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Jazzy Japanese Pop Band Sour’s New Video Is Fan-Powered

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on July 3, 2009 by admin in Music

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

The clever new video for Sour’s song Hibi no Neiro, from their new EP Water Flavor is performed entirely by fans on web cams.

Whenever I feel like I’ve pretty much seen the Internet and am ready to cancel my membership, something charming comes along and reminds me what I’m doing here. Not too long ago it was Kutiman, the Israeli guy who took hundreds of amateur music tutorial videos from YouTube and mashed them up into amazingly listenable new music. This time it’s the Japanese band Sour, whose music is just some mellow, sparse, jazzy pop that sounds sort of like if a few Japanese guys studied at Berklee and couldn’t decide who they liked more, Chet Baker or Charlie Hunter. The video at left (for their song Hibi no Neiro) was produced completely using their fans, carefully choreographed on web cams to make a whimsical little video that perfectly matches the thoughtful but upbeat tune. They have a few other playful and clever videos on YouTube, including Omokage no saki which uses simple stop-animation, and Hangetsu, which uses some clever shadow puppetry. I was going to research them a little more and write about them, when I realized the bio information on their site summed it up perfectly:
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Iggy Pop’s New Release – Préliminaires

[ Comments Off ]Posted on June 3, 2009 by admin in Music

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

You’ll want to put on Iggy Pop’s new CD Préliminaires almost as much as you’ll want HIM to put on a shirt.


I think it’s finally time
for Iggy to put on a
shirt. How about you?

When you’re Iggy Pop, you have to go to great lengths to surprise people. I mean, after being one of the first to pull your penis out on stage (I think Jim Morrison beat him to “the draw”), being credited with inventing the “stage dive”, and acquiring the moniker “Godfather of Punk”, what’s left? Well, Iggy came up with something. Just enter your Serge Gainsbourg-slash-Leonard Cohen phase at the age of 62 with a release like his new CD Préliminaires. I’ve been an off-and-on fan of Iggy since I was about 16, when his new album The Idiot was on heavy rotation at my house along with with Bowie’s Low. His energy and crazed persona were never what interested me; and half of his music really doesn’t do much for me. But that other half? Holy crap. He just goes places others don’t go, and occasionally brings back something we didn’t know we needed. And I’m reluctantly forced to admit that I’m enjoying what he’s done on this new release. Except that I’d like to strangle him for covering Antônio Carlos Jobim’s “Insensatez”. Jesus Iggy, why? Just why? If you want to pick up a copy, there’s a limited edition package available (6,000 worldwide), as well as a regular CD and a digital download. They also have some amusing video clips of Iggy performing the new material in France on Iggy’s site. I wonder if the now legendary (and hilarious) tour rider is still in use? If you’d like to read more about Préliminaires, BlogCritics has a fairly even-handed review. And can someone tell me how you say “please put on a shirt” in French?

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I Need Some Nice Shorts

[ 2 Comments ]Posted on May 10, 2009 by admin in Popular Media

Sunday, May 10th, 2009

My ongoing search for quality short film and music videos is sated briefly by some Rob Dougan.

I remember clearly when MTV was new. I was in a trendy band comprised of artists who dabbled in visual art, fashion and film, and we were incredibly excited about the possibilities. We of course were quickly disappointed as the medium turned into an endless string of “hair bands with hot chick videos”. To me, the marriage of music and moving images still remains a vastly under-explored territory; although there are many full length films brilliantly married to their music (Betty Blue and Paris, Texas remain a couple of faves), I’ve always been more intrigued with the idea of a shorter format (I’ve mentioned shorts before) that might allow a more abstract exploration of the possibilities. The other day a friend turned me on to the video at left, which is by Rob Dougan. It’s a stunning short film set to his theme Clubbed To Death, which will be familiar to many from the soundtrack of The Matrix. If you like it, check out the full CD, Furious Angels. It’s a great CD, but his Tom Waits-like vocal stylings seem to divide opinions. My friends who like Waits found it off-putting, and my friends who don’t like Waits enjoyed it. Go figure. In any case, I wish this were a more clearly defined medium; although there are collections like Pitchfork Media’s 100 Awesome Music Videos, it’s hard to find work like this in one place, and even that collection focuses on the standard pop song promotion format. I’d also be happy if the medium were more popular because I personally have a huge backlog of ambient and instrumental material I would love to market myself! I love this Sick of Dance Music interview with Dougan in The Guardian; it sums up a lot of how I feel about my own work. Especially the “dance music that you could never dance to” reference. I also identify with his indifference to his creation; although my music’s been used in a lot of commercial/industrial video and licensed for one film, I sometimes actually forget it exists (just check the last log in on that ambient link if you think I’m kidding). If you know of any nice clips like the one featured here, please share!

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