Kicking off with a bang (lots of banging in fact), it's the new
Major Lazer video directed by Eric Wareheim (half of comedy team
Tim and Eric). While Wareheim continues to plough the ugly-is-hot aesthetic, celebrated homophobe Vybz Cartel ploughs everything else in sight. If you only watch one video featuring stunt-f***ing today, make it this one. It even seems to reference James Cameron's
The Abyss. Love it...
For a
moment there I entertained the hope that Natasha Khan of
Bat For Lashes might turn out to be a video star, churning out effortlessly cool clips that would one day make up a killer DVD. After watching "Sleep Alone", from the Mercury Prize nominated
Two Suns, I may have to face the ugly truth...
(More copies for the rest of us! - Ed)
Is this the worst band interview in recent memory? British "indie-fops"
RayGun may have just made themselves household names with one video... for all the wrong reasons. Their poor marketing manager will now spend the rest of this week figuring out what to do with a band who provide quotes such as,
"We'll come to work in fancy dress or have mojitos at 11am ... what the hell, man!"
Sadly for Mr/Mrs Marketing Honcho,
The NME, and now
The Guardian (
"The world sinks to a new low"), are loving this...
Moving along, the bad news is that the next video is from
U2. The good news is that Bono's face does not appear in it and it was made by celebrated animator, and fellow Irishman, David O'Reilly (still only 24 years old, fact fans). Beautiful...
It's un-embeddable, but you can watch it here.
If you need some help removing Duffy's "Mercy" from your consciousness, and don't we all, this helps. It's from London's The Third Degree, put together for a new label
Tri-Sound dedicated to creating proper soul, with real instruments. The label was set up by the founder of the Acid Jazz label Eddie Piller (also a big time Northern Soul DJ) and Marshall Chess, who ran the Rolling Stones' record label in the 70's, and whose father and uncle founded Chess Records, the legendary R&B label, in the Fifties. It really does sound much, much better...
Finally, you've heard him sing countless musical numbers on
Family Guy and
American Dad. Now here's Seth MacFarlane doing it live, with some serious orchestra, at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall (
Announcer: "He wasn't put off by the comedy umbrellas!"). And
here's an interview in which he explains how this just happened. Bit strange, but it takes all sorts...