Two Mormon-lookin’ missionaries go out into the ‘Hood to preach the good word about Fryars and the dance party at the end of the world. At first the natives are having nothing of it, but once the boys start dancing it becomes apparent to everyone involved that the dance party is nigh.
“And the good Lord said there would be dancing, And it was good.”
Just as we’ve reached the halfway point of the final season of Dexter this shows up online and it couldn’t have made me happier. The final season might be a little hit or miss so far, but this first draft of the Dexter credits by Creative Director Eric Anderson truly floored me when I saw it earlier tonight. I can see why Showtime didn’t ultimately go with it; it’s darker, more sinister and it definitely plays up Dexter’s identity as a serial killer instead of flirting with his persona as the more likable character that we now know and love. But I don’t care. This is badass.
So much of what I love about this has to do with Xploding Plastix’s intense song, “More Powah to Yah”. The skittery beats, the rich Bernard Herman-esque strings punctuated with sharp Psycho-like blasts of noise. It all screams dark, film noir-like danger. While most of the imagery we see in this version can be found in the final version of the credits, the individual shots take on a more malevolent tone when paired with the explosive editing designed to match the rhythmic intensity of the song. Some of the playfulness of the final version is lost, but it makes up for that with an atmosphere that creates a pure morbid curiosity about what it is that you are about to see. While this wasn’t the perfect match for the showrunners of Dexter, I think this would work superbly for a darker serial killer-based show like NBC’s outstanding freshman show, Hannibal.
If you’d like to know more about this first draft of the Dexter opening credits you can check out this recent interview with Creative Director Eric Anderson where he describes what went into the creative process to get us to the final product.
As promised, here’s a bonus mixtape to help celebrate the new and improved, better than ever C’est Non Un Blog! And on top of all that, this is actually my 1,800th post! You can download The Runner-Ups Mixtape here, and if you haven’t already done so make sure you also pick up the Can You Take The Heat??? Mixtape here.
Whenever I add a new song to my iTunes folder that I find particularly fantastic I copy that file into a separate folder that becomes the starting point for the creation of my next new mixtape. This time around I went a little crazy and ended up putting enough songs into that folder to make two mixtapes, so when I decided that it was time to move the website to another host I figured why not go big and create two mixtapes?! I definitely had the material to do so. The Runner-Ups Mixtape consists of those songs that I thought were good enough to include in a mixtape, just not good enough to make the cut on the Can You Take The Heat??? Mixtape.
This mixtape is a little mellower than the last. I tend to want to go big when I create a mixtape, so the tracks that didn’t slap me in the face and demand their inclusion ended up missing the cut the last go around. These are the songs that, pardon the self-referential pun, couldn’t take the heat. Even with that said, I think there’s a lot of really fantastic songs on here. Side note: As an odd cosmic coincidence it was hot and steamy when I put the last mixtape out and it’s cold and rainy today, so it’s almost like these mixtapes were meant to be the way they were eventually put together.
While you wait for your download to finish, if you’d like a taste of what you can expect this go around here’s the music video for AlunaGeorge’s “Your Drums, Your Love”. Enjoy, let me know if you like what I’m doing, and thanks again for downloading these mixtapes!
I saved the best for last today. Annie has a new tongue-in-cheek video for “Back Together” that is modeled after a 90’s dance countdown show. The video is complete with a rundown of the top five songs of the day and some Pop-Up Video facts about Annie that appear in the middle of the song and totally cover up the entire screen, hilariously blocking your view of the actual video. There’s even a hidden Easter Egg tucked in there. Song #5, “Invisible”, is actually another standout Annie track from the new ‘A&R’ EP that’s masked and altered and credited to “Mannie”. Everything from the bad fashion to the bad dancing perfectly encapsulates what videos like this were like back when. Bravo, Annie. Well done.
Apparently the hip new thing to do right now is to make a music video that features your fully-clothed band playing around a bunch of naked women and then getting said video banned on YouTube. First Robin Thicke and Justin Timberlake did it, now Is Tropical thought that they’d take a run at it. “Lover’s Cave” actually reminds me a lot of college, with all the white cinder-block walls and grody couches, the late 90’s alternative sound of the song, and the rampant casual sexuality on display. God I miss college. It goes without saying that this is NSFW so be careful where you watch it.
If you thought that the above video was too NSFW then you probably really shouldn’t check out this video for “Dancing Anymore”, Is Tropical’s other single off of their new album, ‘I’m Leaving’. In it a French boy hired to clean a pool takes advantage of an empty house to masturbate excessively while imagining himself having sex with various computer generated women. It starts off a little disgusting but quickly things become more and more exaggerated until the whole affair actually becomes quite funny.
FKA Twigs, formerly known as just Twigs, is back with a new song she made with Arca that will appear on her new EP2, set to be released September 9th. The beat of “Water Me” sounds a lot like the sound water makes as it drips from a ceiling. It’s a really cool, melodic jam that reinforces the love I had for her when her first round of songs came out last year. Can’t wait to hear the rest of the new EP2.
It’s really nice to see HEARTSREVOLUTION putting out new music again on a regular basis. “$EX” was actually written in 2009 but had to be kept under wraps until they could put it on their new Ride or Die EP. HEARTSREVOLUTION say that this video “is about the daily objectification of women and girls and that moment of taking your power back. When the girls in the video stand up for themselves they are given Lo’s signature neon pink eye mask.” It’s definitely a fun little song with the typical HEARTSREV revolutionary punk vibe.
James Brooks of Elite Gymnastics fame has been making some questionable decisions lately. Firstly, he’s decided to ditch his awesome Elite Gymnastics persona for this new name, Dead Girlfriends, which sounds a lot like an emo/metal group’s name. Not coincidentally, if you search for “Dead Girlfriends” on Facebook you’ll find a Facebook band page for an emo/metal group who is none too happy that James Brooks decided to change his name to theirs.
As Dead Girlfriends he’s released a new EP entitled ‘Stop Pretending‘, which brings me to his second questionable decision, the price. He’s charging $8 for a 14 minute long, 4 track EP. Sure he can charge whatever he likes for it, that’s his prerogative, but considering he gave away everything he did as Elite Gymnastics away for free (or pay what you want) eight bucks for this seems a little steep.
It’s not all bad news, though. The cover artwork for the EP that you see above was created by Claire Boucher, aka Grimes, and it looks pretty sweet. And despite the name change the songs on this EP sound like classic Elite Gymnastics tracks, if a little bit gloomier. I’m going through my seventh listen of the EP right now. You can hear “On Fraternity” below. It’s a lyric video that actually reminds me a lot of when I saw him live last year. Yeah, sadly it didn’t get more exciting than this. Still, awesome song.
Sweden is no stranger to great pop music and Stockholm’s Marlene is only the latest in a long line of fantastic artists to come out of this wonderful Nordic country. French friends Tepr and Myd helped produce this bigger than life summer anthem. It’s good to know that with August just around the corner there are still plenty of great summer songs left before fall is upon us. So far Marlene only has 500+ followers on Facebook, so make sure you get on this train before it leaves the station.
London’s Capital Children’s Choir have covered one of the coolest songs ever made, Crystal Castles’ “Untrust Us”, using only their voices and their hands, and the results are nothing short of awe-inspiring. The only thing that would make this video better? If the kids singing the song didn’t look bored out of their minds while making it.
Here’s the original in case your ears need some refreshing.
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