Dan Snaith, performing as Caribou.

This week’s installment of Tuesday Tracks brings a selection surreal music videos, none of which would have a chance getting a nod from the VMAs, but all of which skew the world they create just enough to make them interesting. A great music video need not be a big production. Simplicity is key: it should be accompaniment to the song, a visual addendum to the original piece.

All three of these do that remarkably well. They’re snapshots that last just long enough for the song to run its course and then they’re gone.

Cover of Black Mountain's new album, Wilderness Heart

First up, is the most conventional of the bunch. Black Mountain‘s video for “The Hair Song” follows a lonely long-hair as he skateboards around town. When he’s denied entry to a Black Mountain show he sneaks in the back door, which transports him to a much more colourful world than the one filled with ollies and kickflips. There’s more to it than that of course, but I don’t want to ruin it.

I much prefer Black Mountain when they lean on their southern rock influences more than their stoner metal ones and this song does just that, check it out:

Next up is “Sun” by Caribou, off his new album Swim. The video opens in a room with a group a mature women dancing in slow motion to the repetitive echo of the song. The camera switches between them as they dance with their eyes closed, stretching their arms skyward. More people are added as the video progresses, all moving slowly to the hypnotic beat. The whole thing has a vaguely creepy vibe to it, but you find yourself unable to turn away.

Finally, Bad Tits‘ video for their song “No Skin” is a surreal hallucination involving a puppeteer, a performance, an audience of miniature people watching from inside a suitcase—and a murder.

Willis Ryan of The Grass playing at NXNE, June 16, 2010. Photo by Luke Champion

While the dust settles here in Toronto from the mayhem of the G20 this past weekend, let’s pause for just a moment and take a look at this week’s edition of Tuesday Tracks—your weekly does of crazy cool Can-Con. This week is all about throwbacks, reinventing the forms, styles and sounds of the past and making them new, fresh and better than ever.

First: The Grass may hail from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, but their hearts are clearly in the psychedelic streets of a swinging 60’s London. Check out “Ain’t Running Scared” off their latest release Rogue Waves:

Second: From the carefree fun of the 60’s, Black Mountain takes their cue from the druggy drone of 70’s heavy metal. While their upcoming album Wilderness Heart won’t be released until September, the band has released a little teaser to tide things over. Check out “Old Fangs”:

Third: The latest album by Montreal’s Wolf Parade is out today. Expo ’86 is a densely packed album, something Wolf Parade have become well known for. What they do well, though, is pack in all those sounds without ever making the songs sound cluttered. Here’s “What did my lover say? (it always had to go this way)”: