Rosemary is a Persian Story

This is so eerie.

You should see the website (and download the free Ep) here.

Just Great

Canada Astound Me

And dig around their Vimeo page for updates. They definitely make musicians much, much cooler.

Canada Make A Mean Music Video

The makers of this NSFW video are Canada, and they're not Canadian. They are however now represented by Partizan and have done my favourite video of 2011 so far.

Canada (watch their whole reel at Vimeo)

The Other Side by Tiny Tim

The ice caps are melting, this Tiny Tim guy is acting like a fish and little girls are singing a chorus including the words "the tide is rising to wash away the sins". Sheer lunacy. It's beautiful. Your day will be better for watching this and singing along.

Janelle Monae Imaged by Wendy Morgan

Watch the video on Youtube

Janelle Monae is an energetic and exciting singer. This song, Tightrope, makes you wanna jump up and move your feet. However, I doubt you'll move your feet as well as the troupe in this video. The pictures are by Wendy Morgan, ass kicking director of the dance. They're an equal and a tribute to the song.

Reggie Watts Comments on the State of Music & Work & Life etc

http://vimeo.com/10107253

This video, as the title of this post implies, is a satirical look at the world and is obviously not safe for work if you're going to play it loud. Stick with it, Reggie has a keen eye for the crap that pop culture spews out.

Little Boots Has Caught Me

Yes, it's another Little Boots crush. However, it's her charming acoustic web videos that have stolen my heart. She's on her way to becoming rather bloody famous but still finds the time to do a cover of her own single in her bedroom. Her covers of Hot Chip, Cyndi Lauper and Sugarbabes among others are simple and wonderful. She's not afraid of raw, unfinished fun. There's a place for production and there's a place for immediate performance. Can you imagine Bono or the Stones being this unfiltered? This is definitely a sign of another type of audience relationship.

Little Boots plays Jools Holland.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJmpQptN6vU]

Here is her new single "New in Town".
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QotFwZs_2F4]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6tLRCDqJ2c]
Hot Chip

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAAPXleIQMk]
MGMT - Time to Pretend

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CWBgm_-Ggs]
Lil Boots plays with her strange little light square toy thingy

Roel Wouters - Running with the Beast

This music video by the graphic designer Roel Wouters is stirring up some controversy. Despite all protestations that No Animal Was Hurt in the making of this video for zZz, bleeding hearts are crying fowl. No animal was hurt. It is the nature of these animals to have at each other. You could argue that these poor, dumb animals had no choice in the matter, unlike like us humans who only have complete control over our fates. Is watching this for our entertainment morally questionable? Like watching Ultimate Fighting, girls beating each other up and glorified gambling. Where is your moral centre? This video makes people pick fights. Which is exactly what I find myself doing in this post. Genius. At least the birds had referees to stop any pecking below the belt.

It's a polarising, graphic and artful video. And unafraid.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybFojKxfWvk]

Here's the Making Of.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olIQh9cIobk]

Kanye West's Visual Feast

Kanye West is a strange and interesting creator. I bumped into his blog and was a little surprised at what I found. Packaging design, store design, stills from his video productions, concept designs for giant toys and the occassional beautiful girl with running joke attached. Lots of design. I knew he had some cool CD covers and a few critically lauded videos, but I didn't have a real appreciation for his remarkable visual sense.

[youtube=http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=QPcsTeTb43A]

His new video, Love Lockdown, is a pretty good example. It starts like an R&B video, Kanye wearing white, in a white kitchen, singing about love. Which is standard stuff. It quickly digresses into a tribal war dance, mixed with a few sexy women who are obviously provoking the men into a fervour, then there's a spaceship... and then giant Tron women... really, neon Tron.

His genre skipping ranges from Takashi Murakami to Helmut Newton and Muppets. It's fascinating to watch him create his reality. His interest in the world around him is reflected in the themes of the videos and music: the Olympics, the remake of Tron, super heroes and kawaii. Oh yes, and his blog of all places. I suggest you have a look. He's having fun.

Kanye West



[youtube=http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=w0RdyDiIH_0]

[youtube=http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=-a--Pc7R8PU]