Just like they always do, ¡MAYDAY! dropped another music video, this time for the song “Mortuary Mary” from their album Believers. It’s to be expected from the super-talented Miami group, but no one could’ve anticipated that the video would be done entirely in claymation. The bizarre, oddly-touching music video highlights the failed love triangle between a devil woman and her suitors: a werewolf and a zombie. Needless to say, things happen that couldn’t of happened in a live action music video, and what was previously an art form that we might have forgotten about has gotten new life.

In the spirit of ¡MAYDAY! and their latest visual triumph we thought it’d be cool to take a look at some of the other claymation music videos that have come before and have left their indelible impression upon viewers.

California Raisins – “Signed, Sealed, And Delivered I’m Yours”

If you’re an 80s baby you know exactly what these guys are and if not you’re probably going “What the fuuuu-?” What started as a campaign for the California Raisin Advisory Board turned into a pop culture phenomena and would spawn music videos like the one above, numerous commercials, a television series, a Christmas special and a series of compilation albums that would help launch one of the most impactful hip hop labels of all time: Priority Records. We would put up the original commercial that spawned all this hoopla with their cover of “Heard It Through The Grapevine”, but because of its low-quality, we put up this cover of the wedding-party anthem “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours”.

Tool – “Sober”

Harrowing, disturbing and inexplicable…sounds like something Tool would do.

Peter Gabriel – “Sledgehammer”

Does it count if you’re applying stop-motion animation to a human being? In this case we’re going to say yes, because this video is so incredible. This classic song and music video features Peter Gabriel going through the painstaking freeze-and-capture process himself, resulting in the bizarre, jerky motion of claymation being applied to his person. Throughout the video things get weirder and weirder, resulting in a video that still blows our mind to this day.

Nina Simone – “My Baby Cares Just For Me”

The beautiful and incomparable Nina Simone gets the music video treatment by being completely absent and instead takes the form of a nightclub-performing feline. The cute infatuation story gets nods for noir-like lighting and a classy black and white treatment.

Primus – “The Devil Went Down To Georgia”

This update on the classic Charlie Daniels tune features a devil on a bicycle who tries to steal a boy’s soul by challenging him to a fiddle-off (we’re unsure if that’s a real term, but basically it’s a fiddle playing contest). Very smooth and detailed animation make this one a winner.

Grizzly Bear – “Ready, Able”

Surrealism, fantasy, science-fiction and impressionism combine in this visual orgy set to the music of indie band Grizzly Bear. One can only imagine the painstaking attention to detail it required to get clay figurines to not only move like they do, but to change color in the process.

…AND ONE MORE

Green Jelly – “Three Little Pigs”

This is one of those cases where the most obvious choice was omitted. Shout outs to the fans for pointing out the absence of this masterpiece of violence and satire. People never knew that Rambo was the real reason the three little pigs were able to remain safe and sound until this video came out, making it a game changer.

• What did you think of the videos?
• What did we leave out?

Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

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