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The Virtue of Shellfishness: Weebl’s Greatest Hits

admin — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 05:14:38 +0000

Somewhere in the surreal realm between the audiovisual creations of Cyriak (who brought us cows & cows & cows, Baaa, and Welcome to Kitty City) and the musical animated storytelling of SecretAgentBob (who brought us Charlie the Unicorn and Ferrets) lies the repetitiously brilliant creations of mr weebl (we’ve included a few of these videos below). Is this a genre? I can’t decide. The musical portions of Cyriak and Weebl’s clips seem to reside somewhere in the microgenres of Bitpop or Chiptune, but to be honest, I decided to stop keeping track of microgenres ten minutes after I first heard the term back in the early nineties. So we’ll just let these offbeat creations be what they are. We’re focusing on Weebl today, because in spite of having the largest volume of work of the three on line by far, I personally didn’t know who he was until today, when I ran across Shrimp Glockenspiel. Why are internerds so shellfish with their clever links? Once I paid a little more attention, I quickly realized I was familiar with his NSFW Amazing Horse and Narwhals; I just didn’t realize he had such a huge body of work. You’re likely to either love Weebl (British flash animator Jonti Picking ) or hate him. His 200+ YouTube clips have received tens of millions of views, but his TV ad for Yell 118 247 Directory Heaven earned him the honor of sixth most irritating ad of 2009. Which I guess is actually a positive assessment when discussing TV commercials. Below are what I’d consider weebl’s “greatest hits”. If you actually like the music itself, he has hundreds of tunes on Amazon, and a ton of apps on iTunes as Weebl’s Stuff Ltd . More clips below.

Shrimp Glockenspiel
Not bad, but needs more shark cowbell.

Cute Explosion
This is kind of like if the first Simple Minds album were made in the age of Nyan Cat

Babies
Ladies, ladies. I know all about makin’ babies.

Russian Dancing Men
Does what it says. Plus, a ballpoint pen.

Owls
The disturbing truth about Simon Cowell is finally revealed.

And you’re probably already familiar with Badgers, but I bet you didn’t know it’s now available in Dubstep:

And for the truly uninitiated when it comes to this peculiar art form, we’ve included SecretAgentBob’s Charlie the Unicorn, as well as Cyriak’s Welcome to Kitty City and cows & cows & cows.

Living Sisters’ New “How Are You Doing” Video Directed By Michel Gondry

admin — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 00:42:47 +0000

I’ve said this before, but I wish I had more time to listen to all the amazing new indy music that’s been flooding the market the last few years. Then it wouldn’t take a torrent of links flooding the web talking about a new Michael Gondry music video (see below) to get me to notice a cool band like The Living Sisters. I hadn’t heard of them until yesterday, but like most anyone with ears would be, I was immediately struck by their uniquely witty harmonies. They sort of reminded me of The Roches (who, unlike The Living Sisters, are sisters), not because of their sound, but because of the quirky vibe. And The Living Sisters’ voicing sounded familiar too, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. And then it hit me. Well, it didn’t actually hit me – I had to read this LA Weekly piece from last year to learn – that the reason that something about the voices sounded so familiar was because exactly one third of them were being provided by Inara George of The Bird and The Bee, who we touched on a few weeks ago. I guess on top of needing to listen to more stuff, I should follow up better on the stuff I already am listening to as well. So I don’t have much more to say about The Living Sisters, because until I finish downloading the album Love To Live from Amazon in a few minutes, I’ve only heard previews and watched some YouTube clips. I included a live one below, which proves pretty effectively that Inara George doesn’t need the autotune that seems so pervasive in The Bird and the Bee recordings. These ladies have amazing voices. Or maybe an amazing voice; at times the similarity of their timbre makes them sound like one person singing along with a Theremin…

A live studio performance in which Inara George makes it clear she don’t need no autotune:

ADD & Digital Indignation – Frontline’s Digital Nation & Web Video

admin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:47:50 +0000

Digital Nation Debuts Tuesday On PBS

Given the fact that according to this article you’re only going to read at most 28% of this page, I wonder if I should write less so you’ll read the whole thing? That sounds like an attempt at a humorous paradox, but it’s actually not; the fact is that according to this chart from the same article, users spend only 4.4 seconds more on a web page for each additional 100 words. So I better get to the point. This week PBS is airing a special edition of Frontline called Digital Nation, which explores how the Internet, texting, blogging, social networking, and other aspects of the “digital lifestyle” are impacting our lives. This is a topic that’s been very much on my attention-deficient mind for a few years. Although there are few solid scientific studies on the topic, I believe that as well as whatever benefits we derive from the technologies in which we’ve immersed our lives, these same tools have also caused perceptible changes in attention span, basic courtesy, and memory for many people. You almost certainly have noticed that more and more often, you and your friends can recall a film or book, but can’t recall the director, actor, author, or a major character. And who hasn’t found themselves sitting in a group of people that seem more intent on proving they have to “be somewhere else” digitally by texting, phoning, or checking a web account of some kind. Given the word count of what I’m writing, I lost you 140 words ago, but if you find this topic of interest, you might also find this TechCrunch article about what we watch and how we watch it interesting. It highlights things like how in the early 50′s, 30% of American households watched NBC during prime time, and how today that number has dropped to 5%, with other networks fairing about the same. Most of the remaining video content consumed is watched on the web, and in ways that may surprise you. This fact will almost certainly be relevant to the long-term viewership of Digital Nation; it debuts Tuesday directly opposite the season premiere of “Lost”.

