“Jars” by Chevelle

"Jars" was the first taste of Sci-Fi Crimes, Chevelle's fifth album, going out to radio in June 2009 on Epic, and it keeps the band's alternative metal grind while hiding a joke inside it. Drummer Sam Loeffler let the secret out: the song is a tongue-in-cheek take on saving the environment, read literally, as in scooping up the planet, sealing it in jars and putting it on the shelf for later. It fits an album full of oddball themes.

The video leans all the way into the weirdness. The band plays in a wheat field at night while a kidnapped man tries to get free of a speeding Crown Victoria, grabs the wheel and pulls a brick off the gas pedal, only to find a note on it reading "Croatoan". It comes with two endings, and in one of them the car blows up.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.