Jarrett Heather created this great  music video for Jonathan Coulton‘s Shop Vac.  The song and video explores the settling down (and selling out) of a couple as they move to suburbia.  A great example of the potential of kinetic typography that highlights the soullessness of many suburbs.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4sOfO8Ei1g

From Youtube:

A kinetic typography music video for Jonathan Coulton’s Shop Vac. This was created using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere and Toon Boom Animate.

I worked on this sporadically, so it’s difficult to estimate how much time went into it. Somewhere between 500-1000 hours, but it was a labor of love.

Go buy the song on JoCo’s website.

Lyrics

We took the freeway out-of-town
We found a place to settle down
We bought a driveway and a swingset and a dog
You got your very own bathroom
I got my very own workshop in the basement

We sit around staring at the wall-to-wall
Take field trips to our favorite mall
Waiting for the day when all the kids grow up and leave us here

So if you need me
I’ll be downstairs
With the shop vac
You can call but I probably won’t hear you
Because it’s loud with the shop vac on
(For heaven’s sake it’s really loud with the shop vac on)
But you’ll be OK
Cause you’ll be upstairs
With the TV
You can cry and I probably won’t hear you
Because it’s loud with the shop vac on

We hung a flag above the door
Checked out the gourmet grocery store
I bought a mower I can ride around the yard
But we haven’t got real friends
And now even the fake ones have stopped calling

Maybe if you forget to hide the keys
I’ll take a ride to Applebee’s
I’ll come home drunk on daiquiris and throw up on the neighbor’s lawn

If you need me
I’ll be downstairs
With the shop vac
You can call but I probably won’t hear you
Because it’s loud with the shop vac on
(For heaven’s sake it’s really loud with the shop vac on)
But you’ll be OK
Cause you’ll be upstairs
With the TV
You can cry and I probably won’t hear you
Because it’s loud with the shop vac on

I like the Starbucks here that’s better than the other one
Cause the other one’s not as good
They really need to put a light there cause it’s hard to turn
It’s hard to make a left turn

And when it’s time to go to bed
I’m still awake inside my head
I’m floating up above the house and looking down
I guess I gotta go back there
I guess there never was any other answer

And as the freeway hums the cars go by
The headlights roll across the sky
Many miles away and I can see them speeding through the dark

If you need me
I’ll be downstairs
With the shop vac
You can call but I probably won’t hear you
Because it’s loud with the shop vac on
(For heaven’s sake it’s really loud with the shop vac on)
But you’ll be OK
Cause you’ll be upstairs
With the TV
You can cry and I probably won’t hear you
Because it’s loud with the shop vac on