Johnny Depp as a director? Well its pretty good. Depp does a music video version of the popular high school literature class short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek by Ambrose Bierce. This is a plus for me because this is one of my favorite short stories from my teenage years. If you have a half an hour and want to know the inspiration for thousands of other novels, stories, television episodes, movies, and even video games, you should read the original Bierce short story.
This video is a good interpretation of the short story. Johnny Depp proves he is more than a multitalented actor...he can direct.
Babybird was a big name in the UK from 1995 to 2000, but Stephen Jones, Babybird's heart, hasn't done much for the last decade. If you like this song, you can check Babybird's 1996 albums Fatherhood and Ugly Beautiful, but even if you don't like the son, you should still check out these albums.
The Nurses are psych-rock out of Portland OR. Their music is intimate and entrancing with a touch of haunting weirdness. Most of the songs feature an old echo-y piano that drifts beautifully in and out of tune supplemented by some other oddly altered instrument. What gets you are the ethereal vocal harmonies that span several octaves.
This song is off of The Nurses latest album Apple's Acre. The first time I played the album when the LP came out, everyone in the house came out of their rooms at some point during the album and said, "Who is this? I know I have heard them before." I don't think anyone had heard The Nurses before, but there is something that feels so at home, so natural and familiar about their music while being completely new. Apple's Acre isn't an album that needs to grow on you. It just feels right the first time you listen to it.
The VCR kaleidoscope collage really compliments the music. It has the same calming, homemade simplicity the makes the song so wonderful.
The xx was all the rage last year. Their calm, minimalist stylings have made them a favorite of music critics and anyone that wears all black and has a dramatic hair swoop. Their music is good, but all of the songs sound the same. Hopefully there will be a bit more diversity on the next album.
Islands is a good song and the music video makes it so much better. The video really fits well with their entire sound as a band: a well-choreographed, artful construction played over and over again with hypnotic repetition. I am really not a fan of interpretive dance, I am drawn to this video. There is so much simultaneously going on in each short clip that you find yourself focusing one person or one dance move for several cycles. You can't really take in everything that is going even in one viewing. I guess if you can appreciate the repitition and subtle beauty of the video, you should be able to appreciate The xx.
Pomplamoose is another band whose popularity is due to the music video. The band is Jack Conte, a small time multi-instrumental singer-songwriter with a couple of EPs, and Nataly Dawn, Conte's girlfriend. Jack Conte got a name after his first YouTube music video for Yeah Yeah Yeahfeaturing some interesting stop motion animation.
This video is one of ten new songs that Pomplamoose has recently released for their digital album Tribute to Famous People. The covers range from dance tracks like Michael Jackson's Beat It to more wholesome songs like My Favorite Things from the Sound of Music Soundtrack.
The innovation that Pomplamoose brings to music is a new concept for the music video, the "VideoSong." Conte makes video recordings of the actual audio recording process of each song. As he mixes the song down, choosing the best sounding cuts for the final product, he also meshes together the video from these cuts. The final product is an assemblage of the actual videos that form the final song.
Here is how Conte describes his first recorded "VideoSong" on his mySpace page:
The "VideoSong" isn't a necessarily new idea as much simpler versions are all over YouTube, but Conte has given the idea a name, a set of definable characteristics, and some pretty stylish examples. This may be a passing fad, but for now, its is giving Conte and Pomplamoose a name.
This Beyonce cover is the most popular of the Pomplamoose "VideoSongs." There is no denying that Single Ladies is a good pop song, and Nataly Dawn's interpretation is cute. Listen for her refusal to sing some of the less interesting lyrics.
St Vincent is Annie Clark, a veteran of two multi-member multi-instrumental bands: the creepy, religious cult-looking band Polyphonic Spree and also the band of 2005, Sufjan Stevens. Her first solo album earned here some indie acclaim. This song is from the second, more eclectic album called Actor.
The video is half comedy act half music video. It is silly to the point of almost being annoying but it has some endearing aspects. The video features the relatively new comedy team thunderant, which is comprised of Fred Armisen of Saturday Night Live and Carrie Brownstein of the now defunct all-girl rip roaring rock band Sleater-Kinney. While Brownstein is an amazing guitarist and songwriter, I can't say much for the comedy team.
However, the music video has its shining moments. The video highlights some of the things a musician has to endure when playing small venues. Other than the terrible job of promotion some organizers do, Armisen and Brownstein act out some of the more annoying things people in small crowds do. Things like closely staring at the guitarists fingers, talking loudly over the songs, walking around the performer, lounging on amps behind the musicians. Some of these things aren't so bad when you are in a crowded club, but are really accentuated in a small venue.
Perhaps the only people that will get the humor in this video are musicians an I guess people that like blunt, repetitive SNL comedy. Either way, the song is good.
I really dig this Merrill Garbus character. She is tUnE-yArDs. She got her start in a band called Sister Suvi, but this solo project with a ukulele slays me. The album has an amazing song that is partly in Swahili called Hatari, but unfortunately there is no music video.
This new song that isn't on the album is the first official music video released by Garbus. Merrill and two friends dress up and do some poses in front of a camera in someones apartment. It is quite simple but it is cute and the song is stellar.
