The Three O'Clock — Jet Fighter

JUL 01 1983 · 12:00

The Three O'Clock — Jet Fighter (1983) Director: Bill Fishman Era: Early MTV Era (1983) - Post-punk psychedelic pop during the nascent music video boom; Paisley Underground emerges from Los Angeles indie scene onto national college radio High curatorial value as a rare surviving video document from a critically recognized but underrepresented movement in American indie music history. Directed by Bill Fishman at the outset of his career — years before Tapeheads canonized the music video era — and tied to a national college radio hit from one of the Paisley Underground's defining acts. The video's warm, fast-cut aesthetic is a time capsule of 1983 indie production culture. Context: Released in 1983 at the height of early MTV, 'Jet Fighter' emerged from the Los Angeles Paisley Underground — a loose coalition of bands blending 1960s psychedelic pop, British Invasion melodicism, and post-punk energy. The Three O'Clock were central figures in this scene, and lead singer Michael Quercio is credited with coining the term 'Paisley Underground' itself. The song became a national college radio hit from the album Sixteen Tambourines, representing a strand of indie pop that resisted the synth-driven pop mainstream of the era in favor of guitar-led melodic energy. The warm, slightly rough visual aesthetic of the video mirrors the band's lo-fi independent ethos and the early MTV moment when access to the channel was still novel for underground acts. Director notes: Per IMVDb, the 'Jet Fighter' video was released in 1983, making it one of Fishman's earliest documented directorial music video credits, predating his founding of Fallout Films in 1984. The video was produced by Jon Lowe (per IMVDb credits). The production aesthetic — warm, muted, fast-cut performance footage — is consistent with low-budget early-1980s indie video work shot on film or prosumer tape. Fishman would go on to direct Tapeheads (1988), a feature film explicitly about the music video industry, suggesting his early 1980s work directing videos for Paisley Underground and adjacent acts was formative to his career identity.