The Riot is Yet to Come: Kaiser Chiefs "Angry Mob"

Kaiser Chiefs "Angry Mob"
dir. by W.I.Z.
[via antville]
The name of the restaurant - Noblesse - is engraved in the window that separates the outcast women from the diners who excised them. The French word means what it looks like, but is perhaps more widely know as in the phrase "Noblesse oblige" - a concept which implies that those with wealth or prestige have a heightened social accountability. Or to quote Spiderman, "with great power comes great responsibility."

Director W.I.Z. has previously tackled issues of class and discrimination, but here his commentary is laced with a hint of modern political allegory. The privileged patrons of the glossy establishment observe the members of the bachelorette-party with condescending smirks and glances. Eventually they set the two groups of rowdy drunk women against each other, observing the ensuing brawl with glee - simultaneously sharing knowing looks (as if to say "I told you they were uncivilized") while quietly relishing in the spectacle of the physical altercation. The lower "class" fights amongst itself while the upper, protected by the institutions of society, stands back and watches with a sense of moral superiority - a pattern which could apply to a certain war in the Middle East, or recent riots on the streets of Paris.

Yet it's the restaurant itself which got half these ladies drunk in the first place. And while they may pretend to be above the crowd, the seated folks have the same human desires and emotions as the skirt-lifting women they shun. While one group expresses their sexuality with blow-up sex toys and racy lingerie, the other resorts to secretive touching under the table. The wine-n-dine crew resent the scantily-clad and loud women across the restaurant precisely because they expose the suppressiveness of their own stuffy mentality. They stand in the window and relish the altercation out there because it releases all the emotion they hold back in the name of everything that is "proper."

It's only a matter of time before the mob realize they are being used. And when that happens they will do as they've been trained to do: express their anger through base violence. Sadly only in these moments when the fear comes home do the wealthy and powerful truly understand their social obligations - and hopefully the ersatz nature of "nobility."

Angry Mob? Kaiser Chiefs "Everything Is Average Nowadays"

A distinctly passionless video about society's lack of creativity...


Kaiser Chiefs "Everything is Average Nowadays"
dir. by ?
Deep inside a desert bunker, somewhere near the set for "Ruby," mysteriously controlled machines produce art, weapons and individuality in massive assembly lines. Cameras are everywhere, capturing every moment of private inspiration in order to turn a mass public profit. From the creation of image to the commercialization of music, the Kaiser Chiefs criticize every aspect of culture for its banality and redundancy.

They're not oblivious to the irony of this move, since many critics find the band's music itself to be particularly banausic and derivative, and thus the final product manufactured is the Kaiser Chiefs themselves - just another britpop band. They are constantly watched by the media, and their success imitated by the labels in search of the next-big-thing. The director gets in on the self-referential humor as well, ending the video with a television set thrown out a window - apparently music videos are just as "average" as everything else.

There are some creative ideas working here, but the real problem is that the video is as blatant with its themes as the song. While the Kaiser Chiefs moan about mediocrity, the director shows it to us - the point is established within the first minute. The subsequent deluge of repetitive metaphors are run-of-the-mill (cheerleaders, jocks and punk rockers are standard punching bags in pop videos), and for a video which so clearly defines its ideas - in the end we are left with a surprising sense of blah.