Berating the Popular:
Tapes N Tapes – Hang Them All
(Jonnie Ross)
Fuck this video. If you say you like this video, then you’re trying to be nice or you have shitty taste, in which case, get the fuck off of this website. I mean it.
You know, I’ve put up with Tapes N Tapes “videos” and even tried to say nice things about them, but this shit is the last straw. This video is atrocious for so many reasons.
1.) What the fuck is the protagonist? He looks like Andy Dick’s character from Road Trip. Things are bad already if you’re building off of Andy Dick blocks. And while i’m at it, why do indie/low-budget characters all have to look and dress like ass? Not everyone is beautiful I understand, but that doesn’t mean that real people are all ugly either. You can totally tell this guy is normal, but they made him look like a ducks dick, in which case, I guess it suits the overall video.
2.) Basing the story on 99¢ and 98¢ stores is also pretty fucking lame. Really. Cheap Discount Stores? That’s all you got Ross?
3.) A cardboard shotgun. People taking a cardboard shotgun seriously. This actually causes me pain that my time was wasted with this horribleness. I feel so much dumber for knowing that a cardboard gun exists in this manner.
4.) Stealing shit from people. Ridiculous. Pushing the guy and stealing his chair on the beach is the only thing that one could take from this video. Like a dollar covered in Pig Jizz.
5.) This video is RACIST! Whether the Ross or the band want to believe it or not. Don’t believe me, take a look:
Q.) Who’s the white protagonist robbing and putting out of business?
A.) Hispanic and low-income store owners.
Q.) Who does the shifty white protagonist have working under him?
A.) Black and Hispanic children. That’s right, we’ve got child labor among these unscrupulous ethnic kids. Good one Ross, you know where the humor is at!
Q.) How does the obvious Hispanic owner react to the new 97¢ store?
A.) How all poor Hispanics must react to anything! By drinking liquor out of a paper bag. Careful not to get any on our mustaches, since obviously, all Hispanics have mustaches! Damn, if Ross isn’t great at the details!
6.) Finally, as almost poetic justice, we have the one spot that showcases the band. Tapes n Tapes Kitty Litter! So they can get pissed and shit on for their music video sins! Well played TnT!
7.) To cap off this shit train of a video, you can’t get much worse off than when StereoCum pisses on you for the length of their post.
Cute video. Did you catch the Tapes ‘N Tapes kitty litter? If you’re keeping score at home of who they sound like on each track: This is their Wolf Parade jam, a Dan song that would fall in the middle of the record.
I hope you realize when they refer to the video as “cute” they mean it in the way girls call tiny dicks “cute”. Savvy?
Jonnie Ross and Tapes N Tapes. I hate you right now. Especially cause I had both your backs and this is how i’m repayed. Fix this mess you’ve made.
Hi guys !
Did you receive my mail regarding the interview ?
Cheers
Thibaut from Belgium
Yikes. Well hell.
Really, though, racist?
Los, your blood pressure must be through the roof
miss you!
- mp
Why did you spend so much time writing about something you hate so much? Empty vessels make more noise. Take a happy pill, son
AH: Ok maybe not racist. I was pretty pissed whilst writing this though. Grossly Stereotypical seems too weak though. What would fit? Hmm….
michelle: Miss you too darlin’. Hence why the blood pressure is up!
davemcdave: We’re all about educating and tastemaking here DMcD. People gotta know about this shit, so they don’t fall for it, hence the education. As far as tastemaking, it’s not just what you like, but what you don’t like. Yaknowhatimsayin’?
I don’t know… if you think of it as a metaphor for American imperialism then it all kind of makes sense for the exact reasons you hate it.
Sometimes you have to actually critique something, it can’t all be sunshine and flowers.
I doubt that’s the real reasoning behind all of this though. There would’ve been something to give that away a little more blatantly if that was the case. I mean, Radiohead just did it with All I Need conveniently. That seemed a little more conscious of itself and its audience. I don’t get that from watching this.
It looks like people are even glossing over it when they watch it. The commenters over at Antville almost seem to enjoy the stereotypes and what not. Hmm…
Somehow I doubt Johnny was trying to infer that imperialism is a good thing. I think your read on this video is a bit surfacy. And really, “educating and tastemaking”? How does someone even write a sentence like that without vomiting. Thanks for enlightening us common folk with your elevated critiques. Sheesh.
Billy: I only vomit after I eat. Gotta watch my figure ya know. You’re more than welcome for the critiques. I’m a giver, what can I say?
Damn, people leaving comments. What the fuck is this all about.
I didn’t feel the outright hatred that Los felt upon first viewing and I did laugh at the part where he stole the chair from the guy on the beach.
Other than that, it feels like the same-old-standard-thing that everyone else is passing off as a video these days, minus the band. It reminded me of that Shins video when they were stealing the balloons. A safe, standard approach to promoting a band through visuals. I’ll bet this gets all kinds of MTV2/MTVu play.
I really question “The Los’s” music taste and how he can ponder these outrageous critiques. Plus his sentence structure is something left to be desired.
