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In this edition of Visual Stimuli we're having a look at three of the acts featuring on this weekend's Splendour In The Grass lineup, now showing on your favoured televisual device or YouTube platform…
 THE POLYPHONIC SPREE – Running Away
Directors: Hal Samples & Julie Doyle
The song: Majestic, epic pop from the healthily populated Polyphonic Spree. Triumphant horns and happy voices led by Tim DeLaughter abound. It makes one's limbs want to flail about jubilantly.
The video: This video takes a unique approach that while very simple is executed quite well. It consists of thousands of still photographs of the band taken over a period of ten days while the band was on tour, creating a hybrid of rapidfire slideshow and innovative stop-motion video.
Stimulatory value: Connections to an album’s artwork or themes are always a nifty feature to have in videos and this particular one features the white, red and blue motif that appears all over The Fragile Army and their current tour poster. This aesthetic consistency combined with the clever execution of the video make it stand out. The depiction of the live performance is particularly good and offers a different interpretation of portraying a live show. Displaying specific moments in quick succession can be more effective than showing regular old live footage, drawing the viewer’s focus to a range of images instead of one flowing one.
****
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 ALBERT HAMMOND JR – In Transit
Director: Joaquin Phoenix
The song: Essentially Strokes-lite, but Hammond Jr has displayed a particular affinity with pop music and introduces a breezy, metropolitan quality to the formula.
The video: Sunny, washed out scratchy ‘70s style film is the format here. The Strokes guitarist stands on a hill overlooking a city, the sun rising and setting while a girl stands on a hill parallel but seemingly separate. One can only assume from her listless expression that she is pining for Hammond. As night falls again their universes combine and they come together. Then it starts to rain. It’s lovely.
Stimulatory value: Hammond has flaunted his pseudo-celebrity status by having Joaquin Phoenix at the helm. The camera work is a point of interest for this one, opting for a simple tilt from right to left and back again to show Hammond and his lady, before finally doing a full turn to bring them together at the climax of the video. It remains locked on the same axis for the entire clip. It’s an effective approach that combines well with the grainy video and jerky frame. Perhaps it will entice others to employ the services of Mr Phoenix.
***½
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 THE LIVING END – White Noise
Director: Grant Marshall
The song: More or less interchangeable with any other song from The Living End catalogue. Catchy rock & roll punctuated with punk ideals.
The video: The band play on a city rooftop, intercut with people below holding small megaphones lining up to use a huge megaphone, coincidentally on the same rooftop. Chris Cheney pushes in line and sings into the megaphone causing lots of colourful pictures and symbols to fly out and fill the night air.
Stimulatory value:
Ah, the old playing on the rooftop trick. Not what you would call original but fortunately the production of the video is classy enough to save it. The camera used, the Panavision Genesis, is supposedly one of the world’s most sophisticated high-def cameras. The video does look rather good, the lighting in particular standing out as the sky moves from overcast day to night. Cinematographer John Stokes is very busy with the camera, with plenty of fast cuts and rushing angles, zooming up to and away from the band, and a few sudden horizontal shifts are odd but engaging. The nearly subliminal flashes of symbols and words are well implemented, corresponding with the ‘noise’ that comes out of the large megaphone.
***
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