Here’s an interestingly animated music video for the song “No Room to Live” by indie rock band Times New Viking. While a live-action sequence was co-directed by Pelham Jonston and Brandon Reichard, about 40 artists from Ohio were asked to contribute a few animated frames to be laid over the live action. While many artists took a rotoscoped approach to their frames, several went off and produced wholly unconnected images. The end result is a cheerful, colorful video that zips by at a breakneck pace, which is somewhat at odds to the pace of the actual song.

This video was brought to my attention by artist Michael Neno, who contributed 12 frames that start at the 1:00 mark. Michael is an old pal of mine who introduced me to world of comic book fandom way back when I was a wayward youth. Actually, Michael’s approach to creating and critiquing art had a profound impact on me that really informed what I do here today on the Underground Film Journal. Most of all, I always really dug Michael’s comics, several of which can be read online.

The concept of the “jam video” — whether it’s a short film or a music video like above — seems to be gaining steam online. This might be the new video fad, kind of like the movie trailer re-contextualizing and Hitler rants fads. Some other jam videos that have been produced are the Our Footloose Remake project in which the hit ’80s film Footloose was divided up into 54 scenes and given to various filmmakers. Also, animator Bill Plympton put out an open call to animators to help remake his most popular film Guard Dog. The Guard Dog Global Jam is out on the festival circuit now.

Also, while the video promises that a full list of artists contributing to “No Room to Live” can be found on the official Times New Viking website, I sure as heck can’t find it.