Really, the “Same old standard thing that everyone passes off as a video these days”? Quirky narrative videos that don’t include the band aren’t exactly all over TRL at the moment. And yeah, I’m pretty sure that Tapes N’ Tapes would love to get this on mtv2/mtvu. I’m curious, what would you have rather seen in this promo?
Plus, am I to think that I have shitty tast if I so the video is average. I am dumbfounded to believe that I have such shitty taste.
As per the metaphor idea, I think that is just over analyzing a very poor critique (if thats what you can call it) of an average video.
And to make matters worse, you were all about that embarrassingly lazy Crystal Castles video…
I guess the ‘I love it’ was a little overboard, but I was just trying to get across that the only use I would have for this video would be to display it as a background, abstract, jump-right-in, don’t need a plot, catch it at any moment and it still works, party wall favor. I love it for that reason. Otherwise you are right. Lazy and unimportant in the grand scheme of things.
The song I was all about though.
When I say ‘music videos’ I don’t really include anything on TRL. I’m not even sure what’s on TRL these days. AND of course TRL isn’t full of the ‘quirky narrative video minus the band.’ If those videos don’t appeal to me, they sure as hell don’t appeal to the 10-17 young girl/boy demographic that is TRL’s bread and butter audience.
Seriously?
Okay we have things like:
1) The lead protagonist is white and his “competition” are not.
2) The only real possession the white man seemingly has is a television, which he watches (even though it is meaningless static) as he makes his weapon.
3) The white man uses an imposing but impotent weapon to scare people to follow his dictates.
4) All the workers employed by the white man are non-white children.
5 ) The last shot is of the white man mounting his gun on the wall. (least subtle thing ever).
6) The white man steals both the possessions and ideas of other people, then co-opts them as his own, “eradicating” the original people in his goal to make a profit.
So you can believe all these things were done for a reason, in which case the reason is pretty blatantly imperialist/capitalist commentary. Or you can assume those are all a bunch of random coincidences and that I’m also about to get hit by lightning and win the lottery because we all live in Statistical Improbability County. I mean, everybody knows that on a shoot you go out of your way to use children for no reason because it’s not an extra hassle at all… And I know it’s easy for everybody to get lost in the obviously-there-for-comedic-value-only bits in the middle, but come on. This is obviously working on two levels and you didn’t bother to look at both (fear or laziness?).
Allow me to retort:
1.) you could make an argument that only one of his “competition” is actually not white. The other may very well be white, it’s a little tough to tell.
2.) what does the television have to do with anything? he also seems to own a kitchen set and a drawer full of items.
3.) that which he does with the shitty gun seems irrelevant. How do you know that the only reason he has a cardboard gun is because they obviously can’t show that on Mtv and the like. To say that it’s a purposeful metaphor for something could be true, but it could just as much not be true.
4.) Exactly about the kids employed by him, but alas are there any other kind of kids in this video. There are no white kids in general to offset his “point”. In fact, there are but a tiny few of white people in the video. All of which lie away from the stores, yet who are victims as well.
5.) Maybe mounting the gun is the least subtle thing ever, it’s also the most ridiculous thing ever. And if he’s trying to make a larger point about guns/violence/war and white people, well, he’s a little late to the party as he’s obviously not even remotely the first to try to make such a point. Especially a point in such a manner. The way to make this point (if he even is trying to make one) could have been done in a much more tasteful and/or inventive manner. To do so in this way is, for lack of a better word, kinda retarded. Really, who gives a fuck about Discount Stores? There are a million ways this could’ve been told in a much better fashion.
6.) This is probably the closest argument you have to the truth. But it’s also the most logical way for these sequence of events to occur. Your argument almost works like starting backwards from a maze. Had the end been different, what would you say then? Why did the others have to be “eradicated”? Would it be so difficult for the director to come up with alternatives that weren’t so shitty? I’m not saying sugarcoat things or compromise integrity, but this ending seemingly has none to begin with. Why couldn’t the other stores fight back. Why did this store and it’s evil have to win out? What lesson is there in all that? The bad guy wins, but so the fuck what? It’s not like 7 where the bad guy wins and shits crazy and it fucks with you.
Accusing me of being lazy and fearful and using sarcasm to try and detract my argument is also very disheartening. Saying “Or you can assume those are all a bunch of random coincidences and that i’m also about to get hit by lightning and win the lottery because we all live in Statistical Improbability County.” is cheap. That’s obviously not what i’m saying. Otherwise, why the fuck would the Hispanic owner be chugging a bottle of booze? If in fact that was planned, then what does that say about the point being made in this video? Are you saying that since he’s making a point about imperialism/capitalism that everything is correct in this video, right down to the stereotypes of each race? That there is no wrong in this video? Is this a video that you even like yourself?
Not everything is as calculated as you’d think. If you’ve got no money to shoot a video, do you have the resources to go out and cast a bunch of white kids with acting experience and larger costs? Or do you just get the neighborhood kids to help you out, saving money where you can? Do you want to make a heist video, but decide a subpar idea, because you can’t do the obvious cool stuff, as you know it won’t find it’s way to the airwaves? There are a million reasons for or against this being offensive on purpose or not. I really don’t think the artists behind this are racist or anything, but I do believe they were negligent.
Billy: I’d rather see Wanderlust in the place of this promo. Also, Brian did the CC post, that’s between you guys.
Vanguard: What about my musical tastes do you question? What do you think your taste says if you think this video is “average”? You obviously don’t think it’s that great. So my question is, what are you really upset with? Are you worried about your tastes? I mean, I never said yours was “shitty”, you did, and you said you were dumbfounded. The first step is realizing your problem I suppose, so it looks like you’re on your way.
Also, if you’re gonna attack my “sentence structure” at least use correct spelling and grammar. Or would you rather I edit your own arguments against myself too?
yikes. this sounds like my history of racism class, and then some. Simmer simmer.
Ok first off, this is a really cool video. It’s fun, funny, and interesting. I got linked to this garbage of a blog from another site referencing how utterly incompetent this review was. How original — a video blows up on MTV/MTV2 and some wannabe artfag blog makes fun of it to get hits. Pitchfork kind of has the market on elitist criticism for this part of the industry, why don’t you shut down this shitty site and try another angle. Seriously, read your own About section. Read it out loud. Are you kidding me?! News flash, you’re in the wrong decade, jackass. It’s 2008, not 1998, music videos are a dying art anyway. Running this blog to tear them apart is beyond pointless. You’re taste sucks almost as the intention of your site.
Especially considering the swill that passes for a music video these days, tearing apart this video for it’s dramatic structure is one of the lamest things I’ve ever seen. The cardboard shotgun is hilarious. The style is a great throwback to Raising Arizona. It’s fun and really matches the tone of the song. I hope the band and the director run a train on punching you in the balls.
Los,
I should proof read my own post, lol… Thats what I get for trying to work and post at the same time.
I have been fond of some of your musical taste but that debate is for another time….
Keep up the good work…..
My issue is less with your post than with your hijacking of the antville post. It’s all good and fine to write what you want on your own site but to host the video on antville with a caption about how the video sucks is really lame. Post that stuff in the comments, not the header. I know your all about trying to be a “tastemaker” but your slamming the video on antville without giving people a chance to watch it and judge for themselves first is not cool. You may have gained a bunch of hits for this post but you lost my respect for your blog. i’m with roman, what a fucking joke.
Man when the did the internet get so uptight. Maybe it was in slightly poor taste to diss the video in the header, but I don’t think the antville crowd is that fickle. They will watch anything up there that piques their interest, and don’t rely on what someone writes to decide what to/ and not to view. This isn’t the general public we are talking about. Plus I bet money that more people watched the video ‘because’ of my harsh words in the header. Nothing draws viewers like sensationalism either way.
Sorry to let you down Max. Did you even read the site before that antville post? Haven’t seen any comments over the last two years, but thanks for your 1 comment on the way out.
Which brings up another point. Why does no one comment when they like a video. The majority of comments that come in are always bitching about something, and stem from posts where we bitch about something. I’ll post a video that I like, and no one has a damn thing to say about it, but go out on limb and critique something and people get up in arms.
Can’t we all be equally supportive and unsupportive?
Woah, woah, woah. Hold on.
Regardless of whether or not this video sucks…
what the shit have you ever directed (or even done in general) to have any worth of an opinion on a music video or the general subject of art at all? You think because you’ve watched a million music videos you know something about them? My 16 year old brother has probably watched as many as you and I don’t see him being an arrogant and rude internet blogger acting like he has a creditable opinion.
Blogs of opinion are only valuable when they’re written by professionals, not amateurs. And you’re not even an amateur in the music video field, let alone any art field. So unless you’ve had some valuable experience or any honorable and legit writing credits to back you up, your opinion is immediately rendered uninformed and ignorant.
Do you really think this video’s intention was to be racist or to say Mexicans are criminals? Seriously, watch the video again. It’s a video telling a story about a guy with a clever and funny business idea, not a video setting out to make Mexicans look bad. He has a CARDBOARD GUN for Christ’s sake. It’s supposed to be FUN. Lighten up. If people spend their life looking for racism, all they’re going to do is perpetuate it; you think you know something about racism because you can “point the finger”? I bet if Jonnie had used a “diverse” cast you probably would have criticized his choices as a director saying that, “preppy white kids wouldn’t have anything to do with a 99 cent store”.
Why does your criticism have to be so rude? If you have some theoretical or conceptual issues with the video discuss them in an intelligent and respectful manner like any decent writer would do, rather than bashing people like an ass hole.
The only reason this site is even remotely popular is because it’s a place where people can find the latest music videos. Nobody really values your opinion. Get off your high horse.
And way to spend your time putting others down. As far as I’m concerned, that’s just as bad as racism.
Go do something useful and positive with your life.
[...] That seems to be the consensus from the comments in our berating of the new TnT’s video for ‘Hang Them All’ [...]
One of the wisest things ever written in the comments section of a website.
One of the most laughably moronic things ever written in the comments section of a website.
That crazy diamond Mark Cuban sums it up.
okay okay fine ill give you that.
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