It’s rare that a song I’m blindly listening to can be so capture that I just stare at a motionless video but, Sea Oleena’s “Island Cottage” does just that. The song is a little dated, close to a year and a half old, but luckily music has no expiration date. It is beautifully somber, encompassing, and gorgeous. Fans of Beach House, Youth Lagoon, or even Iron and Wine would dig it. Check out “Island Cottage” below.
Last seen as a part of the Harvestsum showcase at this summer’s Herd Fest, the dark pop outfit, Strange Acres, have just released the music video for “Minority.” Found on their self-titled 2013 debut album, the song sounds like Karen O taking a trip to the darker side. The elegant and eerie video, which is down right Lynchian at times, was shot by High Watermark Films, one of the minds behind the Mohawk Place doc, Bring Me Your Vultures. Watch the music video for “Minority” below.
You have to love how these things work out. Just as Mute Records and M83 are getting ready to reissue M83’s out of print first three albums, a frankly spectacular video has been “unearthed” for “Lower Your Eyes To Die With The Sun.” Directed by Yoonha Park, the 8+ minute clip is epic, cinematic, tragic, sensual, and a shoegaze classic; in other words an essential M83 music video that’s somehow not been available on YouTube for us to drool over previously. The physical reissues for M83, Dead Cities, Read Seas & Lost Ghosts, and Before The Dawn Heals Us are in stores now, with 2 EPs of B-sides and remixes available digitally on September 9t.
Rochester’s alt-country rockers, Faux Leather Jacket, released a music video late last week for “Only I Can Break My Heart,” the shining track on their debut EP, Sorry, Bud. In collaboration with Rocco Hagan, who shot and edited the video, it features a dreamlike montage of friends goofing off, dudes playing with hatchets, and, as many of us can relate to, a man on a mission to make things as hard as possible for himself. With a wisdom of the ages, this youthful group highlights the song’s title through the pointed words of a repeating chorus: “Don’t go feeling guilty/ Don’t even start/ It’s like I’ve told you once/ Only I can break my heart.” It only seems right, then, that the video’s protagonist (songwriter, lead vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Trevor Courneen) might be likened to something of Sisyphus, as he makes a hellish journey across town hauling a burlap sack[...]
Always one to impress with music videos (see “The Symbol” and “Strictly 4 My Jeeps“), Bronsolino dropped a video of the year candidate this week. It’s a perfect ridiculousness, as the humor that Bronson displays in his rhymes transports to the video. Ironically modeled after something like a Tarantino film, Bronson rides through the desert on his motorcycle, fighting bikers, evading the coppers, and rocking out the closing guitar solo. The song also features the diss of the year, “I hear your bitch still wear Etnies.” Watch Bronson ride into the sunset below.
The popular image of pathetic-failure-chic is tired as hell. See: He’s Just Not That Into You, Girl Most Likely, and other movies in which potentially capable women get sucked into very cute, very milquetoast humiliations and histrionics. Taylor Swift can often be the aural embodiment of perpetuating those stereotypes. Girls! It’s Victimhood lite! Now in adorable and sassy flavors. The Bechdel Test is just based on a little conversation between two characters in a 1985 comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For by Allison Bechdel. It is usually applied to film, but it works for other media. All the film/album/novel/what-have-you needs is a) at least two women who b) have conversations c) about something other than a man. The heteronormativity and the perfect image of a relationship, the super sublime womanhood and manhood we’re supposed to aspire to, really does run so deep that the art which rewards this complex[...]
Late last week, Joe Mason released the music video for “The Sun,” a cut of Ariel Pink-esque, stoner pop-rock off of the musician’s self-titled debut album. Directed by avant-garde producer, Lesionread, the clip shows Mason venturing in a Blues Clues set with an Uncle Sam hat on, amongst many other hijinx. Mason just released a new EP last Friday as well, titled Dirty Softies. You can listen to it over on his bandcamp page, and in the mean time, watch the video for “The Sun” below.
Rustie and Danny Brown collabed on a song together, which isn’t the first time. With Danny’s lyrical flow and Rustie’s electronic masterpiece, “Attak” is a complimenting blend of high energy. The official video was released today. As URL increasingly seeps into the IRL world, this video uses superimposed text, suggestive emojis and rolling lyrics that are reminiscent of having fun with 3D word art in the early days of Microsoft Word. It’s perfect. Rustie – Attak ft Danny Brown (Official Music Video) from Music on Vimeo.
