Various

This a DVD comp, but not a comp purely to promote the label's bands-only 3 of the 13 videos are The Militia Group bands-it is just a collection of music videos. The popularity of the bands are pretty middle-of-the-road indie label bands with the exception of the major label Thursday and All-American Rejects, but all the bands put in decent quality footage, and it is a decent watch overall. I will give a brief synopsis of each, so let’s get to it before this gets out-of-hand long.

1. A Static Lullaby “Lip Gloss and Letdown” – Pretty standard screamy emo fare, but well done at least with a video to match. Simple yet effective, it shows the band playing with some nice camera shots, quick cuts and on-purpose shaking, this mixed with some morbid imagery of course. But my favorite part of the video is how they are wearing the typical tight black clothing with black hair, but then you’ve got the one guitarist with natural red hair wearing a white Nerf Herder shirt. I can picture the other guys before the shoot saying, “Dude, why don’t you wear your AFI shirt?”

2. The All American Rejects “My Paper Heart” – A major label band put on to boost sales I’m guessing, yet this video does not look like it had major label dough behind it. Mostly shot from handheld cameras, it is just random tour hijinks footage mixed with decent live shots. It’s a catchy tune, but not worth buying the DVD for alone, because you’ve probably already seen it on Fuse whether you wanted to or not.

3. The Beautiful Mistake “This is Who You Are” – I don’t care for this song, but the video is very high quality and has some cool shots, like in the “story” shots, how the singer, working an office job, is standing above a copy machine with the light sliding over him. The message of the story is “quit your boring office job and become a rockstar” I guess, and it’s pretty corny.

4. Rufio “White Lights” – A decent pop punk song, but damn the singer looks funny when he’s singing. The breakdancers make the video.

5. Copeland “Walking Downtown” – I don’t own anything by this band but I’ve always liked what I’ve heard of their jangly indie pop and this song is no exception. The video for the most part is cool, especially when the band is playing at the end with CGI stars falling all around them. Unfortunately the interspersed scenes with the singer talking to the girl and her child version just look totally lame especially when he sings to her “Please don’t go”, or “Please don’t cry” or whatever.

6. Fall Out Boy “Dead on Arrival” – Love ‘em or hate ‘em, you know this song is catchy as hell. This was their first video from the album and it was a little ghetto and it has a lot of funny obsessed fans in it, but it features my old stomping ground, the Knights of Columbus hall in Arlington Heights, IL, so I enjoy it. I believe this is available on that EP/DVD they released a while back, so no real reason for big fans to buy this for it.

7. Every Time I Die “Ebolarama” – My vote for best vid on here. The song is tight, and it is set at a roller rink, with punk kids falling all over and at one point having a dance circle. Its more fun than you’d ever expect from a hardcore video.

8. Eighteen Visions “You Broke Like Glass” – Even the lesbian make-out can’t make this band’s song listenable.

9. Sick of It All “Relentless” – I don’t particularly care for this band’s music, but this is one of the most unique videos on here. It’s animated and expands on the album’s art concept, so its creepy and has some political leanings, including a shot of Bush in a cowboy hat shooting a revolver in the air and what I believe is Cheney holding a sign that says “Bomb them all.”

10. Big Collapse “Pull Out the Guts” – This one didn’t grab me much either way.

11. Acceptance “Permanent” – I had never even heard of this band before I saw this, and I wish I could have kept it that way.

12. Armor for Sleep “Dream to Make Believe” – I never heard this band before seeing this and I was pleasantly surprised. The singer looks like he’s 16, and he very well could be, but that’s fine cause the song is pretty damn good. The video is simple, with just the band playing in a room and standing on the Jersey City boardwalk, but it’s interesting enough and the song makes up for the rest. Then for some reason, this songs cuts off a split second early, not sure who’s to blame for that one.

13. Thursday “Signals Over the Air” – Of course this video is professional looking, but I could have used fewer close-ups of Geoff’s hideous teeth. The vid has lots of spiffy lighting effects and shots and a terrified floating singer at the end.

Special features include a making of the SOIA video, where a guy takes you through the process of creating a scene of the cartoon. I found it interesting, but it is not displayed in a very exciting manner. “Punk Rock Pads” is a guy from Anadivine (who I’ve never heard of) showing off his home, his parents’ home that is. It’s moderately funny, more funny in the way they rip-off Cribs than what the dude actually says. There are also two interviews, a five minute one with Murder By Death, which would only be interesting if you’re a fan, and one with Number One Fan, another band I’ve never heard of and was therefore not real exciting. There is director commentary on every single video, which I thought was real cool, even though most of them just are the band giggling and making fun of themselves. Some actually interesting ones are Rufio, SOIA and Thursday, in which I found out that their video was directed by the same guy who did Refused’s “New Noise” video.

You probably only needed a list of the bands to decide whether you would buy this or not, but I tried to do you one better. Personally, I think this will sit and gather dust for the most part; maybe I’ll pull it out for one or two of the videos now and again.