Not surprisingly, the web site for the show is like a mini social network of user generated content:

Trent Reznor Drives More Nine Inch Nails In The Coffin Of Old-School Music Business

admin — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:02:48 +0000

What comes in 1080p high definition video with 5.1 surround sound, spans 3 continents, 4 languages, and takes a team of dozens – including 5 specialist teams and a network of thousands – a total of 12 months to complete? That would be The Gift, which is 3 DVD’s worth of NIN concert video assembled from source material released by NIN, professionally edited, and color corrected and authored. To be clear about this, the amazing thing about the project is that it’s not an official NIN release; this was assembled primarily by rabid and obsessive fans. Back in January of this year, Trent Reznor joked (see original text here) that a “mysterious, shadowy group of subversives” had somehow gotten their hands on 400 GB’s of raw HD concert footage and that it may be out there on the internet somewhere. Well, the fans took the cue and worked with NIN crew to create what appears to be some mind-blowingly high-quality concert material. And the cost? Unbelievably, it’s free. They’re even soliciting people to provide free physical DVD’s to technophobes that are incapable of figuring out the download options! We mentioned last year how Trent Reznor had ingeniously brought us back into the fan fold with his gift of “Ghosts”, but this video material may really take the concept of “free” as a marketing tool to new heights. You be the judge. The YouTube clip below is promising; we’re downloading the torrent as this article is being posted, so will probably do a follow up next week.

It’s probably silly to watch this in the size presented below, go ahead and go full screen. It’s HD!

New Release From Swiss Band Yello Due October 2, 2009

admin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 04:01:04 +0000

Some of you may only know of the band Yello from the use of their song Oh Yeah (original video below) in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Twix commercials, but the duo has been churning out innovative music since the late 70′s, and have gleefully prostituted themselves more than Moby during that time (see a long list of placements here) You might think you’ll know what to expect when you throw on a recording by a Swiss band comprised of two guys named Dieter and Boris, but the band Yello has always managed to skirt expectation just enough to keep their sample-based sound fresh over nearly three decades. Part of the reason their music holds up is that although they use sampling extensively, they don’t sample other people’s music, they sample their own and edit it into elaborate compositions. They also maintain production values on par with say, Trevor Horn or Quincy Jones, and program with the sophistication of Kraftwerk. I personally can’t wait to hear their new collection “Touch”, slated for release October 2, but I guess I’ll have to; although the track “You Better Hide” will premiere in the Swiss science fiction movie Cargo (see an early look at the movie here if you speak Swiss) on September 24th, there are otherwise no pre-releases or leaks available as of this writing. For more interesting background on Yello, visit their refreshingly functional Flash-driven site or Planet Origo. A new Yello release? O-o-o-o-h Yeah….

(Should I be disturbed that this video makes total sense to me?)

Visit their remarkably functional Flash site

80′s One Hit Wonders

admin — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:01:21 +0000

At last, the “Official” video for
88 Lines About 44 Women.
Rather peculiar, and NGSFW*

I’d completely forgotten about the 80′s song “88 Lines About 44 Women” by The Nails until the other day when the “Official” video (also at left, NGSFW*) appeared on YouTube. I guess it isn’t so odd I’d forget about it; as much as I loved the song back then, I now remember clearly the drug-addled morning that I first heard it. I had just awakened in the San Francisco apartment of some woman I’d met the night before and she thought it really funny to play it under the circumstances. Honestly, I sometimes wonder if there were so many one-hit wonders in the 80′s simply because people were doing so many drugs that they couldn’t remember the bands’ names from release to release. I know that I, for one, remember very little of lasting value from the years 1983-1990, and given our hairstyles, clothing, and musical preferences, probably prefer it this way! But I thought it would be fun to try to recall – without using the Internet or VH-1 as a memory aid – a list of these tunes. By the way, compiling this list made me realize that there’s a previously un-named micro-genre in here somewhere that’s epitomized by tunes like Trio’s Da Da Da, The Flying Lizards’ Money (That’s What I Want), and The Nails’ song featured above. I hereby christen this genre “Clock Rock”. Remember me if that catches on. The list is below, feel free to share your own in the comments…

