Old Favourites: Tunng – “Hustle”
“And I will ride you home drunken in the rain, and you will win again and again…”
So, over the weekend I got to see a band I didn’t really know much about, Tunng. I’d heard a song or two over the years, and had given their latest album, …And Then We Saw Land, a bit of a spin; but aside from that they were just an intriguing mystery. I’m SO glad I went – it was remarkable fun, and they were just perfect live. I thought I’d do my bit to show you the band in case you’re out of the loop. This video is for the first track of the aforementioned We Saw Land record, and sees the band performing in the peculiar location of a waiting room. What they’re all waiting for exactly is never quite revealed, but that’s what makes the video for me. It’s kind of beautiful, in a way – much like the band and their music!
Watch This Now: Britney Spears – “Hold It Against Me”
“If I said I want your body now, would you hold it against me?”
Top of the morning, sports fans! Well, video fans at least. I’m willing to bet few of you are Britney fans to begin with, but with this new video having just dropped a matter of days ago – and me being the Brit freak that I am – I couldn’t help myself with this video. It’s not her best by any stretch of the imagination. But is it the best she could possible do right now? You bet your sweet bippy.
It’s fierce and ambitious, even if it’s faltered by product placement (I won’t mention the brands because you’ll see at least three). Watch on with head slightly tilted as our hero Brit is portrayed as an alien sent to earth to become a pop sensation…hmm, as you do. It’s bright and flashy, but also quite cleverly edited in parts – watch out for the scene during the song’s now-infamous dubstep breakdown which sees parts of Britney’s old videos sync up perfectly with the chopped-and-screwed vocals. Bit eerie, actually, but it’s all apart of the master plan. What else would you expect from my current favourite director, Jonas Åkerlund? I mean, the guy created my video of the year for 2010 – and who knows, maybe he’ll create my favourite of 2011? This has been getting some mixed receptions, but I’m leaning towards the more positive side of the fence as it stands. God love you, Åkerlund!
Watch This Now: Kanye West feat. Rihanna and KiD CuDi – “All of the Lights”
“Her mother, brother, grandmother hate me – in that order…”
Big weekend in music – Radiohead dropped their new record (more on them tomorrow), I saw Tunng live (more on them later today) and Kanye finally dropped the first proper video for a My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy track that wasn’t a thirty-five minute short film or a two-minute teaser. Even now, I can’t help but feel like this is also a teaser for something much bigger. For now, though, it’s another treat for the senses.
Once again, we’ve got Hype Williams on board – the dude is the King Midas of hip-hop videos, and I’ll be doing a feature on him in a few weeks to prove it. Anyway, this video has plenty to keep you watching – the adventures of an adorable little girl through a black and white city, Yeezy spitting on top of a police car, Rihanna showing what is described in the YouTube comments as some serious sideboob action – yep, this one’s got it all. It’s all a bit confusing at first, but on the other hand it’s also kind of epic. See what you think, and be sure to leave a comment on what you thought of it!
Watch This Now: Brendan Maclean – “Cold and Happy”
“I found ten bucks, I’ll take you out for a feast…”
Somewhere in the back of my mind is a list of people I’d rather be apart from myself. It’s somewhat long, but if you looked hard enough you’d certainly find Mr. Brendan Maclean somewhere near the top. The dude has it all – humour, talent, popularity and some of my all-time favourite songs attached to his name. Now you can also add a killer music video – his third, in fact!
Y,WGAV!’s first ever video blogged about was none other than his Practically Wasted video, which eventually made it into our top ten videos of the year! He’s now followed it up with a seemingly innocent little video set at bingo night and a stack of old people playing their game – whether that be bingo or chess or whatever else have you. A certain wobbly food coming into play changes that around mid-song, so make sure you watch it below to find out exactly what goes down. As I’ve said on many, many occasions, I love Brendan and his music. I’m blessed to even be acquainted with the guy. Watch!
Watch This Now: Darren Hanlon – “Butterfly Bones”
“If you want to be my saviour, then you’re gonna have to learn how to sing…“
More from the brilliant minds of both singer-songwriter Darren Hanlon – as I’ve noted on several occasions, a personal hero of mine – and director Natalie van der Dungen, who has worked with Daz on most of his videos, including the adorable All These Things. Now, they have teamed up for an ambitious project that sees Darren give a bit of proper acting a go, as well as a couple of professionals popping in – Play School presenter and all-round top bloke Rhys Muldoon and Jessica Tovey, who played Aden’s wife on Home and Away. Yes, I probably am remembering them for their most trivial roles, but shut up!
Anyway, there’s some beautiful storytelling here, as well as some cute cameos – Bob Ellis turns up to give a “you bastards!” growl, playing the role of a security guard. I don’t want to give away what happens, but I can tell you that it involves hospitals and an ancient drive-in cinema from around 1984. Darren and his mates were the first people to be allowed in after so many years, and it’s incredibly good fortune that they were able to do so. This is already one of my favourite vids of 2011, so I sure hope you enjoy it as much as I do! If you want to read a funny little blog about how the group came across the location, mosey on over to Darren’s site.
