low-fi quality to the video that’s endearing and the editing is smart. I much prefer this video to “Giving Up The Gun,” which relied WAY too heavily on slow-mo and a slew of cameos.

1. Mates of State: True Love Will Find You In The End from Amplified on Vimeo.

I love love love Mates of State, which makes having their music video at the #1 spot on my music video list a bit of a given. The idea behind the video is fun and the husband and wife team can’t help but exude adorableness as they prance around the city projecting themselves onto other people, places and things.

Teenage Bottlerocket “Bigger Than Kiss”

Teenage Bottlerocket | MySpace Music Videos

Let’s do this.

5) Do You Want To Date My Avatar – The Guild

This video makes it onto this list because the song is catchy, and the nerdy references are cranked up to eleven. It’s an ode to those of us who play MMORPG’s (pronounced: meh-mor-pe-guhs) and anyone who knows what a level 50 paladin is. Also, the costumes are rad and there really isn’t a band to speak of, so the conceit of playing to an audience doesn’t exist. If you like this, check out the show.

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4) French Navy – Camera Obscura

I like Camera Obscura, a lot. Their newest album, My Maudlin Career, is simply a gem and this video captures the essence of that. It’s shot to look like old footage, and it’s cut fast enough to keep you from being too bothered by the band playing music together in a flat. Sure, the mushy lovey-dovey story within the video is a little gag-worthy, but the music keeps it from getting too obnoxious.

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3) Lessons Learned – Matt and Kim

I like this band well enough, but their other music videos haven’t really caught my attention. They’re you’re typical indie music video where they just have the two band members playing an instrument in a weird environment. This video breaks that conceit and it’s all the more refreshing for it. I also like this song much better than Daylight, which you could hear for awhile on some alcoholic beverage commercial. Also, naked people who are fairly good looking make this music video a win in my opinion.

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2) Sick Muse – Metric

This video makes it this far down the list in it’s simplicity. It’s a band goofing around and not really playing their instruments. They aren’t playing to an audience and they are dancing around like fools. It helps that the band is amazing and the album is perhaps the best one I’ve heard this year. I wanted to put Gimme Sympathy on this list as well, since it had an interesting gimmick, but there wasn’t an HD version on youtube. Also, I like this song just a teensy-weensy bit more.

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And the winner of best music video this year?

Drumroll…

1) Cousins – Vampire Weekend

The film student in me loves the low-tech of the video. It’s just the band playing their instruments on a dolly in a back alley somewhere. It fits the tone of the song, which differentiates itself from the previous album with a bit more energy than A-Punk and plays around with time and space editing which I love in music videos. Check out near the end of the video where they wear the other band members’ faces behind their own. It’s an editing gimmick that makes the video editor in me SQUEE with delight.

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And of course, the runner up..

Dimmer – Bishop Allen

The New Pornographers – Mutiny, I Promise You

Menomena – Cough Coughing

Tilly & the Wall – Pot Kettle Black

Throw Me The Statue – Yucatan Gold

Goldfrapp – Happiness

Anypoo, it’s time for another music video session from yours truly. You’ll notice a few things different about this one. Namely, I’m not using MTVMusic anymore for my source of music videos. While the service showed promise, their API continued to suck and navigating the site was an extreme chore. Now, I’m just sticking with Youtube. Already, I’m happy I switched back. So, without further ado, I present five really awesome music videos from some artists I really enjoy!

Goldfrapp Caravan Girl

Mates of State My Only Offer

Bishop Allen Dimmer

The New Pornographers Myriad Harbour

Bloc Party Flux

Boing Boing Article.

Video:

If you want to see a lack of vision in action, start at the following youtube video and progress through the multiple episodes. You can also check out all of the videos from the site on the youtube page, which I heartily recommend over the site itself. Take from these videos what you will, and feel free to ask me about it. God knows I love to bitch about this place. See if you can’t spot me in these videos somewhere with a few buddies of mine! :)

First video in the youtube series: