Celluloid Bachelor #1: Megafaun's "Impressions of the Past"

I don’t know about you, but for quite some time I’ve nursed a possibly silly grudge against the music video as a popular culture artifact. Over the last couple years, I’ve found them a useful way to add images to words when writing online, but still only viewed them as something between the technological equivalent of a useful idiot and a proletarian sop.

Lately, though, reading some of the press releases that accompany the many such videos that worm their way into my inbox, I’ve started to realize the hard work and sincere creative energy that goes into some of these videos. So, in that spirit (as well as the spirit of proletarian sops), I bring to you a new feature: Celluloid Bachelor. In it, I’ll periodically throw up a video that’s making its way around the blogger circuit so that you too can appreciate (or tolerate) the occasional magic that can be the indie rock music video. As I keep telling myself, it ain’t all for MTV.

To inaugurate this feature, I’m going with the recently released video by Megafaun for “Impressions of the Past,” the stunning fourth track off Gather, Form and Fly. Comprised of images taken by photographer Tim Lytvinenko, the video is effectively a sequential collage chronicle of the artist’s recent westward journey with the band, documenting observations as disparate as stage set-up and on-stage performances to green room shenanigans and off-day time-killing. Edited with a sense of both humor and festive appreciation, the pictuals are perfectly timed – to the millisecond – to the dynamics of the song and its frequent tempo and thematic dynamics.

It really is delightful. And, thus, my pleasure to bring to you as well as to begin this new series.

Before I leave you with the video, I’ll leave you with the message that band accompanies the short film with

So enjoy. Put yourself in it. Fill in the blanks.

Megafaun - Impressions of the Past from Hometapes on Vimeo.