Thursday, November 01, 2007

November Song - "Blackout"

Sometimes it is worthwhile to have a look at an ambitious failure.

Embedded in the column this month is the 2005 promotional video for the song "Blackout" by Asian Kung-fu Generation, the Kanagawa (via Shimokitazawa / Kichijōji) kings of contemporary dissafection. The video loses its nerve three minutes in...but what a fantastically creepy first 3 minutes! Revelling in and revealing all the self-loathing, paranoias and prejudices of young men of a certain age (oh, why beat around the bush, they were 28 when they recorded this), all from the point of view of surveillance cameras.

A difficult document of a specific time and place (here and now) from a supremely alienated point of view.

Later - If the embed window is too small to discern what is going on, here is the You Tube link.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Blackout is a pretty funny video; the points you brought up made me think about it in a new light. I always liked Asian Kung-Fu Generation, although after a few songs, I have a hard time discerning them from one another. (I have the same problem with Spitz, who I love dearly, but their songs mostly tend to blend into this one mellow, melancholy-bittersweet thread.)

Have you seen AKFG's video for Kimi no Machi made? Goto's stunned expression partway through is hilarious.

If you like AKFG, you might also like Qururi. Highly recommend their songs Highway, Wandervogel, and Bara no Hana.