iamamiwhoami – ; john

Posted on May 24, 2011 by ManeatingCow23

OK, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a bit of a lazy person. I procrastinate far more than any human being should. And I know I haven’t posted anything new in a while. I’m sorry. What can I say? I’m lazy.

iamamiwhoami inspired me to break my dry spell with their new video for “; john”. There was a rumor that iamamiwhoami had broken up after they put out their live EP a couple months ago, which made me very sad, because they make such amazingly wonderful music. But like most things iamamiwhoami, you can never take those rumors at face value. (At the beginning it was rumored that Christina Aguilera was the one behind their mysterious early videos as a teaser to her new album. Thank god that wasn’t true, because that album turned out to be crap.)

Since iamamiwhoami could rise from the dead (or at least come back from being a few months off of everyone’s radar) I figured, hey, so can I! I think their music is absolutely astonishingly beautiful (click the tag for more proof). It’s weirdly charming and unique, like Bjork combined with The Knife. iamamiwhoami is Lady Gaga if Lady Gaga was actually cool, instead of just trying to be cool. Just check out the amazing art direction of this video. I have no clue as to what it all means, but I’m thrilled and blown away nonetheless.

[For those who are impatient, the good stuff starts right around the 1:20 mark.]

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Clams Casino – Gorilla

Posted on April 26, 2011 by ManeatingCow23

Jamie Harley has done a lot of really cool fan videos using found footage and this one for Clams Casino is so well done that it makes David Copperfield cool again for the first time since the early 90’s. The music almost seems like it was written specifically for this act (which I vaguely do remember watching way back when).

Clams Casino : “Gorilla” from Jamie Harley on Vimeo.

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Grimes – Vanessa (Fan vs. Official)

Posted on April 17, 2011 by ManeatingCow23

One of the greatest things to come out of the YouTube revolution is that fans can now make their own music videos for their favorite songs. It’s really amazing that now these videos can come out before the official version is even finished and in a lot of cases they’re even better and more entertaining.

Take for example Grimes’ “Vanessa”. Delicate piano plinking, sci-fi electronic noodling, haunting female vocals, a propulsive dance floor beat. It’s a great little song. Now the official version of the video is fine enough, if a bit boring. The kaleidescope section is cool and some of the reverse motion stuff is interesting enough to watch, but mostly the video is just filled with unconnected hipster images. There’s no drive to the video. It’s Dullsville.

Especially when you look at the fan vid that came out two weeks before the official version. David Dean Burkhart took footage from Jean-Luc Goddard’s Alphaville and edited it to fit this song, and the footage fits the mood of the song extremely well. The video starts off interesting enough and by the 2:10 mark it really kicks into high gear, the montage and subject matter fitting the music almost to a T, creating a little visual tone poem that I’m sure would make Goddard proud. It’s so much better. I’ve watched this version several times while I’m not sure I’d watch the official version ever again.

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Genki Sudo presents World Order

Posted on April 17, 2011 by ManeatingCow23

I have a soft spot in my heart for J-Pop. Sure, most of it is soulless junk, but the Japanese do like to be the weirdest people in the world and from time to time that produces some real gold.

Take Genki Sudo. I kid you not, this guy is an ex-MMA fighter/writer/Buddhist with a record of 16-4-1 who, after he retired from fighting, hired a group of middle-management robot backup dancers and started writing J-Pop songs as World Order. It didn’t come completely out of nowhere that he wanted to become a pop star though. You need to check out his elaborate MMA fight entrances that make Apollo Creed’s James Brown "Living In America" entrance in Rocky IV look subdued and modest in comparison. You can see one of the more elaborate examples of this craziness here.

Genki Sudo came to my attention with the remake they did of his title track, "World Order." They went to New York City and made a shot for shot remake of the video they originally did in downtown Tokyo. Here you get lots of their trademark slow-mo robot walking, as well as other great robot dance moves, while New Yorkers look on with confusion.

In "Mind Shift" the robot businessmen crash someone’s house to have a dance party.

