The Darkness’ third album Hot Cakes is every bit as good as the band’s first two so it’s nice to see them getting another push here, with a video for “With A Woman,” my favorite song on Hot Cakes. The video delivers exactly the type of referential ham-and-cheez that both attracted people to the band and subsequently made them a novelty in the first place: This clip is basically an homage to Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher” … until a furry in a bear suit finds his (her?) way on to the stage to dance lasciviously with the band during the smoke-filled performance shots. This is allegedly Part 1 of a series (which is “to be continued”), so maybe the band is planning a series of vids that pay tribute to ’80s MTV classics — adding the creepy bear-suited deviant to spice things up. If so, I suggest they do one for “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us” — my other favorite song on Hot Cakes — and match it with a video inspired by “The Safety Dance” clip. The bear would fit right in. Check out “With A Woman” below.

The Darkness are on tour in the UK and Europe right now. Dates and tickets are at theactualdarkness.com.