From emoticon strides to six-second middle-fingers, gypsy-punk car homages to neon block-letter cheese, we enter 2013’s fifteenth week in the very best of the wide, wonderful world of sound, vision and text. Or rather, in Soviet Russia, lyric video watches you!

Dillon Francis feat. Simon Lord – ‘Messages’ 

LA producer Dillon Francis strings together a theme that just seems forehead-smackingly obvious for these modern textual times. Why hasn’t a major label artist aped emoticon nation yet? Then again, we’d probably have to punch our computer screens in the face if this took over the ‘Tube ad nauseam:

Can I read between the lines
Decipher all the signs
Hieroglyphics in your eyes
Hidden meanings deep inside

 

Norma Jean – ‘Shark Bite’ 

It’s kind of amazing what you can do in six seconds. Here, Georgia metalcore thrashers, Norma Jean, both jab the ‘cool’ kitsch of the lyric video era and spell out the most aggressive parts of a new jam from their forthcoming LP. “Now you can all sing along!” they underscore in the info section:

AHH!
SHARK BITE!
AHH!

Twilight City – ‘Hello’ 

We thought this was some pop joke combining the twee of Twilight with Owl City until we realized it’s inadvertently both, and became very, very sad, despite this computer’s block-letter attempt to eat too much neon and throw up all over the tired, emo place:

I’m so in love
I would do anything to stand beside you
But I’m so alone
And I don’t know why

Colossus – ‘Superficial Saviour’ 

Conversely, consider this Sioux Falls’ resident metal crew’s attempt at the whole 3D letter game, taking a concrete and flame shot at greatness the opening monologue of Star Wars would be jealous of, proceeding to make a damn clever mockery of some of America’s most brainwashed aspects of society:

Turn my back to the ones that made me, brainwashed by society
You can have everything in the world but it all means, nothing

Рекорд Оркестр – Лада Седан

After endless labors as to what this breed of Gogol Bordello Russian gypsy punks are going on about, we know some sort of homage is being payed to an iconic boxy automobile called a Лада Седан, or ‘Lada Sedan’. Whatever else, we’re going to have to assume is something along the lines of ‘In Soviet Russia, car drives you!‘ The single background image can be highly intoxicating, when used effectively:

Лада Седан!
Бд! Kлд! ждh!