As part of our new features we launched last week, we launched a page to browse music videos by country, complete with a little map where you can click on various countries and see the music videos that have been made there. For instance, why not check out some music videos from Denmark? There are only 9 of them in the database, but that just makes it easier to pick your favorite.
One country we've seen a lot of music video activity from is Mexico. So today we're watching one of my favorite music videos for a Mexican artist, "Here We Kum" from 2003 by Molotov, directed by Rogelio Sikander.
The video starts out identifying some of the parts of a moving mechanism consisting of platforms that move up (or maybe we're moving down), so we see what's on each platform as they each move in front of the camera. Some signs identify some of the elements, but they don't seem to make much sense to me, a guy who only knows English. For instance, "ejes" translates to "axes" according to Google translate, but maybe it means "axis"? I don't know, and it doesn't really matter. What does matter is that "banda" probably means "band".
As we go through the scenes we get a performance by the band, as well as scenes that play out over several levels, including a scene of a business board room getting trashed, a game of squash, and for some reason, men betting on a karate match between two women like they were betting on a cock fight.
Even if you don't speak Spanish and can't understand anything but the chorus (which is a mix of Spanish and English), Rogelio Sikander and Molotov really do a great job of communicating some subtle and not so subtle visual humor. I love how bassist Micky Huidobro is tuning up his bass and moves the nob way past the point where he could conceivably be tuning his instrument. The musical chairs that stops the song is hilarious as well, and the karate match scene might be some sort of social commentary, but it's over my head.
The whole visual concept is also very unique - I saw this video in a hotel room in the Domincan Republic in 2003, and for some reason depite not having seen it again at all over the past 10 years, I still remember it vividly. There's something about the motion of the moving platforms combined with the motion of whatever is going on within them that just works perfectly for this song.
Eventually the concept breaks down a bit, and we get a bizarre litle middle section with cheesy graphics and stuff that honestly just feels like it was filler since I imagine the platform stuff was expensive. However, the video finishs strong, and it's a good reason to check out more music videos from Mexico.
