Rapper Azeem and Director Ben Stokes video for “Latin Revenge,” above, and Russian rock band Lyapis Trubetskoy’s video for “Capital,” below, have made the cut for “The Amazing Animated Jukebox, Vol. 2.”Ever since MTV devoted an entire network to airing music videos and record companies saw the potential for an all-encompassing marketing tool, visual imagery has become synonymous with music. While a bevy of musicians have embraced the medium to either make a fashion statement or sculpt an image, their more creative counterparts have effectively employed music videos as a means to an alternative creative perspective. When local filmmaker and writer Ted Mills presents a second installment of animated music videos at Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum next Thursday with “The Amazing Animated Jukebox Vol. 2,” it is to the latter that the curator will be paying specific homage.
“These are videos for musicians who don’t need to be the star of the video,” explained Mills. “You will see that, over the years, Radiohead appear in their videos less and less. When they first started out, they were your typical band and were in the videos. These days, if you see Thom Yorke you’re lucky. These tend to be artists that aren’t interested in themselves as rock or pop stars.”