Simplicity is one of the characteristics that turned Piñata (AKA Cocaine Piñata) into one of the consensus, best rap releases of the year. Freddie Gibbs’ raps were simple, hard gangsta talk. Madlib’s beats were usually no more than a simple, buttery loop on repeat. One element was destructive, and the other beautiful. The contrast of the two formed an album that was easy to appreciate. “Harold’s,” the latest song to get the music video treatment, is simply an ode to the chicken place Gibbs refuels at when he’s taking a break from the hood life. “A plate of chicken with the bread stuck to the bottom/Fuck my enemies what you looking for bitch I got ’em.” The video continues the straight-up theme of everything Gibbs’ does. It’s at a Harold’s, and Gibbs raps. We see the Kanye’s and the Kendrick’s, where every lyrics means something deeper. We see the Drake’s where a lot of emotion[...]
One of the new, WNY releases that we are eagerly awaiting in the blog offices is the debut LP from Rochester, post-punk duo, Buffalo Sex Change. Set to be released tomorrow on 585-based label, Dadstache Records, the album currently has three songs available to stream on the label’s bandcamp page to get a little taste before the entire album drops. Late last week, the pair released the music video for one of those three songs, “Holy Ghost Fire,” a gothic-folk number that would not sound too out of place on the new Mr. Boneless record. Check out the black and white video to the song below, which mostly features a woman lackadasically lassoing.
This fine new clip for “Electric Lady” from Atlanta r&b and soul starlet, Janelle Monae, is so great I even forgive the sorority/fraternity theme. An homage to School Daze, Cooley High, and 80’s Janet Jackson videos, “Electric Lady” features step dancing, an affirming Afrocentric vibe (NOT a reference to her fly new hairstyle), and cameos from Erykah Badu, T-Boz, Kimbra, and Esperanza Spaulding. The product placing effort is a true dance party sure to advance Janelle Monae’s quest for global domination.
Yesterday, Small Signals, aka Rochester-based, multi-instrumentalist Stephen Roessner, released the first single, “Whiskers,” off of his debut EP, The Aimless. Currently operating as the drummer to jangle-rock band, Pleistocene, Roessner heads in a different direction with his Small Signals project, channeling aspects of Rivers Cuomo, Archers of Loaf, and Fugazi on the seven track release. The video to “Whiskers” finds Roessner fighting the urge to cut his very impressive beard until he finds some hairy, kindred spirits to boost his self esteem. If you are feeling uncomfortable about having a beard, you’re more than welcome to come to Buffalo. I’m sure there are a number of girls at the Pink that wouldn’t think your beard is weird. You can stream the entire EP over at Small Signals’ bandcamp page and in the mean time, watch the video for “Whiskers” below.
Hip hop’s favorite stoner emcee duo is back on a track together, and it’s a body mover. Meth and Red dropped the platinum Blackout album in 1999, starred alongside each other in cult stoner flick How High in 2004, and then released a sequel to their first album in 2009. The two have stayed relatively active in the rap game for the last 20 or so years, but it’s always special when they get behind the mic as a duo. They’ve given us the GOAT high school basketball warm-up track in “Da Rockwilder” and had a couple high charting singles with “How High” and that song with Toni Braxton. Besides their musical talent, they’re also two of the most entertaining figures in rap. Anything new by them is worth a check out. The dance-y beat crafted by the German DJs listed in the title turns this into something to casually enjoy as well.[...]
Chicago-based orchestral folk trio, The Papers (featuring former Buffalo ex-pat Matt Script), recently released their latest EP, titled Anyway, a few weeks back. In what has become a bit of a tradition for the band, the members have asked friends to film bike excursions through various cities for submission to be soundtracked by the Papers’ music. The latest installment, which includes three of the four tracks from Anyway, follows the biker through the streets of Lubeck, Germany. Past bike series clips have been filmed in Chicago and Kansas City. Watch the full Lubeck bike installment from the Papers below.
New York post-punk heavyweights, Interpol, have released a video for “All The Rage Back Home,” the first single off their first album in four years. Now a power trio after the departures of Carlos D and Brandon (Secret Machines) Curtis, Interpol has been gearing up to make a return with some shows in Europe in anticipation of the release of El Pintor in Septemeber, and this Paul Banks directed clip offers a glimpse of this retooled and stripped down edition of the band.