Chris Lenox Smith of Brooklyn’s Mixtape Club directed this cool solo piece for Primus:

(Thanks, Gibbs Rainock via Team Coco)

I need to share these music videos by Barcelona musicians Puig M. Fabra and Mike Moko, aka Los Temblooores (The Earthquakes).

Make the Mongolian (Haz el mongol) is very simply drawn, crayon styled animated piece with a real catchy beat. Low budget but highly enjoyable.

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Fight in the Bowling Alley (Pelea En La Bolera) is less animation and more of a mash up of live action found footage, old clips, commercials, scenes from trailers and TV shows – my kind of stuff.

Vladimir Mavounia-Kouka created a real winner with this video for Odezenne’s catchy hip-hop tune “Dedans.” The stark black-and-white visuals evoke a 1930s Fleischer Studios cartoon nightmare. But this is no pastiche. Mavounia-Kouka has a graphic style that samples from the past, but speaks in its own fresh voice, much like Odezenne’s song, which smartly weaves classic big band samples into its contemporary sound. (P.S. – The filmmaker says on the Vimeo page that a version with English lyrics is forthcoming; the animation tells a story in itself, but it’ll be great to know what they’re saying.)

CREDITS
Direction and Design: Vladimir Mavounia-Kouka
Animation: Laurent Box & Vladimir Mavounia-Kouka
Music and sound design: Odezenne
Song extract from the album O.V.N.I _Edition Louis XIV

Delta Heavy by Get By

Stop-mo. Directed and animated by UK based Ian Robertson. Illustrations by Annie Ward.

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Mr. Overtime by Punks Jump Up

This music video was produced by ChezEddy and directed by Maxime Bruneel, a French director known for his psychedelic videos. And it shows!

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Ten by Ten by Bluebrain

I just caught up with this mini-masterpiece, directed and animated by Gabe Askew.

Brooklyn-based Hayley Morris created this richly textured underwater fantasia for Hilary Hahn and Hauschka’s song “Bounce Bounce.” The evocative tide pool creatures were created with fabric, yarn, papier-mâché and driftwood, the latter used to make the wooden bird. The disparate materials that Hayley uses are united with an electric color palette and swaying shadows—all animated by hand under the camera. More details about the video and the musicians can be found in this IFC article.

Tonight, ASIFA-East handed out prizes for its 43nd annual Animation Festival. The Rauch Brothers took home the Best in Show for their 9/11-themed short John and Joe. Two children’s films that I particularly enjoyed at the screening were Michael Sporn’s inspiring I Can Be President (which was shown in excerpted form) and an adaptation of Mo Willems’ book Don’t Let The Pigeon Stay Up Late directed by Pete List. The latter showed that preschool animation can engage audience participation without talking down to kids.

The most surprising film of the evening was Leah Shore’s Old Man. The “old man” in question is Charles Manson, and Shore uses a breathless array of techniques and styles to illustrate recordings of his schizophrenic ramblings. Though we’ve posted Shore’s films here before—see BOOBatary and Meatwaffle—I’d suggest that Old Man is a breakout work for the young filmmaker. She is a talent to watch.

A full list of winners follows the jump.
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Simian Mobile Disco by Cerulean

Jack Featherstone and Will Samuel designed, directed and animated this abstract video at London’s ISO studio. (Thanks to Felipe Robles for the link.)

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Cpt. Metal by Die Arzte

Vienna, Austria collective LWZ, comprised of Martin Lorenz, Stefan Salcher and Markus Wagner, created Cpt. Metal for German punk band Die Arzte.

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Te Koop / A Vendre by Pree

Maxwell Sorensen animated this piece over the last two months, during evenings and on weekends. Created entirely in Photoshop and After Effects after scanning “a big pile of real paper textures to keep it more organic”. Sorensen spends his days interning on stop-motion projects at Hornet Inc.

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The Rifle’s Spiral by The Shins

That’s Jamie Caliri’s new video for Portland-based indie rock band, The Shins. Caliri, best known for his Lemony Snicket end titles, created this surreal stop-motion animation inspired by Edward Gorey illustrations and Martin Scorsese’s Hugo. Go here to watch the making of video.

Crash by Belle & Sebastian

A cover version by Belle & Sebastian of the 1988 hit song Crash by The Primitives. This animated video was made by Stephen Tolfrey.

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Pirates Life by We Cut Corners

This video is hand drawn frame by frame with markers on paper by Polish artists Katarzyna Kijek and Przemysław Adamski. It’s now an official selection in the Music Video category at Annecy 2012. (And don’t miss their top-secret making-of video).

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If the Canary Stops Singing by Heart-Sick Groans

Cut-out style, directed by Danish illustrator, animator and short film director Henric Wallmark.

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Changing The Rain by The Horrors

Last but not least – a kaleidoscope of color directed by Pete Fowler.