Little Guitar Army ends debate on Vancouver's all-time best video

Ever watched TMZ on television? You know, where that insufferable, smirking douche who seems to have a coffee cup surgically attached to his hand stands there lobbing questions at his staff in their veal-fattening pens.

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That gives you a good idea what goes on at the Georgia Straight most Wednesday afternoons. Some jackass inevitably trundles back from the water cooler, orders the troops to stop checking their Twitter and Facebook accounts, and then introduces a guaranteed-to-start-a-war discussion topic.

Today’s conversation starter went something like this: What’s the best video ever by a Vancouver band?

Normally that would be good for at least an hour-long debate.

Do things get any better than the Modernettes' flat-out fantastic “Barbara”, an early ’80s punk artifact that’s lost none of its charm today?

For proto-grunge goodness, you’ve got Slow’s gorgeously grimy “Have Not Been the Same”. And let’s not forget Loverboy’s “Turn Me Loose”. Actually, feel free to forget that, but only if you’ll admit that you can’t resist playing air bass for the first 30 seconds every time the song pops up on Jack FM.

What we discovered today was that, up until now, the question of what’s the best video ever to come out of Vancouver has been entirely open for debate. The key words there are “up until now”.

With its brand new, impossibly high-concept video for “30 Watts To Freedom”, Vancouver’s hard-charging and riotously entertaining Little Guitar Army has just strutted away with the all-time crown. You want SWAT Teams, police brutality, blood-soaked carnage, Motorhead-strength metal-punk, Bettys in WW II finery, and, best of all, mini-guitars? Well, this is your lucky day, because it’s all here.

The only thing that we’d like to know is “Who paid for this epic exercise in excellence?”. Honestly, it’s so brilliantly done, it makes every other Vancouver video that’s come before it seem like the work of Ed Wood.

Sit back and marvel.