By Jed
I'm going to try formatting this Video Free Silver Lake post without the numbered headings I typically use to separate each featured band from the others. I've been using these numbered headings for about two years now, and I'm thinking it might possibly be time to give them up. Or perhaps I'll return to my old ways.
--Radio Free Silver Lake is presenting the Lonely Wild's record release at the Bootleg Theatre tomorrow, February 24th (see band interview here and here). In further support of the show, here are some videos from the band, performing songs from the new EP.
"Dead End" (Live in Dolores Park in San Francisco)
"Right Side of the Road" (also at Dolores Park)
"Out of My Mind" (at Central SAPC (read review of said show here)):
"Hail" from same show:
"Dead End" at the L.A. Zoo on August 6, 2010 (notice small children running around in foreground and narrating voice anticipating "when the tigers come out" around 1:10)
The Lonely Wild - "Dead End" @ The Los Angeles Zoo August 6, 2010 from Wormholes&Vitamins on Vimeo.
Penultimately, a promotional video from the EP put out by the band:
And finally, the band harmonizing in the studio, just for fun:
--L.A.'s See Green are playing at Molly Malone's on Friday, March 25, which admittedly isn't the first place I think of visiting to check out local talent. Which is, I suppose reason to emphasize that maybe one might try driving a little bit west of La Brea to see these guys. I think they are quite good, despite never seeming to turn up at the familiar east side venues. I've been trying to come up with a fair comparison, bandwise, to describe See Green's sound; the closest I found was the Bangles, but there's something a bit more whimsical and less cutesy about See Green. Check out these videos (kind of funny, right?) and "See" the show on Friday:
"Beyond Therapy" (the video employs the technique of imagining See Green's performing the song at a Japanese karaoke bar, the twist being that she also appears in the more-cheesy-than-the-real-thing karaoke videos)
"Devil in the Details" (in which she battles Lilliputian animated creatures)
"I Can Change" (This See Green song was recently covered by LCD Soundsystem on the Colbert Report!)
-- Eagle and Talon have a new video for "For the Bond" featuring hip hop/comedian/artist Reggie Watts (famous for the notoriously profane F_ck Sh_t Stack). It's funny -- Watts manipulates Kim and Alice like puppets. Also, FYI, Eagle and Talon released their more-dance-beatsy-than usual EP In Manila yesterday.
--1960's girl group coverers The Damselles & the TC4 have a new video for "How Deep is the Night". In it, road maps, soft cover books, and crossword puzzles are used to illustrate the girls' quest to discover the answer to the song title's question and Jillinda looks extremely solemn throughout:
-- Baltimore's Arbouretum, (who will be playing the Satellite on March 1) also recently put out a video for some of the videos off of The Gathering, their fourth album . According to the band, the album "was to a large extent inspired by The Red Book by Carl Jung, or more specifically, Jung’s pursuit of the inner images that led to the book’s writing. Dave Heumann, the singer, guitarist and main lyricist of Arbouretum, has long been a fan of experiences that surpass comprehension and describe the numinous." If you say so. Here's some of those new videos.
"Destroying to Save"
Arbouretum - Destroying to Save from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.
"Waxing Crescents" live
Arbouretum - "Waxing Crescents" - Live at the Ottobar from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.
Acoustic version of "When Delivery Comes"
Arbouretum - When Delivery Comes (solo acoustic) from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.
-- Wait. Think. Fast. have a new one for "Hidden", from the new record Luces del Sur, the video having been shot all in one take on a rainy day, while ascending the very lengthy staircase behind their house. It's a slow one that, yes, is good for a rainy day:
-- From the international scene, Parisian synth-pop group Chateau Marmont have a new video for "One Hundred Realities." When I saw thes guys play at the Iceland Airwaves Festival, I thought to myself "this dance music is extremely entertaining -- it is reminding me of Devo, and of Kraftwerk and of all sorts of other things I like. But these three French guys don't seem to be doing much more than standing in front of a console, chatting with each other, while passively entertaining the crowd with pre-programmed electro. I mean, do I really need these guys standing there to enjoy the music? I'd much rather watch a psychdelic video produced by the video on Vimeo." What fortune!
CHATEAU MARMONT - One Hundred Realities from Shinya Sato on Vimeo.
-- And finally, Útidúr is a relatively new Icelandic band from Seltjarnarnes. They've got something like 12 permanent members in the group (I think their debut album The Mess We've Made features even more). It's harder than you'd think to find current Icelandic music that isn't performed entirely in English, so this performance of "Ballaðan" ("The Ballad"), on the Icelandic TV program Kastljósið is worth checking out for that reason alone. What do they sound like? A bit like Beirut. I caught the last song of two of one of their shows in Reykjavík in October and dug it.
As usual, email me at RFSLJed at gmail dot com with a link and description of a youtube or vimeo or myspace music video that has a band, maybe your band, in it, hopefully with music audio, but I suppose I'm flexible.
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