New Monkees Video Uses Comic Art

Good Times!

The Monkees, the band that brought KC and I together, had their peak success in the mid 1960s, although they released singles from 1966-1971. The 80s revival, spurred by MTV rerunning their TV show (which shared a lot in common with music videos and modern editing and comedy techniques) resulted in a few more single releases in 1986 and 1987. So it’s been almost 30 years since the band put out a single (and 20 years since a new album).

However, we live in an age of nostalgia, where the familiar is more comforting than navigating the overly fragmented new media market (and older people are the only ones buying), so the Monkees have a new album, Good Times!, due out at the end of May. This year is their 50th anniversary, and to celebrate, Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork, and Micky Dolenz are making new music, and the latter two are touring. (I’ve seen one of their shows since Davy Jones passed away, and thanks to their extensive video history, they incorporate images of him well in the proceedings.)

Good Times!

Adam Schlesinger produced the album, and he’s a terrific choice, since he is amazing with retro-flavored new work. There’s an all-star lineup of songwriters crafting the new tunes, and the first single has just been released. It’s written by Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo, and it’s nicely jangly pop sung by Micky. The video for “She Makes Me Laugh” can be seen here:

Note that the images are made up of comic book-style panels, with the lyrics in the word balloons. I suspect that these images came from some of the old Monkees comics, but since I don’t actually own any, I was only able to place a couple of the panels as reused, based on this post on the Monkeemen in comics. It would have been very nice if the artists had been named, either in the comics or the video. But the song gives me hope for the new album being fun.



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