Idolator

Heh! Love the "Metroid" reference.

"Wait... WHAT?!"

Is it really gratuitous to represent the occasional reality of the Paris suburbs? I like it. It bothers me.

Metroid reference where?

This video actually stuck in my craw for all kinds of (probably) stupid reasons: are they representing themselves as thuggish bastards? Is there some kind of self-effacing inward-backlash in the bit where the kid stomps on the car radio when it plays "D.A.N.C.E."? Does this video play on or send up the European right's "dark-skinned hoodlums are destroying French culture" fearmongering? How are we supposed to react when they do stuff that many people would consider hilarious (harassing hippie buskers) alongside stuff that's clearly reprehensible (theft, sexual assault, random violence in general)? And even if it's kind of hackneyed, the whole "let's attack the people documenting and possibly even silently valorizing our violence" ending is a bit more thought-out than Prodigy's "wait, that was a lay-dee?!" bit.

So they're saying Justice fans are jerks? That tepid, overhyped dance music inspires violence?

@Charlie Kerfelds Jetsons Tee: Haha. I get it now.

@ObtuseIntolerant: So I know things aren't racially/religiously harmonious in France right now, but is the reality of the Paris suburbs roving gangs of spray-painting black thugs wearing matching jackets terrorizing people?

@ObtuseIntolerant: Maybe I'm projecting but given that the whole Justice/popular electronic music in the oughts "thing" seems pretty tied up in privilege it comes off more like subcultural tourism than anything else. Sure, the fact that all the kids are wearing cross-emblazoned jackets does raise some of the issues of self-valorization that Nate mentioned above, but the supercynical part of me just wonders if that choice was at least somewhat marketing-driven.

Just watched the clip.

Meh. "La haine" is way better.

I like the bored onlookers at 1:56 - it's almost as if they expressing the ennui we will all soon feel as a people as Pitchfork breathlessly reviews every single remix of this track for the next nineteen months.

I kinda like that video, but man, there is no empathy for it at all. I wanted them dead, all of them. Fucking droogs.

@NickEddy: Does that make you the dude with the bongo drum?

@NickEddy: Pitchfork doesn't review singles anymore, they just toss them up on Forkcast and call it a day. Personally I loved the idea of writing more words about a song than the song actually contains, but regardless that horse is dead.

This video is certainly gut-provoking at least. I kept waiting for the turn, the moment at which the becrossed kids would turn into saviors. Maybe that's the point, if there is one - these kids are doing G/god's work by burning everything to the ground.

I have to admit though that I was slightly more shocked by the Pitchfork.tv interview where they call themselves Christians. I guess that accounts for the really confused girl in my broadcasting class who couldn't remember the name of that "hot new Christian band... they're kind of electronic... they played Coachella..."

@Maura Johnston:

"Maybe I'm projecting but given that the whole Justice/popular electronic music in the oughts "thing" seems pretty tied up in privilege."

God, the kid who minored in Sociology is all sorts of intrigued by the sentence. You know, I've never taken a minute to take a step back and analyze exactly who are my peers when I enter a Cinespace, Beauty Bar, or MSTRKRFT show for example. You think you're projecting, but you may be hitting the nail on the head. (?) I don't know. Maybe this is a topic [that's been beaten into the ground] for some other forum or message board.

wow - i hate it - reminds me of that crappy Prodigy video for "Hotride" that was Liam himself shelved years ago

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I See the "Smack My Bitch Up" and "Hotride" similarities but I'm getting a strong Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy" vibe of this one...

God these guys are so derivative that we're arguing about what videos they ripped off...to say nothing of the fact the their music is little more than Junior Senior / Daft Punk B-Side material.

Most of my younger co-workers LOVE these guys. And me and the other old timers just shake our heads and put our head phones back on so we can finish listening to the rest of Computer World in peace.

@teknohed: Yeah, the opening scene looks like it was shot in the same hood as "Come to Daddy."

I have mixed feelings about the video. I like some of the camerawork and it does provoke a strong reaction in viewers, but I can't see its point other than "shocking" people with boys behaving badly. You could read into it as a reflection of the ethnic violence and strife that has hit the Parisian suburbs in the past few years, and you can say that its depiction of ultra-violent "Christians" does recall France's Catholic vs. Protestant civil wars. Of course, the non-French viewer is most likely to just see a gang being badass.

Still looking for that Metroid reference.

@Maura Johnston: What do you mean by "privledge"? Socioeconomic? The generic electronic music studio setup is no more expensive than the typical rock band instrument setup. Plus, it's not really a special, exclusionary privledge to hear music from different subcultures and adapt ideas from them.

@Big Gray.: Not every day...but there were major riots within the last year, as in, epidemics of cars being set on fire, etc. It seems pretty reflective of that, and of the feeling you get if you've ever accidentally wandered into the Parisian banlieue as a stupid young American college student (yep, me!).

It's not as rare as the riots. I have indelible memories of riding the airport to Paris-central commuter train and having it be pelted by rocks thrown by kids just like these...like, NOT fucking around, and everyone had to get on the floor, they shut all the lights out and wait for the authorities to clear them off. it gave me that same tense feeling.

People get pissed when they feel trod upon, and there is a stronger of showing it off in French culture.

@Maura Johnston: I don't know if this was a social statement they were trying to make, but I find it effective for my own purposes. I DO think it is subcultural tourism, and I don't think that is valueless, especially when it's not cute. I would be interested to see a French perspective. French hipsters I knew loved the misery/hatred/violence indicting their parents' France. Haven't you seen "La Haine"? It might help, the poor French kids in that are doing their own share of subcultural tourism...as has every poor kid in the world that started writing hip hop in their own language.

@Charlie Kerfelds Jetsons Tee: Ha! I missed that...didn't mean to jinx you. Love it...Are you talking to ME?

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It kind of makes sense that Justice would give props to Prodigy, considering they usually drop "Smack My Bitch Up" during their DJ sets.

Reminds me of Strassenjunge by SIDO.

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