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Sound Tracks: “Meet Me In the Basement” by Broken Social Scene
Believe it or not, music videos still exist. Sound Tracks trolls the internet to find the best and the worst of local artists’ new singles and the good, bad, or otherwise noteworthy visuals that accompany them.
“This is what adbusters [sic] would look like as a video,” says user rueabbey, an observation that, sadly, is not entirely untrue, from the (ever-mind-boggling, ever-entertaining) YouTube comment section of the new Broken Social Scene video. Or, at least, the new Broken Social Scene–approved video.
Three days ago, via the official Arts&Crafts YouTube account, a video for the easy-to-digest instrumental banger “Meet Me In the Basement” was posted with the following comment from the band: “This video was made as a response to the G20 Summit in Toronto June, 2010. The rest speaks for itself. It was sent to us by a lover of our music who wants to remain anonymous. We are very proud to share this mash-up with you.” Contained within it are countless clips of political figures, political events, violence, famine, Ryan Long from Ajax’s ska brats The Johnstones with a Justin Bieber poster, sex, pop culture figures, etc. (You know, the usual.) Naturally, there’s lots of footage of the G20, much of which is easily recognizable from the more high-traffic videos of the weekend’s events, some of which we rounded up last month.
Of course, fans make videos for their favourite artists (and TV shows, and movies, and pets, and just everything) all the time, though admittedly not often to the level of assembling and editing that went into this one, which is decent, if not a little simple. One of the G20 videos used—The Battle of Toronto—was shot and edited by Miguel Barbosa of YEAH! Films, and the chopping up and use of his video (not to mention his face, at 0:39) was not only a surprise, but a bit deflating. “I was upset they blatantly used my footage without credit to me whatsoever. I’ve been making movies for years, and the G20 video was my first sort of impression on a mass scale of my filmmaking.”
Although the source of the video remains a mystery to anyone outside of the secret Arts&Crafts lairs, Barbosa has since sent a yet-unanswered email to the record label requesting acknowledgement. In the meantime though, might as well milk it, right? “Since it won’t be taken down, I will absolutely use it in my portfolio.”
