MTV jumped the shark, at least when it comes to music video, years ago.

But a video podcast – Blogotheque’s The Take Away Shows – is making music videos relevant again.

“Every week, we invite an artist or a band to play in the streets, in a bar, a park, or even in a flat or in an elevator, and we film the whole session,” explain the video podcasts’ creators Vincent Moon and Chryde.  “Of course, what makes the beauty of it is all the little incidents, hesitations, and crazy stuff happening unexpectingly. Besides, we do not edit the videos so they look perfectly flawless, instead we keep the raw sound of the surroundings. Our goal is to try and capture instants, film the music just like it happens, without preparation, without tricks. Spontaneity is the keyword.”

Here, one of Blogotheque’s directors, Jeremy Montana Lundborg, explains his approach to making the gorgeous video, above, for Priscilla Ahn‘s Dream:

I put Priscilla up in an empty apartment with a microphone, loop station, and her guitar. She’d invited some friends and a few fans from her show the night before to be a part of this private concert. Most of them came in pairs, talking about their favorite music and the last bad movie they’d seen. The rest of the fans were alone and stood quietly as Priscilla and I decided on the play list. Like some sort of instinct, she began playing for the crowd stuffed into the room as I set up the camera. She continued to sing as I turned the camera onto her, stepping out from the fringes.

The fact that there’s nothing in the videos that you couldn’t do with iMovie and a cheap video camera helps capture the excitement of the music without the artifice of most music videos.

Here’s a few more examples that you won’t want to miss.

Check out Vampire Weekend doing Mansard Roof in the back of a van:

Or R.E.M., sounding vital:

“Let’s put the final nail in the coffin on the term ‘music video’ and allow it to be something of the past because that’s exactly what it is,” said R.E.M’s Michael Stipe. “It served its purpose very well in the 1980s and 1990s. Music video’s time came and went.”

Stipe’s excited by the raw and unpolished approach to capturing music on video.

“I don’t think music or film has been in a more exciting place in 20 years,” said Stipe. “I was just blown away by their beauty and how raw they were.”

You can view and download individual videos from the site, or subscribe to The Take Away Shows as a video podcast on iTunes, as La Blogotheque (iTunes URL). There’s a lot available on the site, though, that’s not in the podcast feed.