Here’s Matt Sharp of the Rentals (and perhaps more famously, Weezer) performing on French TV with Blur. Cool, right? Killer studio, French TV!

I was going to remind you all of what a funny and understated job the Rentals did on the video for their infectious 1996 single “Friends of P.”, but it looks like Warner’s feeling a little protective, so I’ll just link to it five times instead and give them their $0.0006 cents per click. I suggest that you do it, too. Who knows? Maybe a fraction of that sum will actually end up feeding Matt Sharp, who is probably still paying off the cost of this video. The music biz, kids: it’s a magical place.

But regardless of the context, the historical significance of the “Friends of P.” video remains. And that significance is to warn us that in an alternate universe, the Soviets developed the Moog synthesizer as a mind control weapon. I know this because this song is going to be stuck in your head for the rest of today. Possibly tomorrow, and then intermittently into next week. Never forget.

I find the band’s expressions in the video so totally aloof and annoying that it makes me want to smack the living, smirking crap out of them. And that aggravation, perversely, makes this video so funny to me that I had to share it with all of you. If you’ve not seen it yet (last chance!), I’ll tease you with a hint: the song is only 3:41 long.