The National Post is a Canadian newspaper based within a district of Toronto. Within its pages exists “The Ampersand”, which self-professedly covers “everything between Arts & Life”. Now, within those (online) pages resides “Soundcheck”, a web-based series in which the paper’s editors go backstage and off-stage with some of Canada’s finest musicians. Picture a spin on La Blogotheque’s Take Away shows transported to Canada and you get the idea. Below, watch three recent installments, featuring EF faves Plants and Animals (who are playing at the Bell House tonight) performing “Feedback in the fields” acoustically at the Royal Ontario Museum, Constantines doing their thing in Kensington Market, and Eric’s Trip backstage in Toronto. Read more…
Making the rounds on ye olde interweb today, we couldn’t resist adding to the fracas….so here it is: a pretty great live video taken in Rome this past Saturday evening that finds Dough Martsch and company doing an excellent cover of M.I.A.’s hit “Paper Planes” (of ubiquitous fame from Pineapple Express trailers). Aww yeah:
Just in time to remind us how much we enjoyed one of the brightest spots in the stellar slew of early 2008 releases, the video for “Gardenia” exemplifies all that is great about Real Emotional Trash: it’s a similarly playful, loose, and bright affair that just works. Of course, having a few special guests never hurt either, and this video’s got it in spades. Among the guests, Weezer’s Brian Bell, Girl Talk’s Greg Gillis, Mudhoney’s Steve Turner, and others…. Read more…
……is intricately constructed stop-motion puppet videos! After watching Feist’s amazing new video for “Honey Honey” - directed by Anthony Seck - I couldn’t help but feel the same exact vibe that had first crept up some 14 years ago when Alice in Chains released their video for “I Stay Away” (dir. by Nick Domkin). To which we say, watch both closely and tell us whether you think Seck’s beautiful odyssey was informed by Domkin’s freakshow carnival ride….we certainly think so. And that’s a very very good thing, because both videos are pretty much fantastic. Read more…
Just a reminder to call in sick, get a dogsitter, prepare for a liquid lunch, and set your all-around agenda for Pianos today starting at 1pm for our CMJ Day Party. We’ve got a great lineup, just watch below for a quick primer and brace yourselves for the rock: Read more…
For your Tuesday pleasure, a trio of newish videos that have caught our eyes over the last week or so, from the stark, crackling black and white aesthetic that’s ruled Beck’s Modern Guilt to a hallucinatory cartoon (typical Of Montreal); and of course, how could we resist presenting you with footage of The Walkmen’s Hamilton Leithauser fronting Walkmen cover band The Privates (all staff members of the Nashville record store Grimey’s) for a spirited rendition of “Thinking Of A Dream I Had”? Read more…
In an attempt to one-up Friday’s offering of two video versions of Lykke Li’s “Breaking Up”, we’re starting the week with not one, not two, but three video versions of Islands’ outstanding ode to paranoia and being stabbed in the heart, “Creeper”. Enjoy….
“Creeper” live at the Gibson Showroom
“Creeper” alternate video
Visit Islands on MySpace.
EAR FARM likey Lykke Li!!! In advance of her appearances in NY next week during CMJ, we’ve got two videos of her song “Breaking Up”. Enjoy.
The video might be grainy, the audio a little garbled, the overall vibe decidedly sloppy, but this is two-thirds of an hour of NIRVANA at the precise moment when they were discovering just how unbelievable they really were. We came across this 1991 video bootleg - shot at a small New Haven venue called the Moon - via SPIN.com and just had to pay it forward. Can you even begin to imagine seeing them at a club this size? Watch and dream….
Certain to be a hit during CMJ next week, Passion Pit have a new video out for their song “Sleepyhead”. Check it out below, Passion Pit CMJ dates below that.
21 Oct - Brooklyn Vegan CMJ Showcase @ Music Hall Of Williamsburg
23 Oct - CMJ show @ Fader Lounge
23 Oct - CMJ @ Club NME
24 Oct - CMJ @ Pianos
25 Oct - CMJ @ The Yard
Visit Passion Pit on MySpace.
Dreading the imminent weather change and dwindling supply of sunlight? Already wistful for the halcyon days of summer? Lucky for us, recent Band of the Week Love As Laughter teamed with fellow Brooklyn-band This Frontier Needs Heroes and director Sebastian Ischer to create a little featurette that updates the all-but-dead beach movie genre with appropriate campy vigor. The short, titled “Beach Bummed”, appropriately casts the two bands as “struggling musicians trying to survive in a merciless capitalist society.” Hang ten….
Beach Bummed from Sebastian Ischer on Vimeo.
Visit Love As Laughter and This Frontier Needs Heroes on MySpace.
Check out the brand new video for “Mr. Pie Eyes” from Bucks County’s favorite band of merry psychesters, Drink Up Buttercup. The track will be released on November 10th as a UK 7″ single on Make Mine.
Now about the video…have you ever been kidnapped and dragged to a dank cellar only to be forced to drink Jameson and play Russian roulette with an NES Zapper gun? No? Well, you can at least approximate the experience by watching below and absorbing the charmingly surreal affair; it’s definitely worth repeated viewings (remember how you used to have to blow on those NES cartridges and push them up and down a thousand times before they’d work?). And as a bonus, we’ve got a new DuB track for you below as well from their forthcoming full length. Oh and stay tuned in the coming days for some EF-related Drink Up Buttercup news…..good stuff awaits!
Listen: “Young Ladies”
Visit Drink Up Buttercup on MySpace.
Dear Manhattan and Brooklyn: Dead Confederate is in town tonight and tomorrow to MELT YOUR FACES. Tonight the band will be playing Mercury Lounge, tomorrow night they’ll be hitting up Late Night with Conan O’Brien before heading to Union Hall. Both of these venues are entirely too small to contain the epic rock which will spring forth from Dead Confederate and blow your heads clean off. Don’t believe me? Check out this video we shot of the band opening up for R.E.M. in Austin and send an email to us (mail at earfarm dot com) if you’d like two tickets to the show tonight at Mercury Lounge. The winner will be chosen at random.
above: “Tourtured Artist Saint” by Dead Confederate (interview and live footage at SXSW)
Visit Dead Confederate on MySpace.
Referred to as a “pop gem” by NYLON Magazine “Chandelier Searchlight”, directed by Clyde Petersen and Forrest Baum, is the third video from Deerhoof’s tenth album Offend Maggie, out now on Kill Rock Stars. The song “Chandelier Searchlight” is also available for download and you can listen to all of Offend Maggie HERE. Check out all three Offend Maggie videos below.
above: “Chandelier Searchlight”
above: “Fresh Born”
above: “The Tears and Music of Love”
Continuing with our Katy Perry music video studies…