Old Favourites: Mercury Rev – “In a Funny Way”
“On a summer day, you can hear her call…”
I’ve got a long-ass list of videos that take me back to the time when I was lost in a world of music and music videos, and you’re going to get plenty more of them as the blog progresses. Here’s another one of them, from those trippy summer-pop dudes Mercury Rev. I was very much a latecomer to their music, but really – isn’t this just a perfect introduction? An adorable video which sees the puppet animals of the forest coming together to discover the musical instruments left in the woods and then magically learn how to play them! You see that, ICP? That’s REAL motherfucking magic, y’allz! Anyway, great music and a really pretty video…have a look-see.
Watch This Now: Tim and Jean – “I Can Show You”
“Tired of all the stupid games, nothing seems to ever change…”
Morning, all! How was your weekend? Mine was killer – I went to the Good Vibrations Festival and I got to bear witness to some awesome acts; a few of which I’ll definitely be blogging about through the week. Thought I’d start off with a couple of dudes I’ve seen live five times that I’m now also proud to call mates. Tim & Jean are two Perth kids that take that synth-heavy, long-live-the-80s kind of pop sound and make it their own; and now they’ve got a shiny new video to show for it, too!
In essense, Tim (Ayre) and Jean (Capotorto) get in a convertible car and drive around the desert, occasionally stopping either to perform or just to look cool in sunglasses. Gotta say, plotless wonders rarely look this good – the locations are really nice, reflected through some great cinematography; and it just looks like it was a really fun video to make – even though it was probably scorching for most of the days of filming! A very cool new video from a band I just know are going to make 2011 their year. Look out for Like What, their debut album, which is set to drop on April Fool’s Day – f’real!
Old Favourites: VHS or Beta – “Night on Fire”
“Put your hands together and we’ll light this night, we’ll light this night on fire…”
I told you shit was gonna get retro! First the Beta Band, and now a Beta band of a different kind – Kentucky’s VHS or Beta, who first came to my attention in the glorious year that was…you guessed it, 2004. It’s another performance video, but what I love about this is how this kind of introduced me to a specific kind of coolness – the not-giving-a-fuck cool.
The guitarist swaggers about in his own little corner, always with a scowl on his face. The bassist is in the groove, but won’t crack a smile. The drummer is stonefaced as he blasts around a fucking sick electronic kit. The frontman – with thirteen-year-old me getting really excited at an Asian rock singer, “Wow! That’s different!” – stomps his heels a bit but he’s focused on one thing above all else – looking like a cool motherfucker.
Sure, it’s a bit contrived, but as soon as I saw this video I knew exactly who I wanted to be like – VHS or friggin’ Beta. Hell, I was so young I didn’t even get the reference in the band name! Not that it mattered – this is one cooooooool video.
Watch This Now: Dan Mangan – “Sold”
“So I gave up all my wretched thoughts, and left them out for the less fortunate…”
So, you might not know it but I FUCKING LOVE DAN MANGAN. It’s actually kind of sad how much of a Fangan I am – and it’s even sadder that I coined that fucking term! For Chrissake, I know what song the guy is going to play by where he puts his capo…it’s nothing short of ridiculous. Still, there’s a reason I love his stuff so much, and why I keep coming back to his shows (five times and counting). It’s his remarkable storytelling – whether he’s doing that through his music or his between-song banter, it’s always charming and delightful.
The same can be applied to all the videos that he’s made in support of his second album Nice, Nice, Very Nice. For the fourth and possibly final video, Sold, our hero Dan goes on an adventure through the local supermarket. It’s hilarious and just a little bit insane – discussion of apples, a cameo from Dan’s bassist as a mad chemist, giant marshmallows used as a trampoline and a not-so-subtle stab at Miley Cyrus is just some of the many things that this video has to offer. Separately, that’s probably just one big ol’ headscratch. Understandable. Only one way to resolve that – watch it! And watch it again!
Watch This Now: Fishing – “OoOo”
“Yeahhhhh…(okay, this song doesn’t actually have lyrics)”
When they’re not busy with their adorable indie pop band We Say Bamboulee, the team of Doug Wright (brother of Cloud Control‘s Alister) and Russell Fitzgibbon get a little bit freaky behind some laptops and samplers and work under the name Fishing. It’s really, really awesome – I’ve seen these guys three times and each time I’ve gotten more and more into it. I find that the more you get dancing to their kind of music, the better it becomes. Someone must have picked up on that for the band’s first ever video – it involves a lot of footage of dancing!
Here’s the gist of what goes down in oOoO: projections of all kinds of dancing are…well, projected…onto a series of hands. It’s really cleverly done and amazingly manages to sync up with the beat of the song most of the time. There’s plenty of trippy shit going on with those hands, too, keep an eye out for them! Anyway, not much more to say, except PLEASE check these guys out. Very much worthy of your support!
Yes, We've Got a Video! 