New from Calexico: Splitter, from Algiers. The video includes Nic Cage and people being abducted by aliens. It’s sweet and beautiful and if we are very lucky, this is how First Contact will actually happen.
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Category: video
Video: Gang Gang Dance 4AD Session
This session was filmed in Angelic Studios in April 2011 to celebrate the release of Gang Gang Dance‘s fourth record, Eye Contact. I like this band because they’re from Brooklyn, but sometimes they sound like they’re commuting from Mars.
Tracklisting
1. Chinese High
2. MindKilla/KOU-DA-LEY
3. Adult Goth/Bond
4. Glass Jar
Director: Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard
Director of Photography: Stuart Roweth
Camera Assistant: Warren Forster
Set Stylist: Sal Pittman
Editing and Post Production: Iain Forsyth
Recording and Mixing: Sean Maffucci
Recording Assistant: Tom Fuller, Angelic Studios
Video: Lindi Ortega, Dying of Another Broken Heart
I first encountered Lindi Ortega as one of the opening bands on Social Distortion’s latest tour, where she slammed through some rockabilly tunes and leaned more towards rock than ‘billy. This song, brought to you by the fine people at Cardinal Sessions, is a little bit slower, and showcases the crystalline purity and sweetness of her voice.
Video: Shotgun Honeymoon, Up to Something
Shotgun Honeymoon is not fooled, y’all. He can tell those shady people have nefarious plans. That bunny mask doesn’t hide a thing.
Video: Macklemore x Ryan Lewis feat. Wanz, Thrift Shop
I like this video because: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are both rocking those fur coats; DELOREAN!!!!; Macklemore is also rocking those Batman footie pajamas; Wanz is superfine vocally and sartorially (pink suit!!!); and I sincerely appreciate their collective celebration of thrift stores.
Plus his rhymes are pretty great. I especially love the “I bought a broken keyboard / and then I bought a kneeboard” because that is the essence of thrift shopping: the mixture of “I could fix this and it will be totally fine!” and “I didn’t know I needed this until it was in front of me!”
Which is also how I have acquired a pair of kind of ridiculous vintage purses; a pillow that looks like someone skinned a Tribble, which I have named Beowulf; and an ever-expanding collection of vintage tea cups. Obviously if Macklemore and I ever went shopping together we would have the absolute best time.
Video: The Pixies, Dig For Fire / Allison and Here Comes Your Man
The Pixies are one of the bands that I can put on shuffle and listen to for a morning, or even all day. I don’t think there’s a single track that makes me stop and mutter oh, not now.
I have picked this particular set of songs today because they are three of my favorites. Here Comes Your Man was the #1 most played song in my iTunes for several years, until it got (accidentally) dethroned by a Vienna Teng song, and on a Pixies-only playlist, Allison and Dig for Fire are right behind it at two and three, respectively.
The first video is the “official” video, from 1990. The music holds up; the visuals are endearingly dated. Especially the part where they’re playing in an empty stadium. Some of you may not remember but that was a time when there were a lot of videos made in empty stadiums.
The second one is a live video shot during their 2011 tour, which I picked over the “official” video because the official video is weirdly terrible and not in an entertaining way.
If you’d like to hear more, there are free live downloads – including one from Coachella 2011! – and much more in the blog posts on their website.
Video: The All-American Rejects, Heartbeat Slowing Down
And for Tuesday, the lyric video for Heartbeat Slowing Down, the most recent single from The All-American Rejects‘ fourth record Kids In the Street.
I like this video because I have a weakness for lyric videos, but also because of the way the lyrics are presented: hand-written by Tyson Ritter himself. I’m particularly fond of the shot of him writing out one verse on torn hotel note-paper, and the way the camera lingers on the tense curve of his fingers.
The lyrics also appear written on torn scraps of paper, large posters, pillowcases, arms of other members of All-American Rejects, and other surfaces, which is a simple but clear visual metaphor supporting the “messy breakups” theme of the song.
Heartbreak isn’t tidy. Sometimes it gets on other people. Sometimes there are rageful things you wish you could font size +7 at people, because maybe if you write it large enough, they’ll finally hear you. Sometimes you there are things you font size +7 at yourself, in hopes perhaps this time you’ll learn.
Video: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Fishin’ in the Dark
I put this song on my prom mix tape in 1992, sandwiched between Miracle (Bon Jovi) and Veronica (Elvis Costello). All of which kind of sums up me, age seventeen, pretty neatly.
Also in the mix: A lot of Rocky Horror Picture Show and Red Hot Chili Peppers, leavened by Edie Brickell, Bruce Springsteen, Depeche Mode, Aerosmith, Queen, The Spin Doctors, Richard Marx, John Mellencamp, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and, most baffling to me now, The Beach Boys.
All I can say is, I’m surprised there’s only one country song on the tape.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band official website
Video: Julien Pras, Angel of Mercy
My comment to April on first viewing this one was “the moths are creepy but the melody is pretty.” Having watched it a few more times, I feel exactly the same way.
The song is Angel of Mercy by Julien Pras (Calc, Mars Red Sky), from his new record Shady Hollow Circus, set to be released in January 2013.
Video: The Mouth of Ghosts, When the Sun Sets
This video for When the Sun Sets by The Mouth of Ghosts is not a Halloween themed video – sp00ky band name aside – but it is a vehicle for a song that is a shimmery, delicate fusion of trip-hop and rock.
It’s beautiful and soothing and delicious, and you should check it out.