Artist	Song	Year	Links
Lipps, Inc.	Funkytown	1980	YouTube	Amazon
The Vapors	Turning Japanese	1980	YouTube	Amazon
Waitresses	I Know What Boys Like	1982	YouTube	Amazon
Wall of Voodoo	Mexican Radio	1982	YouTube	Amazon
Taco	Puttin’ on the Ritz	1983	YouTube	Amazon
Kajagoogoo	Too Shy	1983	YouTube	Amazon
Peter Schilling	Major Tom	1983	YouTube	Amazon
Dexy’s Midnight Runners	Come on Eileen	1983	YouTube	Amazon
After the Fire	Der Kommissar	1983	YouTube	Amazon
Nena	99 Luftballons	1984	YouTube	Amazon
Musical Youth	Pass The Dutchie	1984	YouTube	Amazon
Frankie Goes to Hollywood	Relax	1984	YouTube	Amazon
Godley & Creme	Cry	1985	YouTube	Amazon
Sly Fox	Let’s Go All the Way	1986	YouTube	Amazon
Timbuk 3	The Future’s So Bright	1986	YouTube	Amazon
Charlie Sexton	Beat’s So Lonely	1986	YouTube	Amazon
MARRS	Pump up the Volume	1988	YouTube	Amazon
Rob Base & D.J. EZ Rock	It Takes Two	1988	YouTube	Amazon
Modern English	I Melt With You	1989	YouTube	Amazon

You kind of had to be on drugs to dress like this:

*NGSFW = National Geographic Safe For Work

Nothing To Worry About

admin — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 04:01:01 +0000

If you’re having a rough day, play the video at left, and I guarantee you’ll have Nothing To Worry About. You may have already seen the disturbingly uplifting video for the song from Peter Bjorn & John’s upcoming release Living Thing, but you may not have realized that the crazy Japanese rockabilly breakdancers featured in the video do this every Sunday in Yoyogi Park next to Harajuku Station in Tokyo. More on the history of the shenanigans of the Takenoko-zoku (bamboo shoot kids) can be found here, and if you haven’t listened to Peter Bjorn & John before, you might start with their 2006 release Writer’s Block, in which they prove that you can capture the Decemberists‘ fan-base without being a bunch of pretentious smartypants.

Elbow Room Only

admin — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 05:26:52 +0000

If you care about me, stop introducing me to music I like. I’m rapidly running out of time and hard drive space. The other day, a friend sent me a link to some British band’s web site, asking me what I thought. I think my remark at the time was something like “it’s a good thing their web site’s so pretty, ’cause they’re a fugly bunch of fellows”. After giving their music obsessively repeated listens, I now officially retract anything unkind I’ve ever said about Elbow. Their newest release, The Seldom Seen Kid, is one of the solidest recordings I’ve heard in a while. Elbow somehow manages to maintain a fairly consistent “downtempo” vibe without actually sounding gloomy. Singer Guy Garvey’s voice is often compared (legitimately) to Peter Gabriel, but their style on this recording meanders from prog-rockish to jazzy to almost Brechtian, and the lyrics are simply brilliant. The video at left, for the song One Day Like This, captures one of my favorite feelings – staying alive and enthused in the face of the mindnumbingly mundane – with brilliant simplicity.

More Uncanny Valley: Bobblehead Einstein Robot

admin — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 03:44:16 +0000

One of the newest residents of the Uncanny Valley is the almost-macabre Einstein-headed robot in the video, left. There’s a strange set of ironies going on here: the uncanny realism of the face (it’s made of “Frubber”) ; the eerie motion of the robot body; the weird bobbling of the head…all combined with the idea that one of the greatest minds of the 20th century is reduced to a mumbling marionette pitching a product. The Albert HUBO, as it is called, is a product of the Korea-based Humanoid Robot Research Center, a research group that seems to be playing a little bit of catch-up with Honda’s Asimo. The welcome video on the HuboLab site is unintentionally hilarious; an Einsten-headed robot speaks with a carefully suppressed, but obvious Korean accent.

Why We Link

admin — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 06:36:36 +0000

A cool video was making the rounds yesterday with the title “Why We Drink”. It’s a sort of hip, 2.0, 3-D video absurdist Powerpoint explanation of life. Made me smile, anyway. The original video is at left, or on the creator Clemens Kogler’s site with the title “Le Grand Content”. I love his summary, in which he explains that it “…examines the omnipresent Powerpoint-culture in search for its philosophical potential. Intersections and diagrams are assembled to form a grand ‘association-chain-massacre’, which challenges itself to answer all questions of the universe and some more. Of course, it totally fails this assignment, but in its failure it still manages to produce some magical nuance and shades between the great topics death, cable tv, emotions and hamsters…” As a courtesy to our American viewers who can’t handle the ponderous, European art-house, four-minute director’s cut, there’s a shorter (two minute) version here, re-titled “Why We Drink”.