BY MIKEY MIGO
I am against all that is emo in music. I'm a fan of emotions within music, but there's a specific sound to "emo music" that's like nails on a chalk board to me. Yet I still appreciate AFI. While I respect the genre, I'm not all that into punk music either. Still, I appreciate AFI.
I came across AFI like most folks. I heard "Girl Not Grey" and thought "Wow, this isn't bad". From there, AFI officially became part of my musical lexicon. At the time there were plenty of emo bands making it big and ruining music for me as I knew it. AFI, while I guess could be put in that group, was different. It's like calling Tool "metal". While it may be true, Tool is much more than a simple genre classification. To me, AFI is, or at least was, "emo-ternative". Not quite emo… not quite punk… but more times than not, I've found myself enjoying the hell out of their music.
Part of that enjoyment has been their video work. I appreciate a band that puts time and consideration into their visuals. I'm not talking about their physical appearance, but their videos. AFI, by all accounts, have evolved into a very respectable band of artists. Today we're going to look at their visual evolution and watch all of their videos.
[If a video won't play due to being taken down, check out YouTube or the other hundred places videos are posted. You WILL find these videos rather quickly upon search.]
"He Who Laughs Last..."
Album: "Very Proud of Ya"
Year: 1996
This is a side of AFI that I never experienced. I knew they were more "punk" back in the day and this is song makes that pretty clear. The video is a fantasy retrospect of Davey speaking of how he's "always wanted to be in a hardcore band". It's not a large budget video, obviously, but it's done fairly well. I like the old school retro concept. It's not an overly used theme still to this day. The best part is a bloody Havok singing from the trunk of a car. The song and video are rather short, but it gets the job done. You can see from the start that the visual aspect of the band was important.
Rating: 7.0
"Third Season"
Album: "Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes"
Year: 1997
What we have here is the band casually sitting on a porch singing the song while local suburban children lurk around and try to buy ice cream. When that fails, the kids go crazy and take over the ice cream truck and steal their goods. The video looks really dated and reminds me of that old Smashing Pumpkins video. It's a decent song, but the video doesn't have much substance to it or really any interesting visuals.
Rating: 5.0
"Totalimmortal"
Album: "All Hallow's"(EP)
Year: 1999
I vaguely remember this video. The whole "lets hang out in a grave yard so I can take a nap" thing is a bit too much, but it takes up a whole ten seconds. This video is right to the point. It's all performance outside of the nappy-time grave stuff. There's a good amount of energy to the video, so I'll at least give it that.
Rating: 4.0
"The Days of the Phoenix"
Album: "The Art of Drowning"
Year: 2000
I'd assume this where their style shifted to a more mainstream sound that borders on "emo". Visually, it's like a way better version of "Totalimmortal". The portion at the end where three Davey Havoks stand in a hall way is a cool edit, but the "hold me, I'm tortured" poses and vibe he's giving is a downer. Other than that it's pretty much a cut and dry performance video.
Rating: 6.0
"Girl's Not Grey"
Album: "Sing the Sorrow"
Year: 2003
This is probably the first song to make me mentally aware of AFI. It was on the radio A LOT during 03 and I'd be lieing if I didn't say it wasn't on probably a dozen mix CDs for that summer. A long with that fact, it's an awesome video loaded with color, surrealism, and art. The weird blueish creature running around and the human anime girl look awesome. Then for some reason the band wears blackface. It's almost like they're covered in oil, I don't get why, but it's surely not a racial thing. By far this is the most visually interesting and best video thus far of their videography.
Rating: 8.5
"The Leaving Song, Pt. II"
Album: "Sing the Sorrow"
Year: 2003
At this point, the direction of the AFI videos have officially moved into the "this will probably at least be somewhat interesting" category. The part of people fighting/moshing/dancing is kind of weird, but it looks good at least. Then they have to go and make me say "what the eff" when someone starts using mace on people. This is not nearly as strong as "Girl's Not Grey", but not bad. The visuals are nice, but the video's story/theme is on the "meh" side. It doesn't give us much to analyze here.
Rating: 7.0
"Silver and Cold"
Album: "Sing the Sorrow"
Year: 2003
We start off some dramatic preparation of coffee and jump into some somber, yet beautiful shots. The band runs. I don't know it's away from something or towards something until they jump in stolen car. Meanwhile, Havok stands on the edge of a bridge. At this point, I assume they're coming to save him. They get in an explosive car accident before he jumps. They die and he casually comes off the edge and walks away. It must be chilly because he puts on his coat before we fade out. This video has a pretty good narrative with an ironic twist at the end. I appreciate that. This is one of those cases where I somewhat like a song, but the video puts ME over the edge. Because of that, it makes for my favorite AFI video thus far.
Rating: 9.0
"Prelude 12/21"/"Miss Murder"
Album: "Decemberunderground"
Year: 2006
I'm not used to see the prelude portion of this video. The direction and shots here are spectacular. After about two minutes we jump into "Miss Murder". The song is catchy and probably their biggest hit so far. I'm a big fan of the interior shots, but once it gets outside it feels like about a half dozen Marilyn Manson videos. Manson normally has good visuals so it's not a bad thing, but it ruins what had potential to be a very unique video. That's my biggest gripe with it. Well, that and the emo bunnies.
Rating: 8.5
"Love Like Winter"
Album: "Decemberunderground"
Year: 2006
I don't remember this video at all. The snow falling over the blue tones are good visuals. I stare at it intently, but I'm having trouble picking up the narrative here. Havok lurks after a hooded girl as his band freezes to death(?) and when she removes the hood he falls into hole in the ice and drowns. I watched this video all the way through three times trying to gain a meaning behind it. The point isn't being shoveled at us and this is more of an art piece that makes your brain come to its own conclusions. I forgot music videos like this even existed anymore. Good on them for making my head hurt.
Rating: 7.5
"Medicate"
Album: "Crash Love"
Year: 2009
The most recent video from the most recent album. They seemed to of dropped their "emo"/"gothy" look and are "normal" now. This is the first time I've seen this video and it's not bad. I'm a sucker for black and white and the direction here is crisp and fluid. The guitar riff sounds very familiar, but that could just be because it's a good one. The "sex cam" looking stuff of the girl is interesting and the ending with them all collapsing to the ground is good stuff. There's not a lot going on here, but it looks good and is a pretty strong video.
Rating: 7.0
The Videography of AFI
Overall Rating: 6.95
It's safe to say as the band expanded their sound over the years that their visual style really took off. Their early videos are decent and casual punk pieces, but once they hit the new millennium their music videos became more artistic and interesting. Even with those older videos, they nearly average a 7 out of 10 for their video work. That's pretty impressive. While I won't go out and buy their CDs the day they come out and haven't been their shows, AFI is a band that I always keep an open ear and mind to. "Girl Not Grey", "Miss Murder", and "Love Like Winter" are all visually stunning videos. To me, "Silver and Cold" stands out as their best video work purely based off the narrative and storytelling. "Medicate" is a pretty good video too, but lacks a deeper substance. Bleeding gold and medication is a little too "Placebo" for my tastes. I'll be interested to see what AFI presents to our eyes next time out.
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