Their newest video may be my favorite. "Machine Civilization" was made in light of the recent tragedy in Japan and really hits upon Genki Sudo’s personal motto of "We Are All One". The video sees them taking over an airport and then later doing some amazing group dance movie in an industrial park that makes them look like parts in a giant factory machine. It’s a very cool video. They’re even giving the song away for free (just look in the comments on the YouTube page).

If these videos don’t put a smile on your face for the rest of the day, I don’t know what will.

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Pogo – One Mushroom Too Many

Posted on April 8, 2011 by ManeatingCow23

Pogo first appeared in the public’s consciousness when he put out a video called “Alice,” which was a song he made by sampling bits and pieces from the Disney cartoon version of Alice In Wonderland. The video/song is still extremely popular, and you only need look back through my blog to see plenty of examples of what Pogo’s been up to since then. I saw him play live about a month ago and it was a really great experience. He managed to mix both the music and video clips on the fly to create a really captivating DJ set.

For the first time ever there’s an original Pogo music video out there that doesn’t consist solely of footage from whatever he’s sampling from. “One Mushroom Too Many” is part of an EP called Deeper Down The Rabbit Hole that contains further reworkings from the film Alice In Wonderland. He asked Andreipedia to make this cute video, which tries to show you what it might look like if you indeed had one mushroom too many while listening to this song.

You can download the Deeper Down The Rabbit Hole EP for free from his website here. (Go to the second page, midway down.)

The original “Alice” video:

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Taragana Pyjarama – Girls

Posted on April 8, 2011 by ManeatingCow23

This band from (I think) Denmark makes some really groovy electronic headphone music. The video is nothing special, but the song is really captivating. If you like this, they have a self-titled EP out now that’s pretty good.

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Bad Lip Reading – Gang Fight (IT’S FRIDAY!)

Posted on April 8, 2011 by ManeatingCow23

It’s Friday everybody (YEAH!) and because we we we so excited, it’s time for more Rebecca Black videos. First up is a video by Bad Lip Reading, who basically took Rebecca Black’s “Friday” video without the sound and by lip reading the video tried to make their own song to what they imagined she was saying. Not only are the new lyrics hilarious, but surprisingly the song is also SUPER catchy. Even if you’re trying to stay away from hearing “Friday” one more time (or at all) you should still check this video out:

Next up is a PSA, warning 13 year olds about what happens when they take the parents car out on Friday to have some Fun Fun Fun Fun.

And finally, Hitler lets us all know what he thinks of the Rebecca Black phenomena.

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Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon – Friday

Posted on April 2, 2011 by ManeatingCow23

I have to admit, I am a tad bit obsessed with Rebecca Black’s “Friday”. As of my last count I have 12 different remixes of “Friday” in my iTunes that I’ve found scattered across the internet, from a slowed-down version, to your club remix, to a Bollywood version, to quite a few dubstep versions. Yes, I may have a problem, but I don’t get people who say they’ve only watched this video once and then went on with the rest of their lives. Really? Really???

Anyway, on last night’s Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert came on to sing “Friday” to make up for saying that Jimmy would donate $26,000 to donorschoose.org without Jimmy knowing he did so. What followed was probably my favorite remix of them all. LOVE the slow intro, love the excessive auto-tuning, love the harmonica. Check it out:

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The Lonely Island – We’re Back

Posted on April 2, 2011 by ManeatingCow23

The Lonely Island have a new album coming out in May and on tonight’s Jimmy Fallon they premiered their newest video and first track off the album, “We’re Back”. Can’t wait for this album to drop. NSFW, BTW.

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MNDR – Cut Me Out

Posted on April 1, 2011 by ManeatingCow23

Ever since I saw that amazing music video for Mark Ronson & The Business INTL’s "Bang Bang Bang" I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. Easily one of the best videos of the year. And a big part of what made it so great was that it introduced us to MNDR’s amazingly unique voice and giant white 80’s glasses. MNDR’s first solo single has been out a little while now, but "Cut Me Out" has finally gotten an official music video, which you can view below. Oh, and did I mention you can download "Cut Me Out" for